August 1, 2009
GOOD
Italanni’s in Gran Plaza.
The food here is good and consistent. The salads are fabulous and fresh. They are very accommodating about putting in extra arugula. Plus they have a number of well upholstered and comfy booths, affording a bit of privacy. Some of the tomato-based pasta dishes are tangy and flavorful and so is the chicken parmigiana.
Now ordinarily, the Yentas are not overly fond of dining with children, but recently we took two kids (ages four and nine) to Italianni’s to bust the sugar high they were on from previous treats. They were presented with a coloring project as soon as they sat down, along with an inexpensive children’s menu.
Caleb and his pizza
They both wisely selected the make-your-own pizza. The waiter brought each kid a big board with an individual-size circle of pizza dough on it and bowls of whatever toppings they had requested – tomato sauce, cheese, more cheese, pepperoni, pineapple (ick), yet more cheese, and so on. Their eyes widened when the things were set before them and they settled down immediately, exercising nursery-school-style concentration, to carefully construct their own individual pizzas..
Star and her pizza
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“No!” said the nine year old. You have to put the cheese UNDER the pepperoni.”
“Why?” said the four year old. “ It’s MY pizza. I want all my cheese on top.”
When they were finally done with their constructions and had received congratulations on their creative cooking, the waiter took the pizzas to the kitchen and brought them back six minutes later, all toasty and gooey, as pizzas should be As always, the Italianni’s wait staff was cheerful and professional
BAD
Elio’s al Mare, Progreso
Sadly, one our favorite restaurants committed an inexplicable and unforgivable sin a few weeks ago. Both yentas went there together one evening and Elio, the owner, refused to allow the waiters to seat us. There were plenty of tables, we weren’t naked or otherwise offensive in any way, we were even I would say, demure. We always tip well, and had never caused any kind of problem for him. In fact, most of the times we went there, he had come to the table to chat.
Elio and the waiters (who were horribly embarrassed) knew both of us as frequent customers. We went there so often that one of the waiters used to bring us our limonadas without even asking.
At first we thought Elio was kidding, but he was not. We tried joking and sweet-talking him out of it, but nothing worked. (You might not know this about the yentas, but they are smoothly manipulative and usually prevail.)
By the time we realized that Elio was actually refusing to serve us, we were getting angry, but didn’t express it until we got back into the car, where we carried on like crazy people all the way into Progreso where we got a greasy plate of fried crap in one of the so-called seafood places.
Why did this happen? Would it have happened if we’d had a man with us? If we’d been taller? More beautiful? Uglier? Bejewelled? Scary? Armed?
We don’t know, but it won’t happen again.
WHat happened at Elio’s?
I have no idea.
Is that an unusual sort of happening in Mexico?
What a weird story.
Photos please. Lots of them please.
I love the make your own pizza bit
Sounds like a couple of kids I know – Miles apart in everything they do, but somehow it ends up being an orchestrated harmony that only they can fully appreciate as siblings.
My opinion, waiters never sitting in the table with customers. I think owner is right, waiter’s job is seving customer not eating with customers . If you like enjoying waiters serving , next time when he is not working as waiter u should take him to other rest. enjoy meals together like a your guest. I learned from manner class, certain things we need to draw the lines. Do y know even kichen rest. they have ranks & y need to follow chef like commander in kichen. I know your attention was nice to the waiter then next time give him lots a tips. SB
I recomend Korean drama, “pasta ” you can watch in http://www.soju.com, English sub title. It’s free. You will see how restric & clear job descriptions. It’s very good site for watching Korea life styles. Korea are very rich country now. You will see how clean & delicious, also beautiful peoples . SB
Sorry, http://www.mysoju.com. SB