I'm recovering from celebrating Donna's birthday last night. Ten of us started at Toscana, a local Italian/French place in downtown Fargo. We were fated to get the worst part of the evening out of the way first. Right off the bat I'm stopped at the door and told I can't bring in the birthday cake. This makes no sense to me. I get that the retaurant would rather we all bought $10 desserts, but that wasn't going to happen.
A better solution (and one I've seen elsewhere, including places in which I waited tables in college) would be to charge a plate fee, say $2 per person. Then the customer is happy and the restaturant gets a little extra cash.
The first four of us to arrive sat at the table for over ten minutes with no contact from the staff. No water, no drinks, no nothing. The manager eyeballed us a few times but never actually came over. Finally a harried-looking server showed up. My guess is that he was late for his shift, as I hadn't seen him in the restaurant until the moment he came to our table.
I ordered a beer to start which came out warm. Not a good sign. The service was pretty slow all night; I didn't get a glass of wine until after I had finshed eating. Bread didn't arrive until our plates were being cleared.
The food was generally excellent all around, but the rest of the experience was lacking. It was a lot of little things, but this place presents itself (in its atmosphere and its prices) as a fine dining establishment.
Anyway, after that we had to find a place to cut the cake. We could think of no better place than Duffy's, a dank hole that is the final resting place of many experiences which should probably not be mentioned on a family blog. Since this a not a family blog though, it should be fine. I'll save them for another day though.
So we cut the cake, a fine storebought affair (I cook, I don't bake) that was enjoyed by all. Donna got a free drink, I got a bunch of not free drinks, and a fine time followed. We talked about such diverse and sophisticated topics as the flood, who's hot (and not) at Microsoft, and where's my drink dammit.
I don't know the exact timeline but I'm pretty sure I didn't go to sleep until it was closer to 3:00 AM than 2:00. Around these parts we call that a successful night.
Oh, and if you care, this is what I got Donna for her birthday. Judging by the reaction, I done good.
That sounds like a successful night around most parts. Great gift idea as well. Happy Birthday Donna !!
ReplyDeleteT'was a very fun time -- I even stayed up past 10!
ReplyDeleteDid I mention that my pasta came with the wrong sauce?
No -- not to me anyway. I kind of regret booking that place now. I've generally had good experiences there in the past, but Friday night was not a shining moment for them.
ReplyDeleteThankfully Duffy's can always be relied upon to provide a predictable experience: dank and stained.