The Regular Customer, The Usual Order

[BegintheBeguine]

"But I couldn't live on dimples & pity forever"
This is why I never have any liquid in my mouth when I am in the Lounge. lol
I love this story, I love all these stories.
Just thought of: the flipside. We are the only people who look like us, we go to the same place, we know the names of the people who work there, yet: it's as if we just got off the space ship every time we go in. Blank looks, no sign of recognition or even interest. This is common among all of the people I talk to.

 

[Tomasso]

But I couldn't live on dimples & pity forever

I guess I'm screwed. [huh]

 

[pigeon toe]

When I was in high school I used to go to a deli with my friends everyday for lunch and it got to the point where the man who owned the place knew what I would order and would give me and all of my friends a 15% discount.

Now the only place I regularly visit is the Coffee Bean right near my apartment. There's one slightly creepy (but apparently benign, according to a classmate who also works at the same Coffee Bean) older man who knows my name and likes to whisper that I am very beautiful while he takes my order. At least he doesn't touch my hand when I give him my debit card anymore!

Oh, and I just remembered, there's a girl at the Olive Garden who always ends up being our waitress when my boyfriend and I go out to eat there. She's super sweet and though she doesn't know our names, she knows our order, and we always give her a big tip because she's just so nice to us.

 

[Diamondback]

There's a quiet little greasy-spoon down the hill from where I live, across from the town's big tourist-draw, where they not only know my name and order, but have a table, electrical outlet and a chunk of the Wi-Fi bandwidth reserved for me.

It helps that I also help keep an eye out when the creepies come in on graveyard shift, keep a window of Fox Sports up and scores tracked when a game's on, and help wrestle with tables when they need to setup for a large group. It's a nice little place to work with collectible miniatures (one of my few vices; "plastic crack," I call them) or on my Masters thesis or assorted research and engineering projects. And the odd online game every now and then when I need to blow off some steam...

Every Monday: the spaghetti special, with vegetable beef soup instead of salad. Every Wednesday and Thursday, burger dip with au jus superheated. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, generally some kind of omelet or sandwich.

And every time I hit the door, "Hi, [name withheld]! How are you this evening?" It's like they consider me more like "family" than a "customer", which has its benefits.

Seems like I'm in the middle of a soap opera at times, but that's the tradeoff for the kind of "special arrangement" I have...

 

[CanadaDoll]

A very good friend of mine works in his family's Chinese restaurant, and my folks always go there, but no one knew the connection 'cept him and me until I walked in with my folks while he was working! It was really funny the first time around, now, his mother is always our waitress!

 

[Clara Noir]

Kappuccinos, opposite my works. I go in there 10.30am for two teas and a cappuccino, and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps, 1pm for a tuna mayo sandwich on wholemeal bread with lettuce and cucumber, and at 2.45pm for two cups or tea and a cappuccino.

Yes, they know me very well! And I do know their names too. Faythe raises a good point there.

Also, the local charity shops and my local pub know me, but don't know my usual. And my piercer and tattooist knows me, obviously we spend a lot of time together! Now he tries to guess the meanings of my tattoo designs befiore I tell him!

Being on the other side of it, in the shop I work in, a lot of customers know us well, and have a chat with us. We also have a list of names and numbers for our favourite regulars, so we call them when we think they'll like a new product, or even ask them when they come in if they think we should start stocking something.

That said, we are a local shop and are very well known for our excellent customer service. It's not even deliberate!

 

[Fletch]

I take the rents for business lunches (it's a family business) at the local Greek's about 3x a week. Now we know Eleni, Gus, Nick, Marie, John, etc. by name. But they know us as the Three Iced Teas - even when one of us has coffee or "diet" (Pepsi that is).

 

[Fletch]

And every time I hit the door, "Hi, [name withheld]! How are you this evening?"

"Hey, you can call me [name] by now. Or Mr. Withheld if you must."

 

[BegintheBeguine]

The Three Iced Teas - I have all their records.

 

[Big Man]

The usual ...

There's a little country grill where I take my Dad every Saturday morning for breakfast. When they see us drive up, they automatically start our order. Dad always has a western omelet, and I always have six eggs over light, grits, fried potatoes, bacon, toast, and a side of pancakes.

I've been known to stop by a bar in town named Churchill's on occasion. when I come through the door and by the time I make my way to the back corner to have a seat, the cute little bartender lady brings me a (big) Margarita and says, "I'll have you another one ready in a minute." Why she remembers me and what I drink, I'll never know. [huh]

 

[Haversack]

A few years back shortly after I had become acquainted with the Tadich Grill, I was eating dinner at the long wooden counter and the fellow seated on the stool next to me was just finishing his meal. He signaled one of the white-jacketed waiters and jsut simply said "Coffee". The waiter turned, got a cup and saucer, went to the large urn, drew a cup of coffee, dropped in two sugar cubes, and brought to the guy. No other words were spoken. It then struck that this was a place that was worth becoming a regular at.

Haversack.

 

[Chanfan]

Hmm, there are several eateries near my work where they recognize me, but not by name, and I like variety a bit much to have a regular order.

I do have a once a week "geek" lunch with some friends, and we used to go to a Thai place. One of the participants did have a regular order, and the wait staff stopped giving him menus to look at when we sat down, and would just bring him a coke along with the waters for the table. Alas, they changed management and quality.

And my dad used to frequent a restaurant in Edmonds, and he would always have an old fashioned. I found out on about the second or third trip there, that they hadn't had his preferred whiskey originally. It turned out they kept a bottle of his brand, specifically for him.

 

[Amber DeCadence]

My 'regular' place has to be a little coffee shop I visit with my nan every saturday, its become a little routine of ours. We stop in there and have cappuccinos and toasted teacakes and watch the world go by

 

[Steve]

My grandmother having been as close as one can get to a socialite in our hometown, there were several restaurants that the family would go to often enough. The Aegean Breeze was one of them; a quaint, family-owned Greek restaurant where we know most of the waiters and and waitresses, and the head chef/owner always says hello to us. Several of the waitresses would come near shock when my mum ordered anything besides a salad.

Another is Georgio's, another family-owned Greek/Italian food joint. My dad has been getting pizza there at least once a week for almost twenty years, and we've known the place through two owners and untold thousands of pizzas.

The final place that knows us well is Cancun's, a Mexican place that is the most fun to eat at with friends. It's basically beans, cheese, and corn products served 80 different ways, but we keep going back.

 

[jamespowers]

The hot dog joint at the end of the block where I work. The usual is a hot link with sourkraut and ketchup only.

Regards,

J

 

[Lady Day]

For school:
Avocado Jack on wheat, no mao. The people there know my order.

For home:
Veggie nachos, black beans, no sour cream, and rice. They recite it before I get in the door.

For work:
Double soy mocha, and a bomboloni (pastry). Its this Italian coffee shop connected to this Italian hotel/ wine bar right around the corner where I work. The people there are so nice, and the girl makes my drink with such care

For weekend:
My friend owns a cafe with yummy food. I get a wrap sandwich with extra cucumbers and BBQ sause and a double soy mocha

I love being a regular.

LD

 

[Diamondback]

"Hey, you can call me [name] by now. Or Mr. Withheld if you must."

Fletch, they actually know my name, I just prefer to be very guarded about personal info over the Net. (With some of the problems friends of mine have had in their past, I find it prudent to be cautious, especially since one of them's still in fear for his life from one of the late KGB's "little brother" agencies...)

Funny, though. I'll give you half a smirk. (Bear in mind, my "sense of humor" subroutine is still in development...)

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

All sound like great places, and great orders. Sadly I don't regularly go to a specific place and order the same thing. No one knows my name, and I don't visit bars too often. I'm hardly in the same place twice. At least away from home. Greco's New York Pizza on Hollywood Blvd, though, has great pizza. I'd recommend it to anybody. There's always a new place to follow the old.

At my high school in the film class, however, know me as "the pimp with a pocket watch". I've been out for 4 years, but always help out there when needed.

 

[Cacklewack]

It's no locally-owned place, but there's an Old Chicago right by my work that I go to most days for lunch. All of the waitresses know me and my strange eating habits. "Will it be a grilled cheese sandwich or a pizza today, Matt?"

Matt

 

[Tomasso]

The usual is a hot link with sourkraut and ketchup only.

Ketchup on a hot dog?