I swear I have been in places like this, you know the kind, there's just a single surly 18 yo.
Heck, let me ramble on about this just because it's so funny to me (now!) and I hadn't really thought of till this chapter. We were on the road, had been up since 6 AM, stopped at a little place near Portland, Oregon (US) offering 'Great Breakfasts! Best Coffee For Miles!'. I don't remember the name of the place at all. There really was just a single surly 18-something chick with a nose ring, tattoos who grunted and just shrugged us at a table, handed us the menus. We looked it over, it actually looked pretty nice (you CAN get really good food in Portland). Once we'd figured out what we wanted we waited for her to take our order. Nope. She's just scrolling her Insta (or TikTok or whatever).
So we waved her over, she rolled her eyes, sighed, and slouched over. 'Yeah?' 'I'd like the [some omelet that sounded good] with' 'uhhhh, exCUSE me!?' She rolled her eyes. 'Eggs are too expensive so OBVIOUSLY we don't serve them any more.' She sighed like I'm a dumbass for not knowing that. And this is a breakfast place! 'Uh, well can you do the chilaquiles without eggs?' SIGH 'let me check'. She shambled off to the kitchen, back a bit later, 'yeah.' 'Says it's carne asada or pollo asada, let me do the carne asada.' 'UH. EXSCUSE me.' She shambled off to the ktichen and back. 'We're out of beef, SIGH, you can have the chicken.' 'Okay.'
So then the friend I'm with asked to do the breakfast burger (no need for egg) with fries (the default). 'UM EXCUUUUUSE MEEEE the cook didn't get any fries we don't have any SIGH EYEROLL' like that was obvious too. 'Well okay, the onion rings?' And you know the drill, she shuffled off and back... 'NO we don't have any onion rings (DUH!) He says you can have an english muffin.' An English muffin with your burger! Friend said 'sure'. Whatever at this point.
Then we try to order some of their 'best coffee' but the machine is broken. We can have some bottled water.
Then the food finally came out (not fast but not toooo slow), but 'Uh, can I get some salt and pepper and salsa for the chilaquiles?' and friend was 'Uh, any butter or jam for the english muffins and mustard for the burger?' Oh my god, you would think we were the greatest monsters in history for actually expecting some condiments with our food. She dragged them out
one at a time and smacked them down on the table.
Now obviously, we should have left at 'we don't have any eggs', but we were on the road and ravenous, and hey, we were close to Portland, probably not getting any better service anywhere else 😹 .
And I had buried that, but this chapter resurfaced this trauma, thank you Mangamoz!