Paradise

Steve and I love to sip coffee and look at stuff at the bookstore. It's a cheap date and I get to catch up on my non-subscription magazines. Today we went to Borders after Festival of Trees, and after that we noticed lights on at the new Cheeseburger in Paradise. We were told when we walked in that the staff was in training and it was Friends & Family night, but we could have a table even though we were walk-ins. They limited what we were allowed to order and said we could have only two drinks each. (Oh gee, only 2?) I figured they were just trying to get the chefs & bartenders trained and they figured friends & family would be forgiving for having the limitations. I chose one of the approved appetizers and then realized it was pretty expensive, so then we split a burger because we weren't that hungry anyway. They also brought out soup and salad, and after dinner we got a random dessert. "But we didn't order dessert." "Oh, the chef just sends his choice of dessert to each table." So we forced it down politely. Then our waitress thanked us for being part of their training and said she was giving us the check as a formality. Only then did we realize it was all complimentary. So we left a tip and walked out grinning.

As a side note, our waitress was named Ryan. I've recently noticed several gals over 20 named Ryan that I never noticed before (it all started with Ryan Starr). Where have they been all my life? I knew that this was a popular baby girl name now, but Name Voyager has just confirmed that the initial wave of she-Ryans was in the 80's. Musta missed that.