nice waiters
This weekend my family was out with my inlaws. My MIL is entering into the Alzheimer stage of her life..We went to The utopia Diner near 72nd street. I was struck by how nice the waiters were to My MIL who was having difficulty dealing with the menu and with the whole restaurant experience. I then realized that the diner is right near a senior facility and they deal with little old ladies all the time.. But then again, these men are not social workers.. but waiters.. but they could not have been kinder or more understanding, or helpful or respectful to my mother in law.
As for the food? Decent Greek diner food. I know this is not the usual thing chowhounds worry about in selecting a restaurant.. but on Sunday.. this really mattered to us.
sarah
Apr 08, 2003 11:24AM
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I am glad the waiters were nice to your MIL. However your comment "My MIL is entering into the Alzheimer stage of her life..." is somewhat off-putting. Alzheimers is not a "stage", it is a disease. By phrasing it the way you did just is not nice. Remember, with any luck we will all grow old someday and might be overwhelmed by the mundane. You might take a cue from the waiters.
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You have a point, but I think the tone of her e-mail was meant to be sweet. It was just a poor choice of (colloquial?) words.
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It's possible that her MIL really does have Alzheimer's, in which case her error was in suggesting that this is an inevitable stage of life. In any case, it's always good to hear reports of sensitive, considerate restaurant service.
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I'm glad your mother-in-law was treated respectfully. It reminded me of a time when I was working in a restaurant in Brooklyn Heights. It was a relatively new place and had once been a diner. Two older ladies came in once a week, same time, same day. We served them the same meal they had been eating at the diner when it was there for thirty years: one fried egg with toast and a orange slice twisted. We wrote the bill(something like $1.30 on a piece of notepaper because that is how they always got the bill at the diner. Just because the restaurant changed, didn't mean they had to!
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I eat at Utopia frequently and concur--those guys are always personable, pleasant, patient, but not without personality. Food is nothing special, nothing poor. A lot of Arts high school students go there as well, and generally a good mix of people seem to be there all the time. I like the view on the new glassy 72nd street subway station. The lighting and decor isn't overdone (either in a bare-bones way or a flashy diner way, like Metro, City, and so forth). And it's clean.
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