The beginning of a snow storm is obviously a very sensible time to head out into the city for a short evening. Large, hard-edged flakes swirled around me as I left home, spiral nebulae which scattered their stars across the sidewalk. They hurt when they caught in my eyes, but the call of pad thai and a yearning to just be out of the house for a change was too great too ignore. Ban Vanipha might be closed on Sundays, but Urban Thai was still open.
I have a fair amount of sympathy for new waitstaff, but that sympathy wanders off the more and more it seems to me that incompetence is standing between me and any chance of food. My timing was admittedly bad. I arrived with a group of twenty or so were leaving, two-thirds of the restaurant's table space departing all at once. They were bundled up; so was I, although I took off my shawl and started to unbundle.
The host thought i was with them. I explained I wasn't, I'd only just arrived. She misunderstood, and tried to give me a bill, asking if I'd signed it yet. Then she offered me a different bill instead. I hadn't eaten yet. She slowly clued in. "Would you like to place a takeout order?" I really didn't want to - I wanted to eat there. Eventually, she seated me.
Happily, my actual waitress was extremely competent, when she arrived and saved my drink from near-certain oblivion. The experienced staff explained what dishes were which to the host. I ate my salad.
Then the host came over and asked if I'd like anything else. "I'm waiting for my next course", I replied. She left to talk to the newly-arrived waiter who was eating dinner. He promptly got up, dashed to the cash register, and brought me my bill. "I'm waiting for my next course." I told him. He apologized. From there, it was finally smooth sailing. At the end, I had the delight of having my waitress happily gush about what a wonderful customer I'd been, the least work all night in a hectic evening. I went away content, back into the swirl of glitter gusting sideways through the night.
I have a fair amount of sympathy for new waitstaff, but that sympathy wanders off the more and more it seems to me that incompetence is standing between me and any chance of food. My timing was admittedly bad. I arrived with a group of twenty or so were leaving, two-thirds of the restaurant's table space departing all at once. They were bundled up; so was I, although I took off my shawl and started to unbundle.
The host thought i was with them. I explained I wasn't, I'd only just arrived. She misunderstood, and tried to give me a bill, asking if I'd signed it yet. Then she offered me a different bill instead. I hadn't eaten yet. She slowly clued in. "Would you like to place a takeout order?" I really didn't want to - I wanted to eat there. Eventually, she seated me.
Happily, my actual waitress was extremely competent, when she arrived and saved my drink from near-certain oblivion. The experienced staff explained what dishes were which to the host. I ate my salad.
Then the host came over and asked if I'd like anything else. "I'm waiting for my next course", I replied. She left to talk to the newly-arrived waiter who was eating dinner. He promptly got up, dashed to the cash register, and brought me my bill. "I'm waiting for my next course." I told him. He apologized. From there, it was finally smooth sailing. At the end, I had the delight of having my waitress happily gush about what a wonderful customer I'd been, the least work all night in a hectic evening. I went away content, back into the swirl of glitter gusting sideways through the night.
Profile
owlfish- S. Worthen
- S. Worthen
Comments
Um, hello! I found your blog from your website's list of things to Find, because I was looking for places where I could have our small Ottawa convention listed, and this was a possible recommendation. Of course, a good perusal shows it wouldn't work as they are things you personally know about. Even if one of your friends is our writer guest this year. :)
I was quite interested in your reviews of High Teas around Toronto. A quick search shows extremely few local ones to try, with nothing standing out other than the possibly-overpriced Château Laurier Fairmont hotel. I think with sheer size Toronto gives more choices, despite the obvious Britishness of Ottawa.
High Tea is a very colonial thing, and a very large hotel thing, by and large. There are smaller places which serve them - the odd specialty tea shop will both, but most won't bother. I've been told that the world's best high teas are in the UK at all - they're in Hong Kong and Singapore, and at the grande dame-type hotels. The Chateau Laurier does indeed advertise high tea on Sundays in Ottawa. The Billings Estate Museum advertises it for Wed-Fri and Sun, summers only. Toronto may look like it has quite a few, but I only know of 5 around the city so far which serve it on a regular basis, so Ottawa's not as far different as it may look. We probably have more specialty tea stores, but most don't do high tea.
Yes, you found the ones I did - Billings Estate is a possibility, but they don't open until mid-may, and the Chateau Laurier starts at $32 plus 30%. Just because it has a nice decor doesn't mean the tea will be good, as you yourself found out. There's a tiny place in Chelsea called Gerry and Isobel's that also does high tea during the week, but it's not quite as easy to get to for someone like me without a car... We do have specialty tea stores, especially the Teak Kozy/The Tea Store (not sure which is the real name) in the Byward Market Building, heart of tourist city. A friend who knows his teas well (British family located in BC) has spoken highly of it when he visited. We're thankfully not completely devoid, at least.
This gives us one High Tea a few days a week for half of the year, one High Tea in a high-class (and high-price) hotel, and one Hith Tea out in the country. No two even remotely similar, I would guess, which isn't a bad thing.
I only looked very superficially at the webpage, but the name of the con left me with the impression it was a media con. I suppose the guest implies otherwise, as does your description of it emphasizing an audience of creative types. What kinds of fandoms are you involving in particular?
If you're willing to venture further afield, there's also high tea at the Mackenzie-King estate. Also, these places might do them (found ):
The Tea Party [Tea room and merchant]
119 York Street; 613-562-0352
Nectar Fine Teas [Tea merchant]
1250 Wellington Street; 613-759-8327
What exactly is anthro fandom, anyways? The more I think about it, the less I'm sure I know.
Hmm, how to answer this... Let's go with another angle: what is Speculative Fiction fandom? People who have an interest in SpecFic. But is it all of them, or just those who have enough of an interest to organise themselves and talk about it in some fashion with like-minded people? And what is SpecFic itself? Those last two questions bring almost as many asnwers as there are fans, which neatly closes the loop. Even worse when you ask about Science Fiction or Fantasy! So definitions are hard to come by.
Anthro, short for anthropomorphic ("non-human entity given human attributes"), is a bit of a catch-all for a subset of SF&F works dealing with, mostly, animals, but a few aliens as well, and branching out in sub- and sub-sub-genres as years go by; kinda like the fracturisation of magazines into ever-more specialised and cliquish topics. It's sometimes obsessed with making its own works more than talking about a common set of works, and quality varies wildly, but the inventiveness at its core is sometimes a marvel to behold. Some costumers, for example, have done Worldcon- and CostumeCon-quality pieces and presentations.
Yes, there's the few oddballs who get talked about a lot because they're visible, but most new fandoms have to weather this period. Not too long ago, it was "common knowledge" that anyone knowing anything about computers or comic books had to be male, overweight, single with poor hygiene and social skills, only because the few who were were the most annoyingly visible. The normal ones simply didn't make a fuss or needed constant attention, so they went unnoticed. Anime fandom is getting out of its own set of "common knowledge" about its fans, for another example.
Was this illuminating or just confusing, as I often am? :)
You were rather confusing, but happily I already knew what you were talking about - I just hadn't realized what the term for it was.