no brad no

well, the dinner was largely disappointing. on prior visits the service was excellent but this time it was plain poor. if you go to stanley and seafort's ask not to sit at brad's table. he was very tall (which is not in itself a bad thing, i suppose). i've decided i don't at all care for waiter chatter. waiters chat in seattle; they're probably trained to chat. they tell jokes and have a patter. brad wasn't so bad in that regard, though there were some unnecessary jokes. he talked with his hands as well as his voice and everything was "my pleasure," "absolutely," and "excellent choice," to the extent that i did not believe a word he said. he was an insincere waiter.

kara ordered a steak and she likes her steaks well done. no pink, no blood. on our prior visits to this restaurant, and to other finer steak places, the waiter has waited (as is a wait staffer's wont) after the steak is delivered for kara to cut into it and evaluate its done-ness. negligent brad failed to do so, and of course the steak was not cooked to kara's satisfaction.

it was 15 minutes before brad came back. (i had grilled salmon and it was cooked fine and quite delicious.) we flagged the man down, after a few attempts. finally he took her plate away at our request. many minutes later kara, from across the restaurant, saw him hand the plate to another restaurant employee, who returned it to us. it appeared brad was afraid to face us! although, perhaps, the deliverer of the plate was a chef of some sort, an authority. though he did not identify himself as such. the handing-off thing was weird and suspicious.

anyway, then the steak was cooked enough. still, though it was not nearly as tasty as other steaks had at this restaurant or other places. gary's steak house, asado, both on 6th, close to home. and kara was ticked. we did have further drinks and dessert but the tip we left reflected our views.

aside from brad and the meat, however, the experience was good. we drank some wine, talked about things. then we came home. it was fine. now it's saturday and i'm eating shredded wheat. kara's sleeping. i think we'll bake some chicken tonight, simple. it's overcast at the moment and likely it will remain so. i'm going to do a little writing for a while, and then have a shower.