[speaker001:] hi Mary have you gone visiting uh any new restaurants lately
[speaker002:] hi well I haven't been to any new ones but I have uh several that I frequent uh mainly because of specialties in foods and I have so many so many foods that I prefer uh that I enjoy such as oriental foods I don't like Japanese food but I like all Chinese food
[speaker001:] uh-huh I I tend to get stuck in in and I find a place that I like and I stay there um I some of the things I like are atmosphere um
[speaker002:] ah sounds familiar
[speaker001:] food price um but mostly I think you know service and atmosphere are the two things that you know I don't minds paying little bit if if I don't have to wait too long to eat and if the service is good the food is good
[speaker002:] yes yes
[speaker001:] and I find like the the places that I'm going to now um because whenever you find a place that's good other people have already already found the same kind of a place and so sometimes I have to go to this place in uh where I know I have to wait at least fifteen minutes sometimes a half hour and um they have little bar there so we sit there and um sipping on some mixed drinks before we get to eat
[speaker002:] oh that sounds uh very much like one of our very very best places to get steaks
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh and they open at five and if your not there at five thirty you'll probably have about an hour wait
[speaker001:] wow okay So this
[speaker002:] and they have a bar also which is always crowded as can be but it's it's an specially fine restaurant and when you consider they take no plastic or checks strictly cash and they've been in business oh for at least forty years uh that's they
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh they must have some good food there
[speaker002:] yes yes it it's their their steaks are exquisite they also have uh excellent uh liver which I happen to like
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and um those are the two specialties which they have that and their stewed tomatoes which are well known all over the Dayton area
[speaker001:] uh I had uh an opportunity to visit visit the Dallas area and uh I went to some steak houses while I was out there and there was this one place that I visited that was really unique The waitresses were dressed like little cowgirls
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and the I don't remember the name of the place but for a menu all they had was a it was like a wooden block
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and and um I think for food they had steak and beans and they had three different sizes of steak The cowboy the cowgirl and the
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] I forget the the other one the he-man or something like this and um and I I I found it uh to be very good The atmosphere was good it was a lot of fun
[speaker002:] yes right well one of the nicer restaurants supposedly that opened up here not uh too very long ago called Harbor Lights specializes in fish
[speaker001:] uh-huh huh
[speaker002:] and uh the atmosphere is fantastic and I was there with it's a group um that uh we were having a going away dinner for a friend and there were twelve of us and I the the food that uh we ordered each of us was quite good but the service was horrendous
[speaker001:] oh no kidding
[speaker002:] and the the waitress never once came behind me um um on our side of the table she reached across the table she never once asked if we wanted coffee we had to grab onto someone else they didn't
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] refill our water glasses um someone had only eaten a portion of their food and wanted to take it home and asked to have it boxed and she just pitched it out and then when she finally did bring something um to replace that she practically threw it at the person
[speaker001:] oh that's too bad see how one one place one person can make a big difference on whether you go back to the place again
[speaker002:] yes and oh absolutely what made me angry was that when there are groups such as ours there were twelve of us they automatically put the tip on the bill
[speaker001:] uh-huh wow okay
[speaker002:] and I'll tell you we had some very unhappy people who were so unhappy with the service and resented paying fifteen percent tip when they had such poor service
[speaker001:] yeah oh that's really that's really too bad I had um one place that I enjoyed going to but my my girlfriend didn't like it and then I had asked her about it and she said um
[speaker002:] but
[speaker001:] that the reason why she didn't like it was that she felt that the place wasn't cleaned well um they had um younger kids you know wiping the tables down and they weren't very
[speaker002:] oh yes right right
[speaker001:] well trained I guess and they didn't do a very neat job in cleaning the tables off and when the waitresses came they she just put all of the clean utensils and everything right on top of these dirty tables
[speaker002:] oh well it one thing that gets me is when you see them do putting out the um the um knives forks and what have you and when they put them down they hold them by the edge that you are going to put in your mouth
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] and that really up sets me when I see that
[speaker001:] I I can certainly understand that in fact in this same restaurant that my girlfriend doesn't like to go to she um she frequently finds food
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] struck onto the utensils as where she's got to go through uh three or four uh different um utensils and the the the waitresses are very nice they'll they'll keep exchanging it
[speaker002:] ah uh-huh yes but yeah
[speaker001:] but they don't look you know like she had complained about it one time and the girl said she was sorry she picked up these utensils and and when back and grabbed some new ones and then put the new ones back down and the new ones looked worse than the ones that she took away so she is not even looking you know and
[speaker002:] oh no no and actually you know those are the kind of things that should get taken back to the management
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] um because the the the waitresses have no control over the the way the dishes are and cleaned in the kitchen and if they're not cleaned off well when they go threw the dishwasher food just doesn't always get washed off and it sticks on there and then when they dry them
[speaker001:] that's true
[speaker002:] um if they air dry them or heat dry them it dries it right on it and that's terrible
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah yeah yeah I agree the management should know about it but the waitress should especially if you ask them to take something back to look at the ones that she's uh bringing over to you instead of just grabbing a handful and bring them over again
[speaker002:] yes I agree with that but just don't ever get a glass that has lipstick on it oh that is terrible I had that happen only once I don't remember where but it's always
[speaker001:] oh boy
[speaker002:] one time enough for me to be aware of the situation and I look at every glass that I get
[speaker001:] how about fast food do you enjoy um fast food restaurants
[speaker002:] yeah I don't mind that um my husband never cared for fast food so we didn't go that often but you know I have no problem with uh going to a McDonald's or a Wendy's or uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] a or a Long John Silver's or any of those once in a while not often but once in a while
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah yeah I enjoy it once in a while but I enjoy relaxing while I eat you can't really do that in these fast food places
[speaker002:] yeah oh yeah that's that's very true now once in a while if there's a good ballgame like there's going to be tonight with Duke and uh um Kansas City
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh Kansas uh cause see now I would enjoy having a pizza
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and just sit and watch the game and a have a pizza and a beer that I would enjoy
[speaker001:] uh-huh at a at a restaurant or at home
[speaker002:] no no at ho me just have it delivered yeah we we have number of our pizza places deliver and I assume that you have that there also
[speaker001:] at home oh yeah we're just beginning with that it um it took one of the pizza companies and I think it was um gee Domino's
[speaker002:] Domino's was the first one to start yes
[speaker001:] yeah right after they started I guess the other uh businesses lost money and they all began doing the same thing
[speaker002:] yes yes uh we have Domino's we have Pizza Hut and then we have a couple of other smallers Little Ceasars and Juan's Pizza they're all in the general facility where I live and so I can and then yet my most favorite one doesn't deliver
[speaker001:] uh-huh we have no which one is that
[speaker002:] uh it's called Marian's Pizza but I think it is local
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] and the
[speaker001:] yeah we have Popaginos did you ever here of Popaginos
[speaker002:] no
[speaker001:] okay we have a that's a fairly large chain in New England we have a a Popaginos um and they had not been delivering up until the time where uh Domino's began delivering and within a matter of six months they started up there own delivery service
[speaker002:] um-hum right yeah that makes a big difference well we have a lot of businesses going out of business uh in this area and I don't know whether it's necessarily uh nationwide but many of the smaller stores grocery stores card shops uh restaurants smaller restaurants I can't compete with some of the larger ones and they are all going under
[speaker001:] uh-huh it would seem to me that if that if I owned a business the thing that I would want to do is a is a get little survey uh like we're doing with each other and and encourage people to to give that information back to the management
[speaker002:] yes yes absolutely
[speaker001:] and then maybe somehow turn what ever negatives around into a positive
[speaker002:] well I um uh I've been retired from education for uh oh what eight years and I do I have a bunch of had I should say a bunch of little jobs such as a sales associate um of women's
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] specialty dress shop and um I was a manager part-time at a card and gift shop as well as teaching in a modeling agency and modeling so
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] the card shop just went out of business we've been there almost a year almost two years but uh and the store was precious everyone liked the store they liked the kinds of cards and what have you but the location was so poor
[speaker001:] uh-huh huh
[speaker002:] and it was in a shopping strip that had a grocery store on one end that took them almost four years to really get that going and that strip filled up but Kathy selected the middle store in the middle strip and there's still no stores on either side and it's been over a year and a half yes and and it's sad because it was it was a nice store and she was such a lovely young gal to work for I just feel very bad
[speaker001:] oh that's too bad it  um