Ahi Tuna

Reading Mariposa's post, "Miso Soup " I was reminded me of this story.

About a month ago when I was out of town on business, I went to lunch with roughly seven of my co-workers. I ordered a ahi [seared] tuna salad*, which is a dish that this restaurant does extremely well. The waitress served our food and I had eaten one piece of the tuna when she came back to refill our drinks. As she was trying to set my co-worker's glass down, it tipped... toward my salad...hit the table...and broke. Sprite hit the table, glass hit the table, she started apologizing profusely, I could feel my high maintenance (co-worker who loves to complain) coiling like a snake, and the rest table waited to see my reaction. In (what I hope is) typical 2.718 fashion, I calmly reassured the waitress that accidents happen and started checking my salad to determine if the sparkles were ice or glass (yes, yes, I know that I shouldn't eat the salad if there's even the possibility that there was glass in it, but I was hoping it was ice because I was HUNGRY). Sure enough, there were a few pieces of glass. The poor girl wanted to melt, but I assured her that it was good enough to bring me another salad, but to box it to go. The manager came over, apologized again and again I emphasized that accidents happen, I was not upset, and that I only wanted the salad to go so that my co-workers wouldn't have to wait for me.

Looking back on it, I just didn't want it to be made into a big deal by my co-workers. They are all seasoned business travelers, younger than me, and some seem to have forgotten that wait staff are servers, not servants. Unlike Mariposa, I wasn't hurt, just slightly inconvenienced. So the fact that the person responsible apologized and was sincere in her apology, was more than enough for me.


* This salad is truly fabulous. We went BrickTop's (or ordered in from there) several times during my 8+ months out of town and 95% of the time, I ordered this salad. It's like a house salad with sashimi tuna on the side. If you order it there, get them to serve the salad dressing on the side!