Monday, February 14, 2011

Cabbage Patch Restaurant, Snohomish, Washington

Saturday was “girls’ lunch out” – if you’re a regular reader you know that means a meet-up with my three childhood girlfriends. One of my girlfriends, Beth, lives a quite a bit north of the rest of us so we made a plan to meet in Snohomish for lunch so that Beth wouldn’t have to drive so far.

Well, as it turns out Beth couldn’t make it and the reason is wacky. Her birthday is Valentine’s Day and for years her family owned a floral shop. If you know anything about flowers and Valentine’s Day you know that the entire week leading up to Valentine’s Day is a frenzy of activity in any decent floral shop. And for years Beth was working Valentine’s Day week and on her birthday!

Beth’s dad is now working for another florist, delivering flowers. And this year he somehow roped other family members (including Beth) into delivering flowers this past weekend to help with the Valentine's Day crunch. And that’s why Beth couldn’t join us for lunch on Saturday. Nevertheless, we decided to celebrate her birthday without her!


So off to the Cabbage Patch Restaurant for lunch we went.

We arrived at the restaurant before noon and were seated in the front room (the restaurant is an old house converted into a restaurant). Our server, Mary, brought waters, scones and coffee for me. Soon enough we ordered. After Mary took our order I asked if she could please take our picture when our meals arrived. I told her that we were celebrating a birthday (Beth’s, of course!) and I wanted a special picture for the occasion.

I was never more surprised when she replied, “Yes, I can take your picture IF I’m not too busy…” and off she went. The three of us were aghast! Having worked many years in management in the hospitality industry I could not, and still cannot, believe that a server would make that sort of remark. We were the only customers in the front room – it’s not as if the restaurant was packed. I have no idea what other tables were in her section, but that really was not my concern.

It was, however, my concern that my coffee cup was completely empty before Mary brought more coffee. Again, I was shocked. And I probably would not even mention the coffee if it was not for the snide remark Mary made about taking the picture.

Our food was delivered by another young woman, not Mary. I had my camera on the table and she gladly agreed to take our picture. I said thank you very much and was appreciative. To Mary's defense, I must say that she did come by and offered to take our picture, but I advised her that it had already been taken.


And here is the coveted picture! Our food (crab & shrimp louie salad, crab and shrimp sandwich, and crab and shrimp omlette - we were feeling seafoodish...) was hot and good...doesn't it look yummy? So sorry you missed your lunch, Beth!

Call me crazy, but Mary provided very poor customer service. I sent an email to the restaurant owner and am waiting for her response.

On a brighter note, after lunch we walked over to see our friend Shelly (another girlfriend from junior high) that I mentioned in my last post. She works at Joyworks - the "girly stuff" store that is very cool. Check out her blog to see all the girly, crafty things Shelly creates!


Here's Julie and Cheryl at the entrance.

The four of us yakked and yakked and shared stories since the last high school reunion. Next time Shelly needs to join us for our girly outing.


Here's Shelly and Cheryl.

After that we went to Cheryl’s house and she dug out her high school yearbooks. What a hoot! We were so goofy back then (haha…not like now when we are so mature…haha). We read some of the “comments” Cheryl’s friends had written in her yearbooks and we were very surprised when reading something Julie wrote. You see, first we found my comment to Cheryl in one of the books…and we laughed and laughed…I even used some gibberish words (almost like Spanish) which I think I made up.

But the FUNNIEST part was that in the same yearbook we found Julie’s comment to Cheryl and it was EXACTLY THE SAME COMMENT I made! Even with the Spanish gibberish…HAHAHAHAHA…none of us remembered having done that or why we did that. Geez, I guess our memories are fading…but it was very funny.

All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETH! And Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!!

6 comments:

GlorV1 said...

Hi and Happy Valentine's Day to you too. Great place and it looks like great food too. It's fun to get away like that and it looks like everyone was having a grand time. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

they have great food there and delicious pies! too bad you had such poor service, but at least you had fun with your friends.

have a great week!

teresa in l.s.

p.s. did you know that restaurant totally burned down some years back? they built it up from scratch.

Anonymous said...

Uh oh! On your next visit you will surely enjoy some spit with your entree.

Mike Nickell and Cynthia Johnson said...

Hi Glo - Yep, the food and friends were grrrrreat!

Hi t - Yes, we always have fun...even with a cranky food server.

Anonymous - YECHHHHHHHHHHH!

Anonymous said...

can't agree with you on this one.
if she's not too busy, she might take your picture, she's a waitress not a tour guide. obviously you want her refilling your coffee, other than that, get your own pic.
who cares who brings your plates out....food should be expedited from the kitchen asas when it's in the window. if the OWNER is available, she should be grabbing those plates and heading out.

you're a wonderful life loving person. just can't agree with you today.

Sarah
South Dakota

Mike Nickell and Cynthia Johnson said...

Hi Sarah - I wasn't at all upset about someone other than Mary bringing out the food...I completely agree with you about that.

It was her cheeky reply when I told her we were celebrating a birthday and kindly asked for the pic that got my goat. That's all.

No worries. I'm over it.