Filed under: tidbit
At my favorite po-boy joint, Parkway Bakery and Tavern, they take your order at the counter and you go find a table. Later they call out your name over their speaker system – “Dave, pick up” – and you go get your food and you eat it. Well, I mean, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Thing is their speaker system is a bit antiquated and it comes out sounding more like “aahvpickUP.” If you’ve ever been there you know exactly what I’m talking about. Therein lies the problem: my name, when blasted through their speakers, sounds about like a hundred other names. I always go up to the counter for the wrong name at least once. Always. It seems like every time I go to Parkway all the Evans and Heathers in the world go there too. Oh, and I forgot to mention they call out orders for the bartender in the ‘tavern’ section, so the whole time I’m waiting for my food I’m hearing “evnpickUP” which really isn’t much different from “evrnpickUP” and “evrpickUP.”
Yesterday I went up to the counter not once but twice for the wrong name.
First trip:
Me: Sorry, thought I heard my name.
Johnny: Oh, no, I just called Devon. You’re coming up soon though.
Second trip:
Me: Man, Johnny, sorry, thought I heard my name again. I’m always thinking I’m hearing my name.
Johnny: Oh, yeah, no, I just called an order for tavern pick up. You guys had the Italian sausage and fried shrimp po-boys, right? They’re almost done.
So I went back to our table to talk to Dom, and about two minutes later I heard over the loudspeaker:
“evnpickUP. That’s Kevin with a K. Kevin, pick up.
…
He’s a tall guy. Brown hair.
…
has a beard.
…
has the strength of a gorilla.
…
has the strength of ten gorillas.”
I will not deny that I got a little bit of applause as I flexed my biceps on the way to the counter.
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They used to say “bar” instead of “tavern.” It was so bad I started using fake names.
Comment by Editor B May 25, 2010 @ 5:55 pm