My good Red Lobster story

Sometimes it pays to have a Courtney!

She is useful for all kinds of things. A great shopping buddy. Someone who is usually free with advice if I have committed a fashion faux pas. Someone to go see movies with (that would be the ones that my husband and her boyfriend would not want to see) And a generally good person to spend time with.

We have girl nights out once in a while. And that will be the subject of this post. First though a little background.

Courtney works at Target. She really enjoys working there for the most part. For those that don't live around here, it is important to my story for you to know that our local Red Lobster shares the parking lot with her Target. (That would be versus the Richland Target that shares their parking lot with a non-chain Mexican Restaurant.)

It is a little known fact that several of the people who work at Red Lobster, like to spend time at Target. I am assuming that would mostly be on their break times. Although not necessarily.

Because another little known fact, is that Target has groupies.

Yes, that's right they actually have people that come to the store every single day. These are people who will be waiting in the parking lot at 10 to 8 in the mornings, breathlessly waiting for those familiar red, bullseye, glass doors to be opened.

This is not an exaggeration. Same people. Every day.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

If you fit this description, don't worry I don't judge.

Now Courtney has gotten to know a lot of the regulars in her time working there. She even has a few favorites. One of the people she has made friends with, is the manager of Red Lobster. He is a really nice guy. I'm not sure just how often he visits the store but he seems to know my daughter fairly well.

This, by the way, is where my story begins.

Courtney and I, and sometimes, also, my other daughter Heidi, will go to Red Lobster now and then.

We have been met with varying degrees of success, when it comes to customer service. A lot of the time the service is just fine and we eat, pay, tip, and go on our way. But sometimes, sometimes, the service is horrible.

There was a time, quite a while ago, where we sat for twenty minutes before a waiter or waitress even acknowledged that we were taking up space at table 19. It was another ten, before we had water. And, apparently, the wait-staff decided they might as well round out the time to an even 60 minutes.

That was how long we had been at our table before we received our salads.

I don't even remember how long before we had our entrees. All I know is that mine was cold, which means it must have been sitting there for quite a while before our server figured out that we weren't there just to fill up on the cheddar bay biscuits. Oh yeah, one more thing, even though we asked a couple times we never did get any more to drink either. Courtney and Heidi had "all you can drink" sodas. I had water. We never will know how much Heidi and Courtney could have drunk because we didn't get a single refill.

Don't worry. We found the manager. We complained. He comped our bill.

The story however doesn't end there.

Courtney, one day not too long ago, ( while at Target), was engaged in conversation with her new friend Brian, the before mentioned manager of Red Lobster. He had not been Manager at the time of our disastrous lunch. He happened to ask Courtney how she liked the place. She told him that sometimes she really liked it but sometimes, we all swore we would never darken their lobby again.

He wanted details.

I wasn't there so I can't really say what all was said, but Brian, was so horrified that he told Courtney to come see him the next time she felt the desire for sea food.

A couple of weeks ago Courtney and I thought a girls night out would be fun. We decided on dinner at Red Lobster. And as luck would have it Brian was there. He came and chatted with us a bit and he assured us that we would be very satisfied with our dinner and service tonight.

Our waiter came. He was really friendly. He brought us water right away. He was there to take our order the second we wished to order. He mentioned that he had heard that we had had a couple of bad experiences before. He promised that we would have NO cause to be unhappy on his watch.

He also mentioned that we should expect a discount and free dessert, on the house.

The entire time we were there our waiter just could not do enough for us. We were brought our food in record time. Our glasses were never empty. I've never seen so many cheddar bay biscuits in my life, we didn't want for anything. Brian came over a few times to make sure that everything was good.

It was.

It was amazing how good it felt to be waited on like that.

We got two free desserts. To go. We were pretty full by then. The bill came and we were only charged for ONE dinner. Courtney insisted that we leave a huge tip. We both left six bucks. I think a twelve dollar tip is pretty darn generous. Oh, in case you're wondering, the bill came to 15 something with tax.

Wooh Wee!! So this is what it feels like to be famous.

There was only one eency weency thing that wasn't great. My shrimp for some reason tasted like diesel exhaust. Don't worry, even I know when complaining is the last thing you should do. So I didn't. I did feel a little bit guilty though to not give them a heads up on the off tasting shrimp.

But you know, the whole "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" and all.

Not to mention the fact that Courtney would have died from shame and then killed me on our way out to the parking lot. I do know when to keep my mouth shut.

Well that is my Red Lobster story. My good Red Lobster story.

I guess I also told my bad Red Lobster story but that was to help explain this whole thing, so I get credit here for a Positive Post.

I know enough to not expect this kind of treatment next time I go to Red Lobster, even if Courtney accompanies me. It was a great experience, and one I wouldn't have had without my daughter along, so you see, it is good to have a Courtney.