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 Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 8:48 pm
The lunch crowd was light today. The teal-haired fellow at Maize Maizier was lingering close to the kitchen, talking to the chef when he was informed that one of his tables had a patron.
Upon casual glance from the kitchen, he could see dark hair with white hairs peppered in.
From the distance, it was hard to tell if the client was male or female. "I suppose I will be coming back to give you an order then!" With a partial wave, the lad went to the designated table.
With his typical lightly accented tone, he greeted "Hi, my name is Howl and I will be your server. Can I start you off with something to drink?"
Now that he was in front of the patron, he could see that he was distinctly male.
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 8:57 pm
About once a month (sometimes more depending on the state of his bills), Hitch liked to treat himself to a meal out. If he could afford it, he tried to aim for the exotic. Burgers from a fast food joint in between jobs made Americana a hell of a less appealing, sandwiches and TV dinners were basically a staple, and cooking for himself was nothing special. Even if he had plenty of recipes at home to flip through, they were all way beyond what he was capable of - he knew he'd only manage to butcher them and waste desperately needed cash in the process.
So, what did it hurt to be a little bold when he ate out, right? Even if he ended up despising what he got, the variety and the unexpectedness were pretty nice. It only made sense that he'd be drawn to a place with a name like 'Maize Maizier'.
He'd just been settled at one of the tables and begun tucking his napkin into his lap (and already fretting inwardly that maybe he'd shot a little too low with his band tee and worn out jeans - not like he had anything nicer since the New Year's incident had left his suit stained, ruined, and smelling of ranch) when the waiter approached.
For about two seconds, before he got a good look, the first thing that drew his attention was the hair. The length and the color contrasted with their skin, what a beautiful - oh good god, his waiter was a man. He bit down on the inside of his lip piercing for a second before smiling at the other man, feeling ten levels of mortified and hoping that nothing gave it away. His palms felt sweaty already, and he tapped them idly (unconsciously) against his outer thighs in a slow, steady beat.
If he'd known his new waiter had shared his momentary confusion, he probably would have died on the spot.
"Hi, Howl." He made sure to repeat his name, his way of committing it to memory. Not like it should be hard; how many people were named Howl in the world, honestly. "I'd like to start with a water, if that's alright."
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 9:38 pm
Water was not the sort of thing that the waiter needed to write down on a pad. So instead, Howl smiled and nodded his head. "Ah yes, I will bring that up in a moment. Would you like lemon or mint with your water? Or is your preference plain water, sir?"
A stray hair slipped into his line of vision, so with the back of his hand he brushed it back into place before adding "Also, since parts of the menu are in different languages, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me."
It was never a good habit to make assumptions based upon physical appearances, but new customers usually weren't the multilingual sorts.
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Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 6:31 pm
A simple option had just split off into three, which was good and bad. Good: more options meant this was a better restaurant and probably had better food, which was exciting. Bad: Better food and more choices usually meant it was more high end, and even if the dollar signs on the menu looked reasonable enough, it did make him overly-aware all over again how sorely underdressed he probably was. He could only imagine what the staff was probably thinking.
Then, he pursued his lips as he realized he should probably just go ahead and give this poor man an answer before he made an even bigger fool of himself. "Uh, mint. Why not? I haven't tried mint in water before, " and what the hell kind of thing was that to say?! Hitch exhaled slowly and calmly as he flashed Howl a pleasant smile. "I usually do orange or something. Spice things up a bit, you know." Please for the love of god just stop talking you ******** moron.
Different languages? - oh holy s**t, Hitch realized as he looked down at the menu for the first time, and cracked an toothy sort of lost smile as he realized, "Huh. Well, s**t, I can't ******** read this." He meant to say it much more quietly than he did. He was visibly wincing around his smile as he looked back up at Howl. "Uhm. Sorry. I mean. Yes, I could probably use the help, thank you."
Wasn't this whole dinner thing supposed to be to relax?! What the hell was he even so worked up about?! Behave like a goddamn person Hitch! Was it really so hard to do that anymore?! Good god, if his ******** mother saw him rambling on like this --
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Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 7:27 pm
It wasn't often that Howl got to see a customer so flustered over simply ordering. The body language was enough, with the subtle fidgeting and mild twitches of his facial expression.
The expletive also didn't help the lad's case.
Rather than draw attention to the young man's curse, the server instead drew upon the water-comment.
"I have heard that citrus with water is supposed to be good for your digestion, though mint also has its own health benefits when it comes to digestion."
Straightening himself up, he nodded to the lad once more. "I will be back in a moment with your drink. I can answer any of your questions about the menu once I return."
A small bow and the teal haired fellow made his way back to the kitchen.
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Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 7:38 pm
"Ahahaha... " The weakest, saddest laugh there'd ever been. "Thank you."
Hitch planted his elbows right on the edge of the table after Howl was out of sight and slapped his hands over his face, dragging them down until his palms were cupping his cheeks. Okay, so that was about as embarrassing as it ever got. Apparently he couldn't even just go relax in a restaurant without ******** it up. That just went to figure. Even the most basic s**t was beyond him at this point.
He really debated just throwing some cash on the table and heading out, but that seemed even worse some how. The best thing he could do was try and pull it together, somehow. How he came back from something like that, he didn't have the faintest idea, but...
Just try and forget about it, he told himself as he looked over the menu, his face burning. Which meant he would do anything but forgetting about it, naturally. Maybe leaving the cash and taking off wasn't the worst idea he'd had after all?
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Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 8:55 pm
Since it was a single glass of water with that hint of mint, it didn't require a full tray to carry it to the table. Instead, the lad simply carried the object with the palm of his hand, reaching into his apron for a simple cardboard coaster to set on the table before putting the glass upon of the coaster. A paper wrapped straw was set in front of the glass.
"One mint water for the gentleman." Brushing a hand through his bangs and pushing them back over his shoulder, he offered the patron a smile.
The poor lad's face was flushed. Without breaking a sweat, the waiter offered "So do tell me what sort of food you enjoy? Sweet? Savory? Spicy? I can make a suggestion or two based upon pallet, if that will make it simpler for you."
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 8:48 am
So neat and perfect - Hitch returned the waiter's smile with one of his own as he tapped his palms idly against his thighs, an subconscious, slow beat. "Thank you, Howl." At least he'd gotten his name right. He could build off of that.
What he liked. It gave Hitch a moment of pause, and thinking about something other than what a ******** moron he was (and maybe whether they'd let him slip a cigarette in real quick to soothe his stupidly frayed nerves) was something he'd badly needed. "Usually savory - I mean, I don't really hate any of those, but savory appeals to me the most." He reached up and scratched the back of his neck idly as he mulled it over. Then, like he thought maybe he was staring at Howl a little too long and too directly, he averted his gaze. "Tangy, too. I like that. Is that one of the options?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 8:33 pm
Savory and Tangy
He didn't have the luxury of sitting and stewing over which menu items fit such categories. It was a server's job to know the flavor pallets with the menu items.
Fortunately, Howl had been at Maize Maizier long enough to learn such things.
"Let me see... there is the ālū gobhī, a dry Pakistani cuisine dish made with potatoes, cauliflower and Indian spices. Ours is served with garlic, ginger, onion, ,tomato, peas, and cumin. There is also the Ugali, a dish of maize flour cooked with water to a porridge-like consistency. It is served with your choice of meat and Sukuma wiki, which is similar to kale."
A brief pause to see how well the customer was following along.
"We also have Lagman, a very popular Dungan noodle dish. It consists of thick noodles covered in chopped peppers and other vegetables. It is served in a spicy vinegary sauce."
Another brief pause.
"Has anything piqued your interests, sir?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 11:00 pm
All of it sounded pretty good - well, mostly. He wasn't too into the porridge-thing, but that was only because he thought the texture might not sit well with him. But, "You are awfully good at this, aren't you?" Hitch smiled at him, running his fingers through his hair as he thought back to how long it had taken him to be able to recommend basic s**t like which cold cuts to get and how to slice them. Compared to this, it was like 'hey, I learned how to pile blocks, how great is that?'
"I mean, uhm, maybe the ālū gobhī, " he took pains to try and make sure he pronounced it right, running his tongue along the back of his piercing as he nodded. "I mean, it sounds good - I'll take your word for it on that one - thank you Howl."
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Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:57 am
Howl could not restrain a simple chuckle from escaping him. "I would like to think I have had plenty of practice with this job, sir." Pulling up the pad from his apron with the pen neatly tucked along the edge of it, he wrote out the order. Many of his coworkers would have scribbled the order, but the lad had a certain amount of pride in the way he wrote his letters, so it took him a moment or two to write down the order in his finest lettering.
"It is an excellent choice, sir, and you are more than welcome!"
With an artful flourish, he finished his final letter before pulling off the paper and once more tucking his pen and pad back into his apron.
"So might I ask how you heard about Maize Maizier?" The customer seemed unfamiliar, which meant he was probably just passing by if Howl were to guess. However, it was a guess and not a truth. The least the waiter could do was allow the truth to be told.
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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 5:28 pm
Yeah. Now that Howl said it that way, it did sort of seem like common sense that he'd actually know how to do his job. Hitch tried not to let it trip him up too much, but the familiar burn of shame simmered away in his gut. It seemed like Howl took everything about his job to heart... even the way he took the time to write out Hitch's order. Super attentive to detail. Made him think his mother would have loved this place.
"How I heard of it, " how much of the truth to tell? Hitch said softly and slouched a little in his seat - then remembered where he was and straightened up again. "It's not a very exciting story. I like food. - all the different varieties and cuisines and all that. I'm still pretty new to the area, and there's a lot more choices here than there were back home." He was still calling it home, he thought to himself with an internal wince. No matter. "So I like to get out and try something new at least once a month if I can - this place had caught my eye, so I came in."
Long-winded, and not super interesting, but it was more or less the truth.
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