Blankbaby

I’m not one to complain about restaurants. It is true that I’ve never worked in the service industry (or retail for that matter), but I understand those jobs aren’t easy. Dealing with hungry people like me can’t possibly be pleasant for anyone. I get it.

That being said, when I’m spending pretty good money for a lunch I expect a certain level of service. Especially when I’m taking my mom out to lunch (as you know, she was in town for Thanksgiving) on one of her few visits to Philly.

I thought it would be a great idea to take my Mom to Parc, Stephen Star’s new French restaurant on Rittenhouse Square. I had been there before for lunch, and enjoyed it.

The afternoon started out well as the very friendly hostess showed us to a table with a great view of the Square. The table was set, and it had two empty water glasses. My mother and I say down, chatted, looked over the menus.

Five minutes pass. Our water glasses are still empty but we have decided what we are going to order.

10 minutes pass. Our water glasses remain empty. I fail to make eye contact with the 2 waiters who walk past our table a few times (though they serve the ladies seated next to us).

15 minutes pass. Still no water in our glasses. Still no eye contact with any waiters. Still no service.

20 minutes pass. Our glasses are decidedly empty, but our coats are back on as we decide to leave.

On the way out I tell the hostess, ‘You might not want to seat anyone else at that table.’

‘Oh, was there a draft?’

I shake my head and say, ‘Nope, but we sat there for 20 minutes while 3 different waiters ignored us.’

The manager of Parc was there, and he did apologize to us. He seemed genuinely upset and wanted us to sit back down, but at that point we just wanted to eat, we weren’t interested in drama.

We ended up going to Rouge where our water glasses were filled within 2 minutes of us sitting down, and we had ordered within 5 minutes (we both got the famous Rouge burger, because that’s just what you get at Rouge!).