Mary Catherine

Wow.. It's been forever since I've posted.
Mostly because all I can seem to do is complain about the customer service in Danville.
Add that businesses are closing left and right so I can only go to the same crappy service places over and over.

Tonight was different.. Scott and I had a kid-free night and decided to celebrate his new job at AutoZone (I will ensure there will be excellent customer service there).
So we splurged and went to Red Lobster. I think I've posted about Red Lobster in the past.. I must say that even though they are overpriced, they never lack in the customer service department.

Tonight was especially outstanding..

If you don't know us very well, we both have sort of a strange sense of humor.. Sort of abrasive and snarky..

So Mary Catherine comes over and introduces herself and tells us she will be our server.. I apologize in advance for what we are going to put her through.. She laughs and says she's pretty sure she can handle.. Then we joke that she'll be nipping Scotts beer on the way to deliver it because we'll drive her nuts.

We were talking and I made a comment to Scott (no idea what it was). But he said "what are you smoking" and my comeback was "crack" (no folks I do not smoke crack, just our sense of humor). As the conversation happened, Mary Catherine walked up to our table and said "well heck, I'll just hang out here"..
Seems her sense of humor was much like ours (my guess is she is able to adjust to whatever type of customer is put in her section).

So... We both ordered the Ultimate Feast, which includes a half pound of snow crab.
Mary Catherine delivers our food and asks if we need anything else. Scott holds up a crab leg and says "can you dig the meat out of these for me"..

I'm in awe of what happened next.

Mary Catherine disappeared for a split second. And then without even blinking, she pulls up a chair, puts two bowls on the table, slides on some latex gloves and proceeds to crack Scotts crab legs. Every single one of them.. Putting the meat in one bowl, and the shells in another..

Now you would think this would be awkward.. To have someone we don't know sit down at our table and crack crab while we ate.. Not at all..
It was like having a friend join you for dinner..

Since I waited tables for 10 years, I had something in common with her. We talked about how things have changed for wait-staff since I did it 20 years ago..
(the servers at Red Lobster have to split tips with bar tenders and bus boys)..
We talked about what it takes to be an excellent waitress (she agreed with all of my crazy thoughts on the topic). She's young. And generally I find the younger they are, the more they lack the customer service skill. It seems to be a dying art only found in old school wait-staff. But she proved me wrong tonight.

Mary Catherine totally nailed it tonight..
She gave me knew hope for Danville..

So next time you go to Red Lobster, ask for Mary Catherine, and tip her well.

5 out of 5 tips for Mary Catherine.