Now THAT'S customer service!

These past two weeks have been a bit stressful for me as I transitioned out of my Library job and prepared for my new Saint Benedict Press job. One would think that all my years of moving to new states, new homes, new schools, new relationships would have prepared me well for changes like this...and one would be right, to a certain extent. I can settle in fairly quickly, make new friends, and hit the ground running with my work. But I still stress a great deal in anticipation of it all!

My PLCMC coworkers did a fabulous job of reassuring me that, though I will be missed, I am doing the right thing. I almost felt like I floated out of the building on a cloud of well wishes and encouragement today. Everyone has a lot more confidence in me than I do in myself, it seems! Anyway, one of the loveliest things my supervisor did for me was organize a farewell luncheon with twelve of my coworkers for Wednesday. They took me to a nice little restaurant Uptown called Feast, where they serve food in a French-Moroccan style. I'd love the opportunity to try most of their menu choices, but I opted for the chicken satay on this visit and was delighted by the moist, flavorful chicken with avocado and carrot salad over rice. YUM!

We were fortunate to have the restaurant manager as our waiter that day. In addition to his warm welcome and attentive service, he provided two especially generous treats that I want to share with you. First, he came to visit our table while we waited for our food. While my coworkers responded "fine" or "good" to his "how are you all doing?", I burst out with a candid "I'm hungry!" and a smile. He slipped away quietly and, not five minutes later, bestowed on me a plate of fresh fruit, including the most delicious strawberries I've eaten yet this year. "On the house," he assured me, noting his special privilege as the manager to attend to his customers' needs this way.

Later in the meal one of my coworkers found a bug in her salad. The manager apologized and offered her a replacement, which she declined without hard feelings. He then explained that the organic greens they use are more prone to intruders than the pesticide-laced salads we might eat elsewhere. Makes sense! But he would not let the incident remain at that - near the end of our meal he set a silver platter of chocolate-covered strawberries with whipped cream at my coworkers' place and invited her to share it with everyone - again, on the house. The strawberries were even more delicious under chocolate!

Now that I am no longer working Uptown I don't know if I'll ever have the opportunity to eat at Feast again. But if I do, I definitely will!

Photo credit: Joits