Football Sundays

So I've been bartending at Chilis (if you can even truly call that bartending) for about a year now and am finally starting to get reasonably good at it. I have been scheduled Sunday morning bartending shifts for a few months now. It has until recently been a dreaded shift; slow and boring with too many churchy types (they never seem to tip very well). However, with the onset of Autumn, Football has started up for the season which brings a kinda fun new group into the bar. These people get inexplicably excited about the game and often come in droves, sporting jerseys for their favorite players on their favorite teams. While I cannot muster anything resembling giving a shit about Football, I do appreciate the extra business and sometimes even the people who come to watch.

My favorite gentlemen come just about every Sunday (more to hang out with each other than to eat or drink or even to watch the game). Jack, Jim, Scott & Corey are some of my particular favorites- enough so that I know not only their drink of choice but also their names; this is quite a feat for me- I can easily recognize the faces of people I've served more than twice but it probably takes me about 20 times serving them before I can manage to remember their names. There are of course other names I know only out of necessity- them being such highly demanding regulars that everyone knows them by name only to be able to warn fellow coworkers- "Guys I'm sorry that burger has 15 modifications on it- it's Kim again" or "Guys SERIOUSLY don't fuck that fajita up or Dave will never shut up about it" and magically everyone understands and obliges.  

Anyways, I thought I could write about any interesting guests or occurrences on these Football Sundays for anyone who might be out there or, hell, for posterity's sake or whatever.

Today a man I've never seen before came in, super nice, ordered a Ribeye steak. When I went to check on him, he raved about the food and dropped some crazy lore as customers will occasionally do. He told me that today was the anniversary of his mothers death, she's been gone 4 years now, and since she died he's held the tradition of going out and having a steak in her memory on this day (I guess she really loved ribeyes?). He said this steak was cooked to perfection, and that it tasted just like the one he had the last time he had dinner with her. He told me all this with a slight sparkle of moisture in his eyes, and then gave me two dollar bills and one golden dollar and asked me to give that to the cook. It feels a little silly writing it out now, but this afternoon it definitely touched me. I guess you never really know the impact a good meal or a listening ear can have on somebody. That steak certainly seemed to mean a lot to this gentleman. He was so kind, too, he paid for Jim's meal today and I daresay made a new friend.