Manners?

Friday night Dh and I went out to dinner, while the kids went to a dance. I have been ugly with him, a lot, lately. This was a good time to re-connect without the kids. We went to Walter’s in the Old Port. The food is delicious and it is not a place where you normally would take kids.

So, we are upstairs and things are going fine. We are about midway thru our dinner when two men are seated. The minute they sit down they are loud. Yelling about the menu to each other loud. At first I thought it was a man out with his father who couldn’t hear. That is how loud they were talking. Then I realized, uh-oh, they have been drinking a lot. Not unusual for the Old Port as it is a working waterfront. Fisherman usually don’t come to Walter’s, they hang out at the Three Doors of Hell. Recently, made into the Two Doors of Hell. They were not fisherman, just obnoxious. I heard about the brown haired guy’s dilemma between the chicken and the duck. That went on and on and on. At some point I tune them out and continue eating my yummy Spring Pasta.

Until….. their appetizers come. They got some kind of chicken or pork teriyaki strips and a huge, heaping bowl of fried calamari. They start w. the chicken. Baldy, the other guy, puts his left hand on one end of the chicken and uses a fork to kind of strip away at the meat. Really. “Dude ever hear of a knife?” His hands were all over this food. Then BOTH of them start eating the Calamari with their fingers. They have it covered in tarter sauce and are just using their hands to eat it. It was so disgusting. There was a couple next to us. I was facing the women whose husband is telling her what these guys are doing. I am also giving my husband the play-by-play. I hear her go “Seriously? Seriously? Seriously?” I look at her and nod and she says “Oh My God.” At this point the brown haired guy has given up all utensils and is eating his chicken strip with both hands. Yes, he is. I am thinking: Neanderthal.

Now that calamari is half gone the brown haired guy calls the waitress over. He proceeds to tell her that the calamari is not what he expected and wants her to do something about it. And, he needs salt. The food does not have enough. She shows him the salt and pepper bowl and says she will talk to the manager. The salt and pepper come in a double shallow bowl. You take a pinch and put it on your food. Well they wobbled over that. Honestly, they got more salt on the table than on the food. The complaining starts now, at least when they are eating they are fairly quiet, “Whatta ya mean? I gotta say sumin’. This is just friggin’ fried calamari w. tarter sauce. I don’t think its that great; you said this is a great restaurant. And, how come they don’t have saltshakers. I don’t like this salt thing.” On and on it goes…

It was so ridiculous. Honestly, I have never seen anything like it. My DH loves calamari. But, there is only so many ways one can fry calamari. Right? Apparently the parents of these two men forget to teach them how to eat out in public. I was laughing so hard I was crying. My husband? He did not think it was funny at all. He has no patience for drunk, obnoxious idiots. It was so insane that it was not worth getting angry about. They would not have understood if you told them how rude they were being. This is when I wished my kids were with me. First, to see how not to act. And, second, to show off what excellent manners my kids have. I wished I could have set up my camera where they could not see and film it. Or maybe, not. It would gross you out too much.