A few weeks ago, my family ate at a locally-owned restaurant and had a good enough experience. Except for the flies. They hounded us all night and despite the friendly service and the pretty good food, all we could remember were the flies.
The following day, I fired off a note to the restaurant about the flies, and pointed out that we had an otherwise good dinner, and the owner responded quickly and honestly and said the problem would be corrected. Later, a gift certificate arrived in the mail. This is a textbook way to handle the situation.
This week, we decided to use the gift certificate at another of the company's restaurants in the area. Guess what? Flies! Not as many as at the other place, but enough to make us wonder what was up, especially considering we dine out a couple times a week -- and used to go out much more -- and almost never have to shoo flies off our child's head or his food.
Our son named one of the flies Charlie (after a neighborhood dog) and when the waitress heard him say "Charlie," she asked what he was referring to. We told her he'd named one of the flies. She chuckled and strolled off. Sure, the naming was funny, but she could have at least acknowledged that we pointed out there were flies.
Then we tried to change a diaper; a full diaper. I saw no changing table in the men's room of this restaurant which has a kids' menu and in which other kids were dining that evening. So, my wife took him to the women's room. No changing table. An employee, laughing, suggested she could change his diaper on the bench of our booth -- which we'd have considered if not for the other diners in the room -- then suggested the bathroom counter between the sinks. Yes, an employee (clearly ignorant of children and insurance nightmares both!) suggested setting a wiggly 2-year-old child on a wet, narrow counter three feet off the ground.
It was time to go.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
