By Guest Blogger, Bev Gengler
A few weeks ago my friends and I went to Saugatuck for a weekend getaway. We stayed at the Ship n Shore Motel conveniently located in town within walking distance to the shopping and restaurants district. It was a fabulous day of walking, eating, browsing, photographing, walking the shoreline of Oval Beach, playing cards, talking, laughing and drinking wine.
We had been given recommendations on restaurants, so in the early evening we set out on foot to have dinner. We came upon two places that had peaked our interest, but the wait was too long or the line was out the door onto the sidewalk. Eventually we came to Chequers, a quaint and cozy little place, described on their website as a Gastropub, a British word for pub with good quality food and known to have a relaxed atmosphere. Upon our entry, we noticed that is was small, warm and felt yummy. We noticed the couple that wed talked to on the street seated at a table for two and even though they hadnt arrived too long before us, they were sipping on drinks. After the hostess told us there would be a wait, I suggested what about the long table for four that was open, and put a chair on the end for the fifth person in our party. She replied with that doesnt leave room for the waitress to get around. We were good with that and decided to belly up to the bar, and have a cocktail while we waited.
Five minutes passed before we, the only people sitting at the bar, were acknowledged. After observing there were only two of the eleven tables that could accommodate our party, we asked if we could eat at the bar. The seemingly disheveled lady server sort of mumbled a yes and took our drink order. About ten minutes later, and before our drinks arrived, the man server led us to a table that has freed up. So obviously there hadnt been any communication between the man server and the lady server that wed discussed eating at the bar. The lady server brought us our drinks within five minutes after being seated, gave us our menus and walked away. At this point there was very little talking between our group and the server. No welcome, how are you doing or these are our menu features. We decided relatively quickly our choices from the menu, and gave the order to lady server on her next visit. We were having fun in the dark corner where we were seated, sipping our drinks, but forever went by before we were served our food. At about this point I noticed that the couple that had come in just before us was finishing up and paying their bill.
Some of us were nearly finished eating before lady server sort of leaned around the corner and asked in passing if all was well. Meanwhile the couple table had two new people with drinks in hand and lady server was chatting it up with them. Lady server finally came by with our check, never asked if we wanted anything else, coffee, another cocktail, or dessert. I asked if she could split up the bill because we had two debit cards in our party, and she said no, Im in the weeds and dont have time. Although we felt slighted on service, we left a 20% tip on our $100 bill. As we were leaving I noticed the new people at the couple table were just finishing up and waiting for their check.
In summary, Chequers maybe needed another server working that night, maybe a bar tender wouldve served the bar better, lady server didnt like working a party of more than four, lady server assumed our food was delicious, and that we werent really thirsty, and $5 in tips would have been more accurate. We did find cocktails, coffees and desserts elsewhere, and fun was had by all.