Temporarily! For the long weekend, anyway.

Today, after work, we make the 5 to 5 and a half hour journey to Mom’s and Dad’s in Creston, BC, and I’m really looking forward to it not only because my mom and dad and family friends are there but, well, it’s Creston, BC. All Kokanee loving jokes aside, Creston has got to be one of the most beautiful areas to live let alone visit. You’re smack dab in the mountains, there’s a crystalline lake nearby and, um, they brew Kokanee there. I wonder if Kokanee Gold is brewed there. Mmmm.

Something happened this week that totally made me miss Victoria very, very much. Not seeing our friends and family is one thing, but when you go to a restaurant that is part of your favourite chain and things are completely different, you feel home sickness pangs. Where did we go? We went to Moxie’s which I guess has changed its name somewhere down the line to Moxie’s Classic Grill.

This place has been a standard in meal eatery and coffee socialization with us and our friends for countless numbers of years (actually, they are countable, but I don’t feel like counting them right now…I’ll get misty eyed). Not only that, but I was actually employed by the first Moxie’s ever built even before construction was completed on the pioneering Chinook Mall location. I went into the restaurant which was just decimated with the equipment and debris befitting of an “under construction) zone, and no sooner that I had said the words, “I’m here to apply for the bus-boy position,” the manager had said, “You’re hired!” It was very moral boosting for me because I remember looking for a part-time job at the time and not finding any suitable for my tender age of 14. I remember my mom driving me to an interview for one of those ice-cream peddler jobs (peddler as in seller and as in one of those bikes modified with a cooler attachment), and upon arriving at the place and seeing the type of people hanging outside the establishment (tough and intimidating) I asked her to turn around and never went to the interview. Moxie’s was a great first time real job. My previous jobs being flyer deliveries, covering a friend’s paper route while he vacationed, oh, and clay pigeon loader for the Calgary Gun Club. Dad got me that job, and it will ever go down in history as my first and strangest job ever.

Where was I? Ah, Moxie’s! It’s been a mainstay for years. We’ve had coffee there on numerous occasions (uncountable, actually, because we’ve literally lost count) even though most find their coffee unpalatable. We’ve celebrated birthdays there even as far back as when they used to make you run around the restaurant with a sparkler in your cheesecake (they don’t do that anymore). We’ve discussed many serious issues there while we also went there just to laugh with ourselves or the very sociable wait staff.

And they made my favourite sandwich. The Philly Cheese Chicken! Most people like a nice Philly cheese steak sandwich, but to me the best way to improve on it is to replace the beef with chicken. And the way Moxie’s does it with the banana peppers and peppercorn sauce and the baguette, slurp, gets me drooling just thinking about it. I love that sandwich.

We went to Moxie’s at Market Mall in the NW of Calgary after another Calaway Park visit. After Michelle and the girls had ordered their meals I looked at the waiter who was a young mid-twenties guy with one of those very precise beards that requires a straight edge to trim, and I ordered the Philly cheese chicken sandwich. He actually said, “You mean the Philly cheese steak?” At that point I knew all was lost. I would never be able to find my sandwich in Calgary, and I will never be able to have it again until I visit my Victoria friends.

And I wish that was the worst of the dining experience, but some nit picky things happened as well. Rylee ordered a pizza with fries, and the waiter didn’t even bother to say that fries were extra. He just brought the fries and charged us for them. Also, drinks are included with kid’s meals, but the waiter brought us all adult drinks and, yes, charged us for them. That’s almost an extra 5 bucks added to the bill, and when I mentioned this to him he still charged me for them. And, yes there’s more nit picking, when they brought the kids volcanoes (this is a bowl of ice cream sitting in a larger bowl that has dry ice and hot water in the base to make it appear to be erupting…very cool) they didn’t even bother to ask the kids what topping they would like on their ice cream; they just brought them with chocolate sauce on them. When we told the waiter that Kristen doesn’t like chocolate sauce he made no move to remedy this at all. Geeze, I wish I got his name now. I so regret leaving him the very small tip I gave him. While paying I almost made the comment that there would have been an extra 5 bucks for you, but I have to use it to pay for the two extra drinks you charged me for. Grrr!

Victoria Moxie’s! I miss you!

Hmm! I just a quick search and found that Moxie’s has a website. Maybe I’ll email them my little experience, eh?