Sunday, October 01, 2006
The Redemption of Moxie’s
I guess I’ve been lax in relating or concluding stories that began months ago, but there is a conclusion. Or at least a current conclusion to an ongoing story since we’re going to continue to patronize Moxie’s. In fact, we were going to anyway, but we were just going to avoid the one at Market Mall over here in our fair city of Calgary.
Redeem themselves, they did. The general manager, Al, of that particular franchise had gotten a hold of me a few months ago and proceeded to shove a $50 gift certificate down my throat. Actually, that makes him seem kind of rough and tumble, but he was actually a very courteous guy who seemed to be genuinely distraught that the usual level of customer service that Moxie’s is known for wasn’t maintained for our particular visit. He actually wanted to know who our waiter was, and there were hints of job action to be taken. I’m sort of glad that I didn’t remember the waiter’s name because, even though our dining experience was made memorable in a bad way because of him, I wasn’t sure his attitude was bad enough to get him fired. He might’ve just been having an off day as I’m sure we’ve all had. We were just the unfortunate recipients.
I didn’t want it to seem as if we were just fishing for a free meal; we would all like one and I’ve heard of people complaining about service or quality of food just to avoid a cheque, but I believe in paying for quality, and Moxie’s has always provided me with a great place to hang out with my friends while being entertained by the staff. One of my biggest disappointments with Moxie’s is that with keeping up with the times and maintaining a positive image they managed to do away with the birthday run around the restaurant. That was always good for a humiliating laugh, wasn’t it?
But we did end up receiving a gift certificate in the mail, and we finally decided to put it to good use this last Friday. We went to Market Mall on what was perhaps the most busiest evening of the week. Michelle and I are somewhat known for our good timing, aren’t we? So when we put our name and number of our party down with the hostess, she asked if we were aware that there were about 20 parties ahead of us. I said that I wasn’t but now was thanks to her informative skills…actually, I did really say that minus the “informative skills” comment. Looking at that sentence now, I’m very glad I didn’t because it seems rather rude. So the hostess gave us a coaster and told us that we could walk around the mall and when our table was ready the coaster would let us know. Did I forget to mention that is was a coaster with a built in pager that would light up and buzz when paged? No I didn’t; I did that on purpose!
We tooled around the mall for about 40 minutes with an extra long stop at the Toy’s R Us. I got to play with a PSP for the very first time, and Rylee managed to seriously kick my butt at some sort of Sonic the Hedgehog racing game. My pride was shattered! Michelle managed to tear me, I mean, the girls away from the videogames so we could go check on the status of our table. Apparently, we had wandered out of range, and Moxie’s had been trying to page us. Thankfully, they said the next available table was ours.
A host came up and offered us wine; there were two glasses of red and one of white. Not one to pass up free alcohol even though I was under the assumption that people who drank wine were born with a silver spoon up their butt (I don’t really think this, but I love the thought of all the wine lover’s reading this and reacting in fashion), I decided to try the red while Michelle stuck with her favorite, white. I was pleasantly surprised! This was the first wine that I had ever tasted that didn’t remind me of really bad grape juice and vinegar. It had had a fruity aftertaste, and I found myself actually finishing a whole glass. A small “whole” glass, but a whole glass, never-the-less.
We were seated not too long after the wine and a quick game of I-Spy with Rylee. As soon as we sat, I asked our waitress if Al was working that evening. Al had asked that I inform him I was in the restaurant so he could attend to us personally. Seriously! That’s what he said! So he came over and introduced himself, and asked if I was Derek Monaghan. I said no, told him my real name and said that it wasn’t the first time that someone had called me that. He apologized and said that he must have had that guy from Lost on his mind - Dominic Monaghan. Well, Al just scored a huge amount of points in his favour for mentioning my favourite TV show, that was for sure!
Our server was awesome! A girl named Amanda who just got along famously with the kids. She entertained us, attended to us when needed and even catered to Rylee’s request to make her kids’ hamburger, and I quote, “Like a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger from Wendy’s.” They actually did it! Michelle and I decided that, since $50 of the meal was already paid for, we would order from the lucrative section of the menu. She ordered a piece of salmon that had been stolen from the only albino grizzly free roaming today, and I ordered a steak that had been painstakingly separated from a golden cow attended by 100 fair-haired virgins and was smothered with prawns and scallops raised by King Neptune himself. Even my baked potato which had been stuffed with cream cheese and seasonings stolen from the king of dreams accentuated my entire dinner. I’m trying to say that it was awesome! Awesome, I tell you! Just Awesome!
In the end, we had a fabulous meal, witty banter with our waitress and my favorite restaurant became a favorite again. The only thing missing from it were my friends from Victoria, but I tried not to think about them because it would have looked bad if I was crying while I ate.
To top off the evening, Michelle and I rented Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and totally fell in love with this movie. We liked it so much, in fact, that we watched it the next evening, as well. Now, there is excessive use of colorful language, but if you can see past that, you are going to be mightily entertained.
Alright, I owe you a picture or two, don’t I? Heading home yesterday I saw that the entrance to the path that leads to the nature preserve area looked so beautiful with all the yellowing leaves. I just had to go back with the girls to take a few pics. Here they are:
That last one? I just wanted to play with the B&W setting on my phenomenal camera. It turned out quite nice, I think.
Anyway, I've got things to do and people to see. Actually, I just have things to do. Also, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is on tonight, and I'm digging it so far. Probably one of the best new shows this season. Yeah, I know! I watch too much TV
Redeem themselves, they did. The general manager, Al, of that particular franchise had gotten a hold of me a few months ago and proceeded to shove a $50 gift certificate down my throat. Actually, that makes him seem kind of rough and tumble, but he was actually a very courteous guy who seemed to be genuinely distraught that the usual level of customer service that Moxie’s is known for wasn’t maintained for our particular visit. He actually wanted to know who our waiter was, and there were hints of job action to be taken. I’m sort of glad that I didn’t remember the waiter’s name because, even though our dining experience was made memorable in a bad way because of him, I wasn’t sure his attitude was bad enough to get him fired. He might’ve just been having an off day as I’m sure we’ve all had. We were just the unfortunate recipients.
I didn’t want it to seem as if we were just fishing for a free meal; we would all like one and I’ve heard of people complaining about service or quality of food just to avoid a cheque, but I believe in paying for quality, and Moxie’s has always provided me with a great place to hang out with my friends while being entertained by the staff. One of my biggest disappointments with Moxie’s is that with keeping up with the times and maintaining a positive image they managed to do away with the birthday run around the restaurant. That was always good for a humiliating laugh, wasn’t it?
But we did end up receiving a gift certificate in the mail, and we finally decided to put it to good use this last Friday. We went to Market Mall on what was perhaps the most busiest evening of the week. Michelle and I are somewhat known for our good timing, aren’t we? So when we put our name and number of our party down with the hostess, she asked if we were aware that there were about 20 parties ahead of us. I said that I wasn’t but now was thanks to her informative skills…actually, I did really say that minus the “informative skills” comment. Looking at that sentence now, I’m very glad I didn’t because it seems rather rude. So the hostess gave us a coaster and told us that we could walk around the mall and when our table was ready the coaster would let us know. Did I forget to mention that is was a coaster with a built in pager that would light up and buzz when paged? No I didn’t; I did that on purpose!
We tooled around the mall for about 40 minutes with an extra long stop at the Toy’s R Us. I got to play with a PSP for the very first time, and Rylee managed to seriously kick my butt at some sort of Sonic the Hedgehog racing game. My pride was shattered! Michelle managed to tear me, I mean, the girls away from the videogames so we could go check on the status of our table. Apparently, we had wandered out of range, and Moxie’s had been trying to page us. Thankfully, they said the next available table was ours.
A host came up and offered us wine; there were two glasses of red and one of white. Not one to pass up free alcohol even though I was under the assumption that people who drank wine were born with a silver spoon up their butt (I don’t really think this, but I love the thought of all the wine lover’s reading this and reacting in fashion), I decided to try the red while Michelle stuck with her favorite, white. I was pleasantly surprised! This was the first wine that I had ever tasted that didn’t remind me of really bad grape juice and vinegar. It had had a fruity aftertaste, and I found myself actually finishing a whole glass. A small “whole” glass, but a whole glass, never-the-less.
We were seated not too long after the wine and a quick game of I-Spy with Rylee. As soon as we sat, I asked our waitress if Al was working that evening. Al had asked that I inform him I was in the restaurant so he could attend to us personally. Seriously! That’s what he said! So he came over and introduced himself, and asked if I was Derek Monaghan. I said no, told him my real name and said that it wasn’t the first time that someone had called me that. He apologized and said that he must have had that guy from Lost on his mind - Dominic Monaghan. Well, Al just scored a huge amount of points in his favour for mentioning my favourite TV show, that was for sure!
Our server was awesome! A girl named Amanda who just got along famously with the kids. She entertained us, attended to us when needed and even catered to Rylee’s request to make her kids’ hamburger, and I quote, “Like a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger from Wendy’s.” They actually did it! Michelle and I decided that, since $50 of the meal was already paid for, we would order from the lucrative section of the menu. She ordered a piece of salmon that had been stolen from the only albino grizzly free roaming today, and I ordered a steak that had been painstakingly separated from a golden cow attended by 100 fair-haired virgins and was smothered with prawns and scallops raised by King Neptune himself. Even my baked potato which had been stuffed with cream cheese and seasonings stolen from the king of dreams accentuated my entire dinner. I’m trying to say that it was awesome! Awesome, I tell you! Just Awesome!
In the end, we had a fabulous meal, witty banter with our waitress and my favorite restaurant became a favorite again. The only thing missing from it were my friends from Victoria, but I tried not to think about them because it would have looked bad if I was crying while I ate.
To top off the evening, Michelle and I rented Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and totally fell in love with this movie. We liked it so much, in fact, that we watched it the next evening, as well. Now, there is excessive use of colorful language, but if you can see past that, you are going to be mightily entertained.
Alright, I owe you a picture or two, don’t I? Heading home yesterday I saw that the entrance to the path that leads to the nature preserve area looked so beautiful with all the yellowing leaves. I just had to go back with the girls to take a few pics. Here they are:
That last one? I just wanted to play with the B&W setting on my phenomenal camera. It turned out quite nice, I think.
Anyway, I've got things to do and people to see. Actually, I just have things to do. Also, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is on tonight, and I'm digging it so far. Probably one of the best new shows this season. Yeah, I know! I watch too much TV
