Who's Cooking Tonight?

Mar 4

Family of three enjoying pizza at a cozy restaurant. They are smiling and sharing a meal. Warm lighting and rustic decor in the background.

Woman smiling in red blouse outdoors, with text describing her as content creator and career coach in agriculture. Contact link included.

My family and I recently visited a small-town pizza restaurant. There were three younger men manning the store that evening. They all seemed like good workers if not terribly accurate when it came to taking breadstick orders, but they made it right with the customers in the end. They were polite and prompt about asking if we needed refills and if we were ready for our check.

All in all, it wasn’t an unpleasant experience.

As I walked up to the cash register to pay, our waiter was on the phone presumably for a carry-out order. I heard him say, “Who’s cooking tonight?” With his answer, the potential customer hung up leaving the young man confused. I gathered that last bit because he repeated the conversation with a wrinkled brow and an awkward shrug to his co-worker standing nearby.

Man in a blue shirt and apron in a bakery, talking on the phone and using a computer. Shelves with packaging and menu board behind.

Chef in striped apron prepares to bake a pizza with tomato, mozzarella, and basil on a marble counter. Brick oven in the background.

In small towns like the one we found ourselves in the options for dining out are limited so you want to make sure you’re going to get what you ordered. Or you want to make sure you’re properly dressed for the cute boy working that night. Customers are driven by more than their need for food. Especially now, the experience as a whole has to be worth their time and money.

Waiter in a white shirt and bow tie holds a pizza in a restaurant with brick walls. Two men are blurred in the background.

This isn’t always limited to restaurants. I know small town residents who investigate what doctor is on-call at their local emergency room before they decide if their potential medical condition is severe enough to make the trip.

Customers are finicky folk. Who wants to waste a good hair day on the wrong cashier at the pizza place or a potential appendicitis on a doctor you don’t like?