The Hunger Game

A story about when my boyfriend and I went out to eat and the experience we had.

Dining out is an excellent way to spend quality time with your significant other, celebrate a special occasion, or to simply carry out the obvious: suppress your hunger. Normally I do not arrive at a restaurant utterly famished; however, for this specific night at the Ground Round, that was my main goal. I find that I enjoy my food more this way; which gives me free rein to take in all the subtle and prominent tastes, textures, and smells of the dish I was so desperately anticipating. Thinking this plan of action would succeed was only the first of the night’s downfalls.
It was a very cold and windy Tuesday night. Fresh snow glistened against Worthington’s street lights as Drew and I pulled up to the Ground Round. Scouring such a congested parking lot with a mediocre job of snow removal proved difficult; especially since on this Tuesday, one could safely assume by the lack of parking spaces that The Ground Round was the place to be! Well, the party just arrived, I joked to myself. I try to refrain from negativity and adding to my positive outlook, I was sure the hustle bustle of the crowd would ward off any awkward moments of silence waiting to crash our dinner. Nobody enjoys wondering if the other person can hear you chewing from across the table!
Upon approaching the front door, it was obvious that silence would not be a part of our evening. We entered, smiled at the hostess, who without even glancing up asked how many for our table. We replied with two, receiving a wait time of 30 minutes. We had waited longer there and many other restaurants before, so while being slightly inconveniencing to our growling stomachs, we were not affected much by this. Sitting down on their cushioned benches, we began our wait. We waited for about 35 minutes before I nagged my boyfriend enough that he asked how much longer until our table was ready. The hostess looked at us, looked at the seating chart, looked at us again, and excused herself. We felt dumb standing at the podium waiting, so we went to sit down, again. No sooner did our backsides hit the bench, we hear a voice call out “Drew, party of two.” Finally!
As our hostess leads the way, she starts talking to us softly, apologizing that she must have missed our spot in line for a seat. Being seated right next to the bathrooms, I could feel myself becoming slightly agitated, but I brushed it off. We removed our jackets and proceeded to wait some more for our waitress. A good five minutes went by before anyone came to our table at all. Being almost on the verge of death by hunger, this seemed like an eternity to me! We ordered our drinks within seconds, leading us to believe ordering our meals would be up next. I received my water within one minute �" if that! However, my boyfriend did not receive his Bloody Mary until at least another fifteen minutes passed. At this time is when our orders were finally taken. I envisioned them misplacing our ticket and our order would be lost and we would die where we sat. Laughing off my irrational thoughts, I strike up a conversation with Drew.
We sat and talked and talked until we ran out of things to talk about, leading us to sit in noisiness, while periodically doing a quick search of the dining area for our waitress or really any sign that we would receive our food and live to tell this tale. Believe it or not, another 45 minutes later we finally received our food. I ordered the mushroom and swiss burger with steamed broccoli for a side. He ordered the South of the border burger well done with fries. At this point, we were not surprised that his burger was far off the mark of well done, medium would be the correct temperature. My food was on point; however, we really weren’t in the mood to enjoy anything at this restaurant anymore.
Most experiences couples have when they go to a restaurant are positive ones; and ours �" up until this day - had followed that statistic. This experience left us wondering if we would ever end up deciding to eat there in the future. We had full bellies when we left, but out of all the positives a couple is supposed to experience when they dine out, that was the only one that I can list as a positive throughout the entire night. I have never and hope to never again experience a situation even remotely resembling this one.

Reviews

[ZakLeonRamsey]

Haha, I like reading stuff like this, not the hunger part, but I am reading how other people live their lives in other places and I find it interesting, and what I find interesting, is no different to this poem. I am intrigued with this hunger game, it seems rather bad for my stomach and arse, but I normally go for as long as I can without food before I rush to the fridge to get anything I could, like a short-lived ham sandwich or a slice of mild cheese, not the dairylea ones, (they are s**t, lol). I like this because it is slightly relatable. I do it because it is a game for me to go to the point of hunger. What I like about doing these kinds of games, is that the people in poverty in Africa, South America, etc., sometimes go without food for days and it is a major treat if they would ever get it and we just say we are really hungry after like, a maximum for three hours or something. Some fat f****r couldn't stop eating, and if the poor looked upon the fat and hungry-because-they-haven't-eaten-in-five-minutes, then they would see disgust and moments of ashaming. It is that we can't go without food for a few hours, yet they can't go without food for a few days, which shows how much we don't appreciate food as a luxury.

Anyway I am side tracking, let me talk about your story a little more. I like it because it is rather relatable and because it is funny as well, a little bit, and I like a bit of humour when it comes to pieces of poetry or stories, I put the occasional splash in my stories, that are currently unpublished. I like this because it shows how long we can go without food compared to other countries. Good job, I may have a look at your other works. Have a nice day, Kelli.

[Kelli April]

Thank you for taking the time to read my rather unfulfilling restaurant endeavor! I, too, often find myself pondering about food. Overwhelming thoughts, such as how ungrateful Americans are regarding food and its abundance in this country, the sheer magnitude of the ignorance that is projected from this entitlement to food Americans seem to encase in their selfish beings is a struggle to comprehend. I take part in fasting, not only because it is healthy, but because it helps my subconscious to always appreciate and enjoy food when available. Thank you VERY much for your review. I love reviews that leave room for discussions!

[ZakLeonRamsey]

Haha, well, thank YOU for creating this work. No problem.

[Samuel Dickens]

I guess any restaurant can have a bad night, but the figurative and or literal bad taste is likely to linger in the patron's mouths for a long time. Personally, I think I'd have to cross the Ground Round off my list of suitable places to eat. Under those trying conditions, I can see how the conversation with Drew might have proven fruitful, regarding yours and his compatibility.

[Kelli April]

I usually don’t try to let things bother me, but “hangry” is a real thing lol! I’m a very nice person, but death by starvation felt imminent at one point lol. Thank you for taking your time to review. We only order takeout from there now.