A Tale of Two Restaurants

I’d like to tell you about two different dining experiences. The first was lunch at a national chain steak house in Columbus, Mississippi. The second was at a place called the OK Café in Atlanta, Georgia. The first was lunch today, the other was dinner tonight.

Lunch was actually a late lunch, after the rush. We were thinking we could get in and out, and get back in the air. Our beverages came pretty quick. We were hungry, we ordered and one of the guys asked for bread right away. Ten or fifteen minutes passed and our salads showed up. Later, much later, the food and BREAD showed. The problem was it took so long to get to us that we filled up in peanuts and salad. The food was lukewarm and tasted---OK. There was not even a “We’re sorry it took so long…”.

After we settled into our rooms in Atlanta, we decided to honor our friend Brian King, by eating at his favorite Atlanta restaurant. Brian was killed in a plane crash on May 3rd, 2008. The establishment is called the OK Café. They serve excellent “comfort food” from the south. We were seated within five minutes. We were served our sweet tea and we ordered. We visited for a little while and our food arrived. As Sue, our waitress, put the food in front of us, she said, “We feel like it took too long for us to get your food to you, so this is all on the house.” We were stunned. The bill, before dessert, had to have been close to $70. She insisted we have some Pecan Pie and Bread Pudding as well.

We had a wonderful time honoring Brian King tonight. Brian’s favorite was OK Cafe's Three Cheese Macaroni. I have to admit, it’s the best I have ever tasted!