A Scene From a Corner Table....Lunch Time In America...by Jamil Shawwa

It is lunchtime here in the US, around 12:00 PM. The place is one of the usual ones, my same table when I am eating alone, a table for two at the corner of the restaurant with a view to the whole place. I go there, the servers and the hostesses stopped even saying anything to me, I just go and set, sometimes it is not available, and I have to choose another, yet less strategic table. Lunch is a choice of either the buffet or A La Carte. I chose the cheapest, the buffet, though not necessarily or even not at all less quality. I situated myself, the waiter arrived with the Soda drink and a glass of water, I do not drink, otherwise, a very cold glass of Bear would have hit the spot today, but the Soda was nice, I am content. About 12 to 14 tables in the place with a divider or a big paravan that separates the place into two sections for those who require more privacy. The patrons are mostly from near by companies, the area is the hub and a suburban of Washington DC, about 6 miles south of the capital and about 4 miles north of my house.




Table one: must be Jamil... starting to move to the buffet and glancing around to survey the surroundings not for charming girls, there were none today, but for learning the eating patterns of the patrons... bad habit I have, snooping around to see what people eat and how they eat.







Table 2: a couple in the mid 40s probably married, they were eating but not talking, and they were not looking at each other.





Table three: a man and a woman, maybe co-workers-They work for the same office; I noticed the badges- talking about the new IPad while moving for a second round, it is all you can eat.







Table 4: group of mixed people, men and women talking business and new software that company is launching soon.







Table Five: politics-oh, thanks God, some people are making sense. The topic is the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Some where happy with Obama's handling and some compared him with George W. Bush and the handling of the Katrina hurricane few years ago- Meaning not happy with Obama.







Table Six: that was it for me, could not hear anything else except for moving lips and the noise of the forks and knives.







It is lunchtime in America. Between 12:00 PM and 1:30 PM, America moves in doves outside the offices, they go out, enjoy lunch, in restaurants, in bars, no drinks unless you were an executive and you do not mind; to fast food, anywhere but outside the office. Go to Washington DC, to the parks around the White House, the Potomac River, Georgetown and people are eating and talking. America likes its lunch and America actually likes its three meals. Once, years ago, a smart and very attractive waitress told me that the lunch usually for a table or a person does not exceed 45 minutes, and this is how restaurants usually calculate their turn around business and calculate the profit. They expect each table to finish the whole meal in 45 minutes. At that time, this did not make sense to me, and actually, I thought that she was trying to tell me to have some etiquette and not to stay long because she wants to have other customers using my table and a new tip rather than my usual 15% tip. Today, I looked and calculated the time for me and other tables and she was right, I personally did not need to use more than 45 minutes. I looked at my watch- the phone clock, my watch is broken- by the end of the meal and it was around that period. I am going to tell that waitress, she is still in business in one of the luxury hotels near by. I used to go there more often but our economy hit me as well as millions of Americans and many of us are happy-or have no choice but to be happy- with our reasonably priced yet tasty hangouts.