When I woke up yesterday morning, I had no idea that it would be the day I experienced the best lunch ever. Let me tell you, I have had many lunches. Some of them were darned good. But there can be only one Best Lunch Ever, and I’m sure I already had it. Allow me to set the stage.
I had just completed my speech to 2,000 technology professionals, and I had several hours to kill before my wife’s flight arrived. I decided to take a long walk and stop somewhere for a quick bite. After about 45 minutes of walking, I decided that my hunger and energy curves had crossed, and it was time to pick a pleasant eatery. As luck would have it, I was standing in front of a well-lit, new place that promised to have the variety of food a vegetarian requires. Lucky!
I walked up to the hostess stand and noticed an unusually large number of employees. There must have been thirty servers and only a handful of customers. Vegas was packed with people, yet I could sit wherever I wanted. Lucky!
One of the four hostesses acknowledged my presence, and I said in my most confident, non-loserish voice, “One for lunch.” But she balked, for reasons that were unclear. She looked to the taller hostess for guidance. The tall one seemed to be some sort of manager. She said, “We’re a new restaurant, and not open to the general public yet. We’re just training the staff today. But if you want, you can eat here. The only catch is that it’s all free.” Lucky!
One of the smaller hostesses showed me to a seat at the bar. I noticed that no one was smoking in this restaurant – a rarity in Vegas. Lucky!
There were about eight bartenders for only four practice customers. The service was terrific. Lucky!
The menu was an abbreviated version, presumably for training reasons, but it had some excellent vegetarian choices. They were delicious. Lucky! And free. Lucky!
There you have it. That was the best lunch I ever had.
Oh, wait, I forgot one thing. The restaurant is the new Hawaiian Tropics restaurant. And all thirty of the servers looked like supermodels, wore bikinis, and acted extra nice to me because their managers were watching. That part was okay too.