I had to relate this story before I forgot about it.
A few weeks back, the wif-al unit and I took a late afternoon break after a hard day’s work and were going to stop by Magdalena’s for a margarita and nachos. Now Magdalena’s is quite a mystery to me. It’s just a small little hole in the wall, but the place is always packed. We stopped by there one day just out of curiosity. The menu is kind of pricey for what it is and it almost seems like they force the patrons to smoke. This is definitely not a place we’ll ever take our kids. The margaritas come in these small glasses that seem a little bigger than shot glasses. Fill it with ice and is there any room for the drink? The drink that does make it in there is pretty strong, though. So it’s best to keep your wits and not order many. Their nachos, however, are quite yummy. They have a variety of them, we got chicken. They load the nachos up and bake them. Like I said, their yummy.
Anyways, I got a little off track. We were planning to make another stop there, but upon arriving their was no room at the inn. We were in the mood for Mexican food but there wasn’t anything else like that close by and we didn’t want to stray to far away from home. Instead of going to our favorite haunt (Nick and Jimmy’s) for chunks, we decided to try somewhere new. That somewhere new was M. T. Loonies.
M. T. Loonies is a bar that doesn’t know what it wants to be, bar, pub, dance club, sports bar, etc. The furnishings and different rooms give a variety of avenues for your stay. This is fine though. Reading the history on the menu, it explains all this, about two friends traveling through Canada deciding to open a bar together and what they wanted it to be. I don’t think Gordon Ramsey would like it’s multiple personality disorder, but since they explained it, I was fine.
So we grab a secluded table near the empty stage. Pretty cool, me thinks, they must get bands in now and then. The wif-al unit gets a margarita (which costs a buck) and low and behold it’s the same style as Magdalena’s. Sounded like the same strength too. I’m seeing a trend here in this area. (Small cheap strong margaritas and a mandatory smoking rule.) We go ahead and order our food and the wif-al unit hits the bathroom.
A little bit later, this woman comes up to me. I’m deeply engrossed in an Irish American newspaper that I found on a railing and so I’m a little disoriented as I look up and try to figure out what’s up. She asks “how attached I am to this table?” How do you answer that? ”I was just thinking of getting my butt sandblasted into the seat” or “I can’t stop staring into those deep dark coaster stains.” One of those maybe, but neither sprang to mind at the time.
The wif-al unit strolls up at this time. Who knows what she was thinking seeing this “non-waitress” talking to me. So the lady goes on to explain to us that we sitting at her father’s favorite table. He and her mother always sit there when they come to M. T. Loonies.
I’m starting to have flashbacks to many years ago. I had gone to Tony’s in McComb for the evening with my bud Scott. We sat at the bar. I don’t think we really had a choice of seating when we arrived. I was told I was sitting in Jimmy’s seat. Ok. Thanks. Later that night, some strange little fellow shows up, sits next to me, and just continues to stare at me for the rest of the night. I guess that was Jimmy. Oh well, I had a good time. Back to the story at hand.
It turns out it’s her father’s birthday and her and her husband are going to surprise him and her mother when they arrive. I glance over a the entrance area and there is her husband with a plethora of helium balloons and a wrapped box. So either the story is true or it’s usually hell to find a table at this joint and they’re improvising.
She says she’ll pay us if we move and let them have the table. The wif-al unit and I say that’s not necessary, that we’d be fine moving to a different table. She asks if they can buy us a drink, we again say that’s not necessary. (That would’ve been nice though. :) )
We inform our waitress and we head into another room and grab a table that just so happens to allow us to see our old table. Fast forward and we see a mid-50’s couple sit down and then are joined by the birthday suprisers. All is wonderful in the world.
The night didn’t end there. Our food arrived. I had ordered buffalo ranch chunks and fries. Now I know that most bars probably don’t make their fries fresh and instead get them frozen. These fries, while okay, looked like what I cook at home from the freezer. And my chunks? I can pretty much guarantee that they came from the freezer, because they were still froze. They had the sauce on them, but they were as hard as a frozen chicken chunk, which they were.
The waitress apologized, eventually brought me a cooked batch, but that was about it. So I got to watch the wif-al unit eat and she got to watch me eat.
Needless to say, even with all the entertainment value we got out of that visit, I doubt we’ll ever stop by M. T. Loonies again.
On this day…
- 2008: News you can’t use — As I was working today I was database diving, checking to make sure some data was added correctly. There happened [...]
- 2007: Contentedness — 14-3 -> 11-1 -> 6-1
What does this mean to me?
Rose Bowl