sidestreet

There's a place on a dark sidestreet downtown with an English sign and a beautiful outdoor seating area. It's got a trendy hideout vibe to it and some European beer signs and it's close to work, so Levi and I decided to check it out. We got there before their dinner rush and enjoyed an empty beer garden. Literal garden: it was decorated in the jungle style common to Thai restaurants, with enormous banana trees, flowering bushes, hanging moss and vines. Lovely. We asked our exceptionally pretty waitress for two cocktails from the rather large cocktail menu, and were informed that they had only beer, and no imports. Alright, disappointing, but Thai beer it is. We ordered some food as well, to the apparent confusion of the waitress, who called over another gorgeous girl to confirm that this was ok.

They decided we could eat, and the two of them scurried off to the kitchen. As they left, we noticed they each had a ring of little bells tied around their ankles that jingled pleasantly as they moved. We also noticed the dangerously high slits in their matching form-fitting, strapless dresses.

The food turned out to be pretty good, and we were rather enjoying ourselves when the place started picking up. More of these beautiful, similarly-dressed women appeared to wait on the additional tables, which we came to notice were comprised almost exclusively of men, either on their own or in groups of two or three. Once these customers had arrived, we found it highly difficult to get the attention of a waitress; they all seemed exceptionally absorbed in conversation with the gentlemen at their respective tables.

When the waitress finally brought the check, I left the standard tip, which generally gets a grateful response from servers. She looked at it, looked at me, scoffed, and turned back to the solo diner at the next table, who said something that prompted her to show him her tummy.

We left hastily.