I don’t mean here at the SDMB, but out in public establishments.
Thursdays are the only day of the week that I do go to a class in the health club. This is the day I treat myself to a chicken rice bowl at Edos Of Japan over at the mall. I have been doing this for years.
For the last few years, I have not had to place my order. By the time it is my turn to order at the counter, my rice bowl (to go) and a bag to carry it is waiting there for me.
Everytime I walk into the coffee shop where I hang out a few times each week, they are already grabbing the ingredients to make my chai tea latte.
The Starbucks on Kearney. They are already pouring my viente coffee as I walk through the door.
And there’s this little family owned convenince store around the corner from my apartment. The guy who owns/runs it is named Nick. Very cool fella. Always has kind words, knows what kind of smokes I want, and always has a Sunday paper waiting for me on the weekends. One time he even let me by some stuff on credit. My bank card was goofing up on me and I couldn’t get any money from his ATM or through his little credit card dealie at the register. He let me take home $15 bucks worth of groceries. “Just take it. You’re my customer, I trust you. Pay me later.” Of course I paid him back with a little interest added for being such a good guy.
I would’ve said ‘no’ to this last week! But, it turns out, I was a ‘regular’ without knowing it. There is a Texaco station about five miles from my house, the guy gets probably hundreds of customers a day, so why we [me and my son] stood out, I haven’t a clue.
BUT, we usually get these humongous cokes, and this time we didn’t and the guy smiled and said, ‘What no cokes today??’ So, I’m a regular at my gas station!!
The coffee cart across the street from my office-- they always know I want a large coffee with milk & sugar, and a buttered roll. What’s cool is, the one guy remembers even when he switches shifts. I’ll miss him for weeks on end while his partner covers the mornings, then he gets back and bam, there’s my coffee and my roll.
I think that’s pretty impressive because this one little cart must cater to tons of people throughout the day-- it’s in a prime location, and they set up super early and don’t drive off until late afternoon.
Am I a regular? No, I’m O negative. laughs at own joke
But seriously, the old ladies at the Hardee’s across the street from where I used to go to school would have my Monster Burger (no mayo) and curly fries with medium Mellow Yellow halfway made by the time I got there.
When I had a previous job that was stressing me out big time, I often stopped off at a dive of a bar in the train station on the way home. Double well drinks $3. The place was always jammed many customers deep with 3-4 bartenders pouring constantly. It pleased me when my regular bartender would look up, see me, and start pouring my gin with lime and a splash of tonic.
I and my liver are glad those times are long past.
I knew I was a regular at that little TexMex place when the wait staff didn’t peek gather at the kitchen door to watch me eat when I ordered the salsa bravo (mega hot, they used to love watching people’s facial expressions when they realilzed, too late, just how hot it was)
Then after a while they would just bring it to me without my having to order it.
At Lambda Rising in Rehoboth Beach, (for that matter, the whole CAMP Courtyard.) I’m every queer’s adopted daughter. I call one of the women who works in Lambda “mom.” It leads to humor sometimes when I come in and say, “Hi, mom” and Penny asks me what’s new in my life… I proceed to inform her things that any mother should know, and we get a lot of stares from out of towners until we explain that we’re not actually mother and daughter. (She does actually have a daughter my age, and I ask about my adopted siblings a lot.) I call my editor and his partner my pseudo-daddies, and my “sister” works in Lambda as well.
Oh, and everyone at Lori’s cafe knows how I like my sandwich, and even how quietgirl likes hers.
Yep! At my local drinking establishment. They know what I like to drink, what I like to eat, my SO, what he likes, and so on and so on.
I love just having one place where I can walk in and always be guaranteed that I will know somebody there. It makes me feel neighborly. (If that’s a real word)
See, monster makes the dread mistake of going to the wrong establishment. If she were to, for instance, go to one of the places that I frequent, she and her SO would be much happier.
I, for instance, have a hamburger named for me at the Avalanche Grill. Mushrooms, Bacon, and Gorgonzola. Yum!
Hmm. . .not really a regular, but haven’t really had the chance to develop anything like that. I think I’m going to become a regular at the bank near where I live. I don’t have an account there, but they have the dollar coins. I went there last week and got 10 of 'em and today I went and got a whole roll (25). Seeing as how I like using them, I think I’ll be going there a bit more often.
I used to be a regular at a bar in Rogers Park called the Morseland. When I quit drinking, they actually had to change their liquor order - I was running through a couple of bottles on my own every week. Hell, I even slept on their pool table one night.
I started drinking again, but I had moved by then and don’t have a regular bar anymore. I really miss that place.
At Frank’s Philadelphia, where they make the only reasonable facimile of a Philly Cheesesteak in Orange County, when I walk in, they immediately set out knocking out one of their “Italian Hoagies”
mmmmmmmmmmmmm…Good Lawd, these sandwiches are to die!
And there was a place in Costa Mesa I used to frequent where, after working out (Mon/Wed/Fri), I’d get a large, fresh squeezed lemonade.
Yep, I’m a regular. JL’s Pub. Most of the time when I walk in there’ll be a beer in front of my favorite stool before I even make it down to the end of the bar.
I used to be a regular at Dos Gringos & Haydee’s on Mount Pleasant Street in D.C. A bunch of my friends would go to Haydee’s every Thursday night (they still do, only I’m here) and drink from 9-? and all the waitresses would get my margarita and my friend Dan’s Corona before we even asked. Kenneth, the owner of Dos Gringos, is the nicest human ever - D.C. Dopers, check it out! (warning - the service kinda sucks, but it’s a cool place to go read the day away).
Other D.C. “regular” spots:
El Tamarindo
Amaryllis Cafe
Mama Ayesha’s
So’s Your Mom
Good Thyme
Jolt & Bolt
I’m not a regular anywhere yet in Chi-town, although I’m getting there at my neighborhood Polish restaurant.
