I was out with the ladies on Friday night, and we were exchanging some date horror stories. I’ve blogged about cheap men before (read here and here). It’s either a 21st century thing, or I’m too old and not slutty enough to have men pay for me. It’s a weird new phenomenon. A friend of mine had a pretty good story about male cheapness that I wanted to share.
She went out with a guy that her and the other ladies at the table referred to as “Creepy Dave”. I think that was mistake #1. When he asked her out, he suggested going to a Leafs game. She is a hockey fan, so she was pretty excited about it. He said he would pick up some tickets. For those of you non-Canadians, that’s kinda a big deal. Leafs tickets are not easy or cheap to come by. She said she was fully prepared to pay her own way, so the cash part of it wasn’t an issue, but he did say he would pay for them.
When she met up with him at some pre-determined corner before the game, he said that he wasn’t able to score any tickets, and he’d already tried to scalpers and they were asking too much. She offered to try her hand at the scalpers, but he said it wasn’t worth it, and offered to buy her a drink to make up for it. She was mildly disappointed, but not so much so that she would go home.
They had a few drinks, some appetizers, and when the bill came, he pulled out a $20 and said “I did offer to pay for the first round”.
….what?
He had gone from offering to buy her a ticket to the hottest sporting event in town to paying for one pint. It’s not like they were having caviar and champagne. They were at Jack Astors! And he had more than one drink!
So he pretty much told her he was a liar (for not having Leafs tickets like he promised) and that he was a cheap bastard. It’s not even my story but so good.
I’ve been meaning to post about my favorite bar/restaurant for a while. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know my after-work spot is Jack Astors. For you poor Americans, Jack Astors is a chain up here in Eastern Canada, that serves up the BEST lobster and crab dip ever. I don’t like the entire chain, as a Torontonian, I am supposed to hate chains altogether, but I have a sweet spot in my tummy for the Jack Astors at John and Richmond. It happens to be located between my ex-job and the subway, so it has been pretty convenient for me.
It opened maybe a year ago, just in time for patio weather, and they have a pretty decent sized patio for downtown Toronto. Me and my ex-coworkers have been frequenting it on pretty much a weekly basis since then, and I truly hope my next job will be in the same area, so that I can make my Wednesday night pint-nights.
The reason I feel the need to sing my praises for this fine establishment, is because of how warm and fuzzy they made me feel when I lost my job. Naturally, it was the place me and my coworkers went to my first evening of being unemployed.
That night, I ordered my usual lobster and crab dip, and got some sugary, alcoholy drink to go along with it, “Jacked up” of course (extra shot). I sat there from 4pm to 10pm, lamenting the woes of the unemployed. The service was, as usual, top notch. When I complained that the chips with my dip were not up to JA’s standard, they first asked me why I ate the entire plate, then comped them. When they learned of my recent unemployment, they comped me a Jacked Up sugary drink. Towards the end of the night, they showered me with coupons for free drinks for the next time I went.
The next time I went was two days later. They were having some Skyy Vodka party. I sat at the bar, waiting for my friend, and the bartender, Dave, remembering me from two nights before, asked me how things were going. Of course, this got into my employment situation, and he bought me a few pints. When I started pulling out my free drink coupons, he kept my martini glass full, and told me I should come out to their job fair they were having that weekend. (I failed that night around 9pm).
So thank-you, freindly staff at Jack Astors, your free food and drinks really warm my heart.
