Imagine that you have a full day to be able to go to the beach with your best friend. It's mid-June, that season just right for you to enjoy warm weather, but the kind of warm weather that doesn't bore you in the slightest, in that season that the beaches in Carrara are not yet crowded, in which you find parking in front of your bathroom, that magnificent season in which the scent of summer is ever more intense and intoxicates your senses by releasing good moods. So, you are in that season, in that context, in that summer day. You're also leaving, unfortunately: you're going to shoot yourself 90 nice working days non-stop, doing the whole summer, because there's no work around and you have to make do (but that's another story...), and then you tell yourself that you want to enjoy this beach day all of it, between beach umbrella, sand, salt and waterfront. The boardwalk-what better place to indulge in a light lunch before you go back to lying on your litter and getting hammered on cheap gossip? Too bad you didn't consider that on June 13 few restaurants are already open for lunch, so you end up at this little all-white place: benches, tables, waitresses' aprons. You sit down and wait. The young lady comes over, brings you the menu and sets the table, then turns her most compassionate smile on you, explaining that no, it doesn't work that way at theirs, you'll pass for this time, but the placemats you take yourself, as well as the cutlery, glasses and menu. I think he's joking, but then again, he doesn't look too ironic. You write your order on this slip of paper then take it to the cashier and pay, he adds. Excuse me? First I get my braces then I write my order, pay and after that, what else? Of course, I wait for my name to be given at the microphone so I can go personally to pick up my lunch. Very good focaccia, deservedly so, but for everything else, no, not there. I really am an old-fashioned person but if I sit down, I personally expect to be served, because if I had preferred to stand rather than sit I would have eaten at the truck stop so I wouldn't have even wasted the time to look for my seat. After all, all that was missing was for me to cook it.
It may be that nowadays experimentation not only in food&beverage but also in service is apparently all the rage, but a dash of traditionalism doesn't hurt. Talk about a lover of originality and innovation, but I would have preferred to enjoy my only beach day with table service.