Birthday Bash

I use the term quite literally in this case. Most of us wanted to bash someone by the time we had to find a different place to have our birthday celebration for Nana and Lacy. We planned to go to Mattas since our family has been going there since they opened. 

We have lots of history there. We have eaten there after many a temple night, wedding, date night out, lunches from work, countless take out dinners when they were too busy to seat us. With the restaurant on main street closed, the only alternative for Mattas was the one on Higley and Brown. They aren't really a full service restaurant, more like an order and seat yourself place. We usually do order and then sit down, but as with many people sometimes we try to get enough tables to sit together to insure we can enjoy lunch together. We were doing just that and getting some our little ones situated when an employee came over and told us we had to order before we sat down. It is the first time I have ever been told that anywhere. We had people in line waiting to order for all of us that were there and saw no need to try and make the line even longer by adding every person, and child to it that were in our party. Now that my story is getting long, I will just say that the employee was not acting in the best interest of Mattas and by insisting we all stand up and go order first has probably permanently lost the business of several family members now. Papa included. When he was still farming many years ago he brought truckloads of lettuce in to Mr. Matta at no charge when he had fields of lettuce that he wanted to see get used. Mr. and Mrs. Matta were always gracious and a pleasure to see. Papa and Nana would get bags of chips and containers of sauce and salsa at least once a week and maybe more sometimes. For years. Not to mention all the meals eaten there. We decided to go to a restaurant with some customer service skills and so ended up at Gecko Grill on Guadalupe and Gilbert. It took a few minutes for them to get tables ready for us, but they did it with a smile for the 12 adults and 5 children that were with us that day.

We had a great time at lunch and enjoyed each other's company. The food was good and I'm glad we could get together for the occasion. I know Papa and Nana made good memories at several restaurants with all of us, so next year we will choose from another of those. Lacy isn't a teenager anymore - WOW. I can't believe I'm so old. Tracy too. LOL. Fun times.