Hello, Dishers. This is my first post, so I wanted to say hi before I dived right in with my tale. So Hi! And here it is!
Last week I had a lovely dinner at Screen Door – cocktails, wine, shrimp and grits, sea bass, prime rib, skip dessert, delicious. Closed the place down, in fact.
An opponent of valet in all circumstances, I’d self-parked in the garage. When I got ready to leave, the machine at the gate sucked up my twenty and spit out an IOU!
Tired, tipsy, confused, I stared at the ticket that read “Amount paid: $3.00 Amount owed: $17.00” I stared at the machine – hoping it would spit out the cash, but no cash. There were no humans around. Only me (my dinner companion was gone). In a parking garage. Closing in on midnight.
I’d just had a $250 meal and I was given an IOU by the parking garage? I got kind of furious. I whipped my car around to the drive near the much-despised valet stand and jumped out. The young man at the stand ran out and said, “You can’t leave your car there.” To which I responded, “The last thing I want to do is leave my car there. I want to go home. But I have an IOU.” My car purred behind me; I waved my ticket at his face.
Claiming helplessness, the valet kindly escorted me inside and gave me the business card (very heavy stock) of one Brandon Sgroi, operations manager for LAZ Parking, and told me I would have to call the next day to straighten things out. Fine. But on my drive home I decided not to wait till morning and – lo and behold! – Brandon was still at his desk at midnight(!!). He apologized for his after-hours outfit of shorts and flip-flops and offered to meet me at the garage. I turned around and went back downtown (it’s the principle of the thing, folks) to retrieve my change, which came with the promise that I can valet free anytime. Thank you, Brandon!!! (But I am still against it.)
However, I’d love to see the city extend the McKinney Avenue trolley up Routh to One Arts. We’re only talking about a half a mile. Public transportation, yo.
