El Machino es Muerta?

Last week the husband and I found ourselves on the Hendo side of the valley, and decided to head over to the Galleria for lunch.  We looked at the menu at Red Robin, but decided instead to go across the hall to Chevy's.

Big Mistake.

First of all, did you know they got rid of El Machino?  They have like, this thing that looks exactly like the thing they heat up tortilla's with at Chipotle (which I'm not knocking by the way, I LOVE Chipotle).  They still advertise all over the walls and on the menu, but El Machino is gone.

Then our waitress came over.  She looked my husband right in the eye and said "Welcome Senior, what can I get you to drink today?"

My husband looked over at me, and I said "I'd like a water please."  Her eyes never wavered from my husband, she continued to look at him as he answered with a diet coke.  She scribbled and walked away.

I turned to my husband and said "I'm your imaginary wife, aren't I?  I don't really exist!"  He responded "It certainly appears that way, doesn't it?  I wonder what that was all about."

It happened again with the deciding of the appetizer.  My husband and I had a small conversation about what to order, and the whole time she just stared at my husband, continuing to call him "Senior."  Throughout the entire meal, she was refreshing his drink, (never looking at mine) asking him how "his" food was (not even 'the' food to include me), even making hand gestures to him as if he was dining alone.

Now, this woman was Hispanic, but before you go saying it's a culture thing, her English was too good for her to not have been in this country for most of her life.  She barely even had an accent anymore.  For all I know, she could've been born here and was just faking an accent to add some flavor to her day.  But she continued to speak only to my husband as if I wasn't even there.  She even went so far as to set the check not between us, but on the side furthest away from me.

Unfortunately for her, I was paying for this meal.  My husband handed the check over, and I put in my credit card.  She didn't pick it up for a long time, despite only have two other tables to deal with.  For a minute we were worried that my credit card was invisible too, but she finally picked it up.

My husband and I started taking bets as how she would be returning it.  Would she even bother to look and see that it was a girl's name on the card?  Or would she continue the charade?

She did set the check back between us, saying "Thank you for coming, Senior; we hope to be seeing you again soon." and walked away without a second glance towards me.

This is the first and only time I've ever tipped 10% in my life.  It took everything I had not to stiff her completely.