We four arrived at L'Ami Schutz for dinner on a weeknight in September. Given the restaurant's good…read morereviews, we thought we might have to wait for a table. As we entered a young female server was placing small folded sheets of paper with numbers written on them on all the empty tables. Only one table inside was occupied, by a party of two. The server asked us if we had a reservation. We said no. She looked around at the empty tables and said, "Take any table you want." We took a corner table. Two young gentlemen entered the restaurant after us and sat at a table near ours. Ten minutes passed before a male server approached the table with the two gentlemen, handed them menus, chatted with them a minute and then disappeared. More minutes passed. I went back to the kitchen and the male server was deep in conversation with a cook. I asked him if he spoke English. He said yes. I said we had been seated 20 minutes ago and had yet to be offered water, a menu, etc. He apologized profusely, and when I pointed out that he had brought menus to the table near ours, he said he assumed we had already been helped. He said they were having trouble with the female server, and he had only just been called in to help out and would bring us menus right away.
As we waited more minutes, a young couple with a dog entered. They stood in the alcove some minutes more, looking around to see if anyone would seat them. Eventually the male waiter reappeared, walked over to them, greeted them jovially, bent down and began hugging and brushing and playing with the dog. We bid them Au Revoir as we exited the restaurant, the waiter protesting that he was just on his way to our table.
