I received a lot of flak in the past for writing about poor service, cleanliness, and so on at area restaurants.

My sons, who began working fast food when they were 16, would chastise me and say “Oh, poor Dad. You can’t always get exactly what you want when you go to the restaurant.” This was after I’d visited KFC at noon and they were out of chicken and DQ, which was constantly out of ice cream as their employees wore street clothes instead of uniforms and it once took about 15 minutes to get my order as I sat at the drive-through window.

I think I won that argument.

I was even contacted once by a restaurant owner, who I’m pretty sure wanted to meet me in the back alley somewhere and work me over.  

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I worked at a taco joint. It was pretty much run by teenagers, but there was always an adult close by. If the adult wasn’t close by, there was always the chance the owners would pop in for an impromptu visit. Also, any time a new employee started, one or both of the owners or an adult manager would be there to train that person, and would not “turn them loose” as a trained employee until they were sure the kid had it.

Even then, there would be another employee, almost always older, who was a mentor and watching over them.

Not only did we have to wait on customers and learn all the ins and outs  of serving food, we also had certain tasks that had to be done each day of the week. There was a day we had to remove things from the walk-in fridge and wipe the walls, mop, and return everything to its original place. We had to pull out kitchen counters and sweep and mop. We had to wipe all of the formica walls down each week.  

And don’t even get me started on how clean our bathrooms were.

So, that leads me to my latest gripe. I am absolutely amazed at the state of most restaurants these days. You’ve heard me say this before and are probably getting tired of this broken record. 

The sticky tables, the dirty drink areas; I could go on and on. I know owners and managers bemoan the absence of good workers or people who even want to work at fast food places, but surely something can be done? Maybe I’m wrong.

Before COVID, a group of guys from church met early mornings at a fast food joint. I won’t mention names, but the place is associated with a clown and having to put “Caution: this coffee is hot” on its coffee cups. In any case, we had coffee and occasional breakfast sandwiches and hash browns there during those early mornings.  

There were some mature folks who worked there at that time. The place was clean, cozy, etc., and we liked having a space to meet.

After COVID, I went in there one day after the dining room areas were opening back up. The place was sticky and there were flies everywhere. I had to be careful walking on the floor, because it was as if it had been mopped with Crisco instead of clean water.

At that time, I could only surmise that 1.) people weren’t aware dining rooms were opened back up and 2.) there was a shortage of people to work there.

Fast forward to last week. I was with my mother and we stopped to grab a couple of fountain drinks before we headed to an evening activity that the rest of my family was already at.  Since I needed to visit the facilities, I decided to go inside. The place was still the same:  dirty, sticky, and the floor once again looked (and felt) like it had been mopped with dirty, greasy water. I was amused to find the bathroom was actually quite clean, which led me to question why the dining room wasn’t.  

The floor was so bad I had to walk gingerly or I would have fallen. 

My only theory is that this restaurant, as well as other fast food restaurants, have decided that dining room areas are not their main concern anymore. They are still getting a gangbuster business through the drive-through window.  Why worry about flies congregating? They are obviously concerned about the flies having a place to dine as the tables are kept messy, the trash piles up, and the floor is probably pretty tasty to the flying creatures.  

I really, really would like to have a conversation with an owner or manager of a fast food restaurant. I’d like to know what happens when a floor is mopped?  Why are most of them slippery, long after water has dried? How often is mop water changed? How often is a dirty mop used?  What happens if any person comes in and slips? Does the little yellow “caution” sign stay out at all times and therefore keeps the restaurant out of trouble if someone falls?

I have so many questions.

Maybe these fast food places can bring in extra revenue if they double as a skating rink.  

They wouldn’t even have to rent skates!