Monday, August 18th…..lunch at Dicks!
You know, we should have known when we entered the restaurant, and saw the racks of t-shirts like these hanging in their little souvenir area:
that we were in for a rather off-colour dining experience. I really was just dying for some a/c and a glass of water, so while I saw them there, I really didn’t “see” them there, if you know what I mean.
It was bright and colourful inside and there was a lot going on….every inch of the place was covered with “stuff”. My eyes didn’t know where to look first!! It was a very fun atmosphere though, with music playing and the staff bouncing around like little Mexican jumping beans. There was some good energy there.
Our server, a young fellow in a green shirt, came flouncing over with menus in hand, and at a pace that would rival any professional auctioneer on a steady diet of Red Bull, starting firing off information on the daily specials and god knows what else….I could only understand half of what he was saying. I did manage to decipher something about “service with sarcasm”….. then he took our drink order. By this time, the kids were in stitches at this colourful fellow and I totally drew a blank when he inquired as to what beverage I wished to order. I was still trying to process the rapid-fire, menu-flinging introduction in my brain….what was the question? At which point our flamboyant server looked at Steve, rolled his eyes, and said “Is she always this ditzy, or just on Mondays?”. Ah yes, we were in for a treat.
The menus were as silly as the servers, with many of the entree selections having names that were a little off-colour. Another teasing, insult-driven exchange ensued while we offered up our meal choices to our waiter. He had a seemingly endless supply of one-liners to counter almost every sentence we uttered. When he sauntered away to the kitchen, I looked at my trio and grovelled….I am so sorry!!! We wanted a nice peaceful lunch, and I ended up bringing you HERE! To which the kids looked at me in astonishment, and said “Are you kidding? This place is awesome!!! Our server is a riot!!”.
Chock one up for mom.
No long after, our server bursted out the kitchen door, sped over to a corner behind our table, and began busily working away on a task that we couldn’t quite see. A few minutes later, he turned around and began walking toward our table with what appeared to be a large white….hat?
Oh yes. Yes it was. And apparently, it was made especially for Jake, with a personalized message crafted in red magic marker (if you can’t make it out on the photo, it says “Wearing a manthong” with an arrow pointing downward).
Lol, we all enjoyed a good laugh at Jake’s expense, as did the rest of the patrons who had just filtered in (the restaurant had been pretty much empty when we arrived). Just when we thought it couldn’t get any sillier, it apparently had done just that.
While still laughing and pointing at Jake’s public shaming, our server appeared at the table again, this time with a hat for Sweetie:
It read: “I failed my IQ test”. Apparently no one was going to be safe at this meal!!!
You guessed it, two additional hats were ultimately delivered with our server’s trademark flourish……one for me:
(and NO, you will not see the photo of me wearing it….that’s simply not happening
)…..
….and one for Steve:
(“I beat anorexia. Twice!”)
In the middle of the bedlam, our food arrived (and it had been so chaotic to this point, I had almost forgotten we had come here to eat!!). And I want to stress one thing here: while the crazy, silly, fun and frenzied atmosphere of this wacky restaurant might be the initial draw, people will come back for the food. It was good. Really, REALLY good. Shockingly, surprisingly and fantastically awesome.
Steve had the philly cheesesteak sandwich:
Sweetie had the meatball sub. Jake had the Big Clucking Chicken Sandwich:
and I had the meatballs and mashed potatoes:
According to their literature, everything that comes out of the kitchen is made from scratch (sauces included) with the exception of the mustard and ketchup that they use. After witnessing the initial shenanigans of the staff, I had low expectations for the quality of the food, but I was absolutely happily surprised. All of us loved our meal choices, and devoured every last bite……and it came really, really quickly after ordering too. We were seriously impressed.
The manager came out at one point to chat us up, which I thought was a nice touch. He was as loud and boisterous and humorous as the rest of the staff, with perhaps an even louder voice than the rest of them. When he found out we were from Canada, he enjoyed rattling off his stash of Canadian jokes (“What’s the difference between a Canadian and a canoe? A canoe tips!”). He was a super guy, though, and made us genuinely feel that they were grateful for our business. We really were fussed over, mercilessly teased, and laughed at through the entire dining experience.
Sweetie had just adored our server, and begged me to ask if he’d have his photo taken with her. He happily obliged….in fact, he couldn’t get into the frame fast enough!
The kids and Steve both looked at me as we were preparing to leave, and all had the same thing to say: we’ve just found another “must do” for our Orlando trips. Fabulous food, entertaining atmosphere, and a really affordable price (our mammoth lunch for 4, including tax and tip, was just $57). I will add a disclaimer here though……we have a rather bizarre sense of humor ourselves, so this place was right up our alley. For the more conservative, religious or otherwise conventional folks among us, this place will not be for you. The humor is a little warped, a little off-colour, and brash. Jake and Sweetie laughed so hard at times that the tears ran down their faces. Definitely the place to take your teens. Perhaps not the place to take your Grandma!! (unless you have a super-cool and not-so-traditional Grandma
)
Our server couldn't resist one final parting shot as we handed him the payment for our meal. He cast a long glance around our table, and casually directed us to leave the table as it was, that he would clear our trash. Then he turned, smiled sweetly, and spoke directly to Steve, saying "except for her....(head nods in my direction)....you brought her in, you take her with you"
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And that, my friends, was our peaceful lunch
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We almost bought in a few years ago, then changed our mind. But you mentioned you bought resale? Hmmmm, that's interesting. Can I ask, where did you purchase? I think that might be something we may be interested in. 
. I loved it. We set up the laptop there, charged our phones, kept our receipts organized.....it was our "command centre", so to speak. 
.
. The frugal part of me says we have more than enough, and even though the temptation is there, I am going to stand my ground. I don't think we'd ever buy from the developer though, no matter what kind of incentives they offer. I will never be as adept at working the system as some of those folks on TUG....how they grew to learn the in's and out's like they do, I will never know. Our resale units have offered us the chance to vacation two weeks a year at our resort of choice for a fraction of booking direct with Sheraton, and that's exactly what we had wanted when our search began. Mission accomplished.
I think the kids were happy to leave the hats behind. I know I was 
, some way, he even managed to get Jake to give that darn gator a kiss. 
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