RATS.

I'm a frequent flyer at Dixie Brown's when in town and I've dealt with this Maitre D and loved the experience. However.

I ordered ribs and they were great. But as I started eating waves of this smell started. I thought I'd walked in something awful and checked my boots. Nope. I started wondering about fellow diners and I think they were wondering about me. I asked the waitress and she told me she couldn't smell anything. Total blank face. So I first thought I was imagining it, or it was wafts coming in off the beach. Maybe some sea life had died and the smell was drifting across?

By now I can't eat the second half of my main. They offer me a doggy bag but my stomach is turned so I send it away. I'm still hungry though. I look longingly at the deserts and the waitress suggests shifting. She is still giving me the impression she can't smell a thing. So I take a sweet and go to the suggested table not far away.

From the new table, I see along the mobility ramp, two bait stations and now recognise the smell as dead rat. Or rats. Because it was now very strong and I put at least half my desert aside.

I called the waitress again and said "look I recognise that from farming, that's the smell of a large dead rat! You've got to check the bait stations or look under the desert cabinet because you've got a dead rodent and it's disgusting." 🫣

I believe they briefly checked.

I gathered myself and went to the counter and told the people there again that there was a dead rodent and it was disgusting. The waitress at the till said "sorry, sorry" with no more behaving like it was in my head. She asked for and took $55 for the food, service, and space I hadn't been able to enjoy. I shouldn't have been asked for money under those circumstances. I still feel sick. I have to wash all my clothes. Rodent faeces and urine dry and get in the air, especially during decomposition. This carries Leptospirosis and is a health risk.

The Maitre D was gruff to the point of rudeness. Where kindness and sympathy would've won a friend she came at me with

"Look, we're well aware. We've looked in the bait stations and under the cabinet and there's nothing there. We think it's in the wood panels. We've got someone coming ok?!"

That, with a defensive glare, was her response and I'm really disappointed. If she'd expressed sorrow this had happened and if people had been forthcoming about it to me I'd be less distressed. But they made me feel like noticing it made it my fault.

Also in this situation the correct response is to close your doors and deep clean. This isn't OK.