My fiancé and I have dined at Perry's on special occasions. This last Friday, I decided it was time for a date night to reconnect. Reservation went smoothly, found parking with relative ease. She and I know that we are in for a not only high quality meal, but an expensive one.

Upon entrance to the establishment, I spoke to one of the young women working front of the house and gave her my name, etc. After a short wait (having to negotiate some rather rude and not self-aware patrons), the same young woman pointed to one of her other colleagues (longish blonde hair, short, bespectacled) and said that she would call my name.

A name was shortly called that may have been mine or someone else's. While I get that some non-native English speakers may be unfamiliar with how to pronounce my name as it IS in Gaelic, but living in Illinois, let alone so close to Chicago, it's a fairly common name. This happens. Not a big of a deal....

But when the blonde woman was looking around and asking for "Seen", I wanted to make sure that she was, in fact, calling my name. At this point, to reiterate, none of this was bothering me and I politely walked to the counter and asked her "what name are you calling?" for the sake of clarity. The restaurant was also very busy and loud and I didn't want to jump in line and make things awkward for anyone by assuming that is was my name that was being called due to the noise level of the environment, even though I had a hunch.

She met my gaze and I could tell that she was NOT having a good evening. Her body language reeked of irritation. Frustratingly she said louder and exasperatingly, "SEEN". I smiled and knew that this was an innocuous mistake and I said politely, "It's pronounced, 'Shawn'". She then promptly rolled her eyes and quickly and flatly muttered "this way". By this time my politeness had shifted to one of dismay and irritation. She looked over her shoulder as my fiancé and I followed her to our table and completely half-headedly offered a disingenuous apology as she continued her brisk walk to the table.

The rest of the evening was grand. Our server was attentive, funny, and kind... but my exchange with the blonde woman at the front of house really took me out of the experience and continued to nag at me well into the weekend and that's why I'm posting what I'm posting now.

Simply: I know my name is an odd one, especially considering if English (Iet alone Gaelic) may not be your first language. BUT, it was the manner in which my desire to not make an awkward exchange worse, coupled with my patience with a simple matter of a mispronounced name was met with EXTREME rudeness and scorn that provides me with enough pause, and perhaps even Perry's restaurants, that having patient, kind, and POLITE people working your front of house DOES make an impact on the entire dining experience.