Hungry like the wolf (after waiting)

There's a widening divide between the haves and the have-nots in DC these days, a divide that threatens to split our city apart at the seams and turn neighbor against neighbor. I'm talking of course about those who are waiting for a table and those who've already been seated.

I've never really seen (and experienced) this divide more than at Pasta Mia at Columbia and 18th, the restaurant that's insanely popular and smaller than it is popular. There's a long line extending down the sidewalk outside from the door, and then a tiny area on the inside that will hold about 6 or 7 hungry people. The problem with this is that, with so few tables, the people waiting at the area on the inside have plenty of time (and are hungry and impatient enough not to worry about being rude) to scope out the tables, and don't do much to hide their glaring at the tables where people are enjoying a post-dinner conversation rather than getting up and leaving the table to the cold and hungry.

Once getting to this inside area after an hour's wait outside ("This food had better be the best fucking pasta I've ever eaten"), I experienced the height of the have-nots. I scouted out all the tables and had a running inventory of all of the tables of four and where they were in their meal. I scouted out the parties that were almost done and did everything in my power to get them to hurry up and finish and let us have their tables.

But then, of course, once were were sitting down, we had absolutely no intention of rushing at all. Which is the way it should be.

Lessons learned? Well, even someone who barely knows me would know full well that I never learn a lesson. But I think that, ultimately, in this case, it's the haves who are in the right. The have-nots need to just be patient. Or perhaps be smart enough not to go to a resaurant that routinely has hour-plus waits.