Unit 6: Dining out- Daily English 618 – Eating at a Casual Restaurant

Russell: Why aren’t you eating? Is there something the matter with your food?

Nadia: No, the food is fine.

Russell: What’s wrong?

Nadia: I’m not sure how to put this. I really like going to diners and hole in the walls with you, and I love mom and pop restaurants as much as you do. For me, it’s the food that counts, not the ambiance, but…

Russell: I thought you’d love this place. It’s my favorite greasy spoon.

Nadia: I do like it. It’s just that when you invited me out for my birthday and said that it would be something really special, I thought you might take me somewhere else.

Russell: Is that why you wore that nice new dress? You thought I was taking you to a fancy restaurant, with tablecloths, mood lighting, and snooty waiters.

Nadia: Well…

Russell: This is much better, don’t you think? We get to sit in this comfortable booth, listen to the jukebox, and watch our food being cooked behind the counter. I can’t think of a better dining experience. Don’t you agree?

Nadia: Uh, sure.

Russell: And don’t think you’re not getting something special for your birthday. I planned it all ahead of time.

Nadia: You did? Really? What is it?

Russell: I ordered you a whole pie!

Category: Food + Drink

[end of dialogue]

Russell begins our dialogue by asking Nadia, “Why aren’t you eating? Is there something the matter with your food?” The expression “something the matter with” means a problem with something, something that isn’t right, something isn’t correct. This is a very common expression in American English: “Is there’s something the matter with you?” That means is there something wrong with you, is there a problem. Or you might say, “There’s something the matter with the television. It isn’t working correctly.” It’s a good expression to know; it is very common in conversational English.

Nadia says, answering Russell’s question, “No, the food is fine.” The food is okay. Russell then says, “What’s wrong?” Nadia says, “I’m not sure how to put this.” The phrase “how to put this” or “how to put it” is used when you want to say something but you are afraid that what you are going to say will hurt the other person’s feelings or that it will make them angry or upset. So you might say, “Well, I don’t know how to put this, but you should really not wear that dress. It doesn’t look good on you.” Husbands, I recommend this with your wives. You should just tell them that they don’t look good in their dresses. I’m kidding, of course. If you believe that you won’t be married very long!

Nadia says, “I really like going to diners and hole in the walls with you, and I love mom and pop restaurants as much as you do.” Nadia describes three kinds of restaurants, similar kinds of informal, casual, less expensive restaurants. The first is a diner. A “diner” typically has a kitchen that is somewhat in the open; you can see it. There’s typically a long what we would call a “counter,” which is a place where people can sit, sort of like a bar where there’s a long piece of wood – a long piece of furniture that everyone sits in front of. In other words, it’s not

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ESL Podcast 618 – Eating at a Casual Restaurant

like a table, where you sit on one side and I sit on the other. Now, diners will also have tables. Sometimes they’ll have a special kind of table, which we call a “booth.” Actually, what’s special about it is the seats. Instead of being individual chairs, a booth has sort of like a little couch on each side of the table.

Well, anyway. Diners serve informal, inexpensive meals. Diners are often associated with the 1950s and 60s. That’s when they were very popular, when America started driving and diners were places you could drive to and eat and get a cheap meal. A “hole in the wall” describes any business, including a restaurant, that doesn’t look very nice, especially from the outside, and is not expensive or fancy. A hole in the wall could be a bar, it could be a restaurant, it’s an informal place. Somewhat of a negative description: a hole (hole) in the wall. A “mom and pop” business refers to any business that is typically owned by a family, usually a mother and a father. “Mom” is mother; “pop” is a old word for father – dad. But we don’t say “a mom and dad store,” we say “a mom and pop store,” any business, restaurant, store that is owned by a family – a small family. It’s their business; both mother and father, and often children work in the business.

So, Nadia says that she likes going to diners and hole in the walls and mom and pop restaurants. “For me,” she says, “it’s the food that counts, not the ambiance.” “The food that counts” is a form of a more general expression: “it’s the (something) that counts.” This phrase is used to show that one particular thing is what is really important, what really matters. For some people, if they go on vacation they don’t care about how much it costs, they don’t care about what kind of room they have at the hotel, it’s the temperature – it’s the weather that counts. That’s the most important for them, that it be warm for example. Well that’s what Nadia is saying, the most important thing is the food at a restaurant, not the ambiance. I should mention that there are some other meanings coming from that expression, “it’s the (something) that counts,” and those can be found in the Learning Guide. Getting back to “ambiance” (ambiance), that’s a general word to describe the environment, or more specifically here, the way that a place looks, especially a restaurant or a bar. How it feels, what kind of lighting it has, what the furniture is like, all of these things are part of the ambiance.

So you can get the idea here that Nadia is probably going to complain about the ambiance, even though she says the food is the most important thing, because at the end of this sentence she says “but…” – “it’s the food that counts, not the ambiance, but…” and Russell says, “I thought you’d love this place (meaning I thought you would love this place). It’s my favorite greasy spoon.” A “greasy (greasy) spoon,” like the spoon you eat with, is a small restaurant that serves

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ESL Podcast 618 – Eating at a Casual Restaurant

informal foods, so it’s similar to the other expressions we used, but specifically it often serves fried foods such as hamburgers and French fries. Well, hamburgers aren’t fried, but the French fries are. That’s what a greasy spoon is. “Grease” is another word here for “fat.” It’s usually a negative way of describing a restaurant.

Russell says that it’s his favorite greasy spoon, the restaurant where they are now. Nadia says, “I do like it. It’s just that” – this is another way of saying “however” – “It’s just that when you invited me out for my birthday and said that it would be something really special (really nice), I thought you might take me somewhere else.”

Russell says, “Is that why you wore that nice new dress? You thought I was taking you to a fancy restaurant.” “Fancy” (fancy) means very nice, very expensive. A fancy restaurant would have, for example, “tablecloths” on the tables. This is a piece of material – a piece of cloth you put on top of the table to make it look nice, typically white. You might also find mood (mood) lighting. “Mood lighting” is when the lights are used to create a certain atmosphere – a certain ambiance. Often the lights are lower than they would be, less bright for example. A fancy restaurant might also have snooty waiters. “Snooty” (snooty) is a good word. Someone who is snooty is someone who thinks they are better than other people, and therefore does not treat the other people very well. I say it’s a good word not because it’s a good word to describe someone, it’s a negative way of describing someone, but it’s a common word. Other words that mean something similar are “snobby” (snobby), and more informally “stuck-up” (stuck-up). All of these are describing someone who thinks they are better than the other people around them and doesn’t treat them very well. So, a fancy restaurant might have snooty “waiters,” the people who come and ask what you want to eat and bring you your food.

Nadia says, “Well…” Russell then replies, “This is much better, don’t you think? We get to sit in this comfortable booth,” remember the booth is where you have two something like small couches, although they are usually made from plastic, around the sides of the table. Russell says, “We get to sit in this comfortable booth, listen to the jukebox, and watch our food being cooked behind the counter.” A “jukebox” (jukebox – one word) is a large machine that you put money into and it will play a song for you. Some bars and restaurants have jukeboxes, especially diners that we talked about earlier. A “counter,” we also talked about earlier, is like a very long table where the people sit on one side and on the other side there is usually part of the kitchen, and there is a waiter or waitress that works on the other side of the counter, so everyone is facing the same direction. That’s a counter.

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English as a Second Language Podcast www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 618 – Eating at a Casual Restaurant

Russell says, “I can’t think of a better dining experience (a better place to eat). Don’t you agree?” Nadia, of course, does not agree, but she wants to be nice to Russell. She says, “Uh, sure.” Russell says, “And don’t think you’re not getting something special for your birthday. I planned it all ahead of time (I planned it all in advance).” “Ahead of time” means before something happens. Nadia gets excited about this special thing she’s going to get. She says, “You did? Really? What is it?” And Russell, very disappointingly says, from Nadia’s perspective, “I ordered you a whole pie!” (pie), which is a dessert made usually by baking fruit in a round container that has what we would call “pastry” or dough on the bottom and on the top. There are different ways of making pies. Of course, a pie is not really what Nadia was hoping for in terms of a special gift. So Russell, we think, clearly needs to understand women better!

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
[start of dialogue]
Russell: Why aren’t you eating? Is there something the matter with your food? Nadia: No, the food is fine.
Russell: What’s wrong?

Nadia: I’m not sure how to put this. I really like going to diners and hole in the walls with you, and I love mom and pop restaurants as much as you do. For me, it’s the food that counts, not the ambiance, but…

Russell: I thought you’d love this place. It’s my favorite greasy spoon.

Nadia: I do like it. It’s just that when you invited me out for my birthday and said that it would be something really special, I thought you might take me somewhere else.

Russell: Is that why you wore that nice new dress? You thought I was taking you to a fancy restaurant, with tablecloths, mood lighting, and snooty waiters.

Nadia: Well…

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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2010). Posting of these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

English as a Second Language Podcast www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 618 – Eating at a Casual Restaurant

Russell: This is much better, don’t you think? We get to sit in this comfortable booth, listen to the jukebox, and watch our food being cooked behind the counter. I can’t think of a better dining experience. Don’t you agree?

Nadia: Uh, sure.

Russell: And don’t think you’re not getting something special for your birthday. I planned it all ahead of time.

Nadia: You did? Really? What is it?

Russell: I ordered you a whole pie!

[end of dialogue]