If there's one thing this white man knows, it's that your regular suburban La Porchetta restaurant is usually very busy. So with that in mind Phuong and I thought it might be opportune to drop into the Shepparton La Porchetta restaurant for lunch during our countryside getaway earlier in the week. We had hoped that we might enjoy a quiet, less frenetic pizza with Kim and Luc as opposed to the normal hustle and bustle of the usually brusque Watergardens (our local haunt) waitresses. What we encountered in the Shepparton restaurant was mind-boggling!On arrival we respectfully observed the normal request of waiting at the booking pedestal with the sign "wait here to be seated". And we waited...and waited...Finally we took our own seats as the one waitress in the restaurant seemed otherwise occupied...with everything! You see, as I glanced around for other waitresses and even someone making the pizzas I was bemused to see nobody! In disbelief, when the waitress finally made it over to our table with our menus, I asked her where her fellow workers were. "What fellow workers? What you see is what you get!" she retorted. That's right - she was it! Cook, waitress, chief and bottlewasher all bundled up in one country-sized lady with the works! She really was the proverbial pizza with the lot! Made the pizzas, served them, cleaned tables, re-set the tables, made the coffees and so on...Quite remarkable! I guess luckily for her there wasn't a huge crowd frequenting her restaurant but there was still a good 10-12 people on 5 or so tables. Enough to still keep her well and truly on the move!
So I guess the economic squeeze really is on in Shepparton. But whether it's in the urban sprawl or the rural heartland one thing remains the same - those La Porchetta waitresses are still just as abrupt and rushed off their feet anywhere you go!
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