Restaurant Reps

I've just heard that the weather back home is awful. Even though i'm not in the country, it still pisses me off. What is wrong with England? (that's not a rhetorical question)

This year I am missing a lads holiday to Tenerife, which is pretty crap to be honest. They provide stories which we all talk about for the entire year that follows and probably longer. Anyway, what made me think of this was my night out last night. We decided to go to Lygon street which is a massive street in Melbourne that is completely dominated by Italian restaurants and cafes.

What shocked me was that all the restaurants had "Reps" outside trying to get you into the restaurants by offering free drinks and bread! Just like the strip in any one of the generic spanish island resorts. Even worse is that they were just as rude. When I asked one of the to skip the bread and give us a third free drink she barked at me "Don't try and bargain with me honey". I thought that was the idea!

The next one tried a similar line with the 2 free drinks. We wanted to walk on a bit down the street and said we'd come back. As soon as we turn our backs he shouts at us to "never come back". Great customer service I thought. Turns out by that point we had reached the end of the strip and actually wanted to go back, lol.

Managed to find a restaurant eventually. Cheap too. Eating out is one of the cheapest things to do in Melbourne.

We kept putting off leaving the restaurant because we didn't want to walk through all the reps again. Eventually we built up the courage. They were just as agressive in their tatics. Even if I said I had eaten some of them even said I should eat again! The strange thing is I really don't think they were joking.