This is what our menu said at the restaurant we went to last night. “There are no rules.” Really? I beg to differ.

I get it, they are trying to set an environment of enjoying your meal the way you want, but certain etiquette will prevail.

For starters, I didn’t wear a hand painted chopstick in my hair like I do often (it was an Asain Fusion restaurant. I thought it might be a little rude to walk in with a “fork” stuck in my head.)

We met up with really good friends for dinner. We’ve known each other for over half our lives – longer than we haven’t. Either of our guys would have taken a small bet to do something really outrageous…something that would break the rules of normal society and what is generally accepted here in this country.

How do I know this? In the past we’ve done some crazy things. Even now, they bring a smile to my face. They were risky and irreverent and might have gotten one of us arrested… okay, maybe not quite, but close.

For example, it wouldn’t have been too much of a stretch for our wine taster to spew the sample of wine when he was offered a taste. (It was a decent wine, but probably not what we should have ordered for our entree selections.) Refusing it would have been rude, being that we are in the US – not France or Germany or Italy – and spitting it out on the floor would have pushed the limits of our surrounding guests.

People are generally polite and they generally follow the rules. Even if it is NOT to their benefit. This restaurant’s marketing group may have wanted to clarify their statement: there are no rules to mean what they intended, because there are always rules. Of course, some rules are definitely meant to be broken.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl