Sabrina's is dead to me -- Long live Dairyland

Sabrina's Cafe in South Philly is good, but not that good. We put our names on the list for a party of three plus a baby at 12:25 pm and were told it would be a 45 minute wait. That would mean we would be seated at 1:10 pm. We walked through the market, bought 7 limes for a $1 and other inexpensive produce, sampled di Bruno's cheeses, and fed baby Doodle. We went back to wait for our name to be called at 1:00. After checking with the hostess we found that it hadn't been called yet. We waited in the 92 degree heat for the hostess to say "Mr. Doodlebug, party of three." We watched as other parties were seated. We watched as other people asked where their names were on the list. We, too, asked where our name was to get into what seemed like the most coveted dining establishment in all of Philly. I overheard a woman complaining about how long it had been and requesting water. A waitress came out with a basket full of chocolate croissant pieces and passed them around to the famished and annoyed customers. Finally, we were called and seated in the air conditioning of one of the dining rooms at 1:45. We had waited for an hour and 20 minutes even though we had been told 45 minutes.

Sabrina's is always crowded for breakfast, brunch and lunch on the weekends. We knew this. And we've been there before. You would think that a place that gets that much business would have a pretty accurate method for estimating the wait time. Unless they were just trying to get us to wait and once we've invested this much time we might as well keep waiting. . . When we were told 45 minutes, we thought we could wait that long. And we could, but my hunger was getting the best of me as we passed the hour mark. Once seated, our waitress came by and said she'd be back to take our order. Fifteen minutes later she served the table behind us one piece of cake and one cup of coffee, checked on the table to the side of them, then stumbled upon our table with a look on her face that clearly said she had forgotten we were even sitting there. With one spoon and a used napkin in her hand she said, "I've got my hands full but I can take your order now if you're ready." Oh yea, we were ready. We ordered our meals, ate and left. I noticed a middle aged man dressed in a crisp, clean white apron who appeared to be the owner checking on the customers whose food had already been delivered. Ours had not at the time. If he had come to our table I would have told him that we are not going to go back to Sabrina's. There are lots of great places to eat in Philly where you don't have to wait for nearly an hour and a half.

On our way home we stopped at Dairyland on the corner of Ridge Av. and Mitchell St. in Roxborough. We went through the drive through, did not have to wait at all, ordered our water ices (mango-lemon combo for me) and were on our way. What a contrast. I absolutely love Dairyland. You can get a cone with two flavors of hard ice cream (huge portions of each) for $1.80, a "small" cone of frozen yogurt that measures at least 5 inches dipped in delicious peanut butter dip for $1.90, a small water ice for $1, and seven homemade ice cream sandwiches for $5. When the line at the drive through is long, as it was the other night, the staff of cute high school girls come out and take your order while you're on the line, then your order is ready when you get to the window. Now that is efficient and much appreciated. Dairyland, have you been reading my diary?