The Yellow Deli

   

As I walked upstairs at the Yellow Deli I noticed that no matter the differences every customer was shown the same hospitality that you might expect on a Sunday morning at church. The most prominent idea brought forth by the servers was the idea of “communal egalitarianism” conflicting with the typical elitist treatment of customers at restaurants (Solomon 525). While customers were being served the waiter treated everyone as socially elite catering to orders and questions. However, what threw me off was that if a conversation really began taking flight employees would not hesitate to sit in the same booth and chat for a few minutes. The action of sitting with customers illustrates that the server, or servant, is equal to the customer. I saw this happen with an older couple who looked like they were upper middle class and with two long haired teenagers that had just stopped in to check the place out. American society teaches us to “dream of rising above the crowd” yet so many instances point to the reality that most people can not become socially elite (525). What I noticed is that the employees did not treat anyone differently, and at the proper time they fluidly shifted from granting our desires of social submissiveness as a server to communal egalitarian behaviors as someone to talk to over a meal.