"Well thanks for coming in."  Llew said, obviously preoccupied with finding something.  While others might be less conspicuous about losing things, Llew wasn't one of them.  It helped if he had the lists within sight when he made  the small talk to cover the fact that he couldn't find them.  But he still didn't have a clue as to their whereabouts.

"What would you fancy, sir?"  Llew decided to ask. "To drink and eat?  Cook can make it all, dependin'."
Cook also threatened to quit that next time he asked a customer what they fancied because they came up with chicken parmigiana the last time.  That wasn't normally on the lists in British pubs.  But cook made do.  Cooked the chicken and threw some kind of cheese on it.  When the customer complained there wasn't a tomato sauce on it, Cook just diced up some tomatoes and threw them in a pan for a moment with some spices.  

And there they were!  All this time the lists had been alongside the cash register.  Of course they were.  The one place Llew would never have looked for them.  "Ah, here you are sir."  Llew said, giving him one.  "Sorry about that.  You're our fir - one of our first customers today so we're not all set yet."

And this is why he never married.  He was just one of them blokes who was a little addlebrained.  The cook was a great cook and pleased everybody with whatever they ordered as long as it was on the list.  If it wasn't, the cook made do, but with slight problems here and there.  It also depended on whether they had the needed ingredients.  Luckily, Cook took care of those too.  Won't even tell you what happened when it was Llew's responsibility to make sure the kitchen was stocked with the necessary ingredients.  Addle brained.