Tight Squeeze
You and your date get sat at a table for 2 and of course you have to sit side by side. After your food arrives, you spend the rest of the meal wondering why your plates keep sliding off of the table. How romantic.
Many tables only have enough room for one person to sit on each side. So while you’re embarrassing yourselves, bumping elbows with each other and having to constantly hold the plate with one hand, just remember, theres a whole other side of the table just wating for you.
restaurantbastards 
After 38 years in the business I heard the best yet–now remember I live in a tourist city with over 5,000 restaurants–we went to a fairly new place the other night and I saw a sign “We do not sit parties over 6”–the restaurant is laid out so that they can sit parties of 12 if they wanted to–speaking to the boss he said parties of 10 tie up the kitchen and turning over tables–I asked him what if a 6 and a 4 come in?
My immediate thought was if your crew or you can’t handle a party of 10 then replace your crew or fire yourself!
No argument here!!
Love the post. How about those “regulars” who make taking advantage of freebies an art form? The older, large lady who conveniently asks for more dinner rolls, just before asking for a doggie bag, so she can enjoy them on the house while watching 2am QVC…..
Hahaha!! 2am QVC, Classic. I’m not sure if Ive done a post dedicated to freebie people. I will have to do that. Thanks for the idea.
Where I used to work we had a room called the dungeon (I am sure if people knew that they wouldn’t want to sit there), it had two two tops that were seriously perfect tables for a first date (I do not understand sitting next to one another, A. Why do I want to hear you chew and B. bumping elbows? And C. Aren’t you on the date to see the other person’s face?) anyway when I was a hostess I was told not to put anyone at those tables until the four tops were full. Typically the clientele we had would sit across from one another and on more than one occasion couples would request those two tops. I know I would, I don’t need to take up a table that can fit me and three sumo wrestlers thanks. I guess I had the opposite problem, the owner believed everyone wanted a four top and two tops were just the garbage you gave to someone else.
I mush prefer a 4 top to sit at when I go out to eat with A friend–2 tops are too small and I am big and eat big–and when a hostess sees me and sits me at a small table the evening is already off to a bad start–if they won’t give me a bigger table I will just leave–we have 5,000 restaurants in this area! I don’t give anyone a hard time nor am I nasty–I just smile, say Thank You and leave.
HHAHA, well I was a much better server than I was a hostess. However there is no way I would turn down someone’s table preference unless people were already at the table. Ugh, yeah you can’t sit there sorry. I think waiting on people in its entirety is a game, you have that preference I have a small table preference and that might actually be because of how hell bent my crazy boss was about that (he was a bad dude… anything he liked I could dislike in a heartbeat), but there is no way to look at a person and know exactly what they want at that moment in time.
I understand the mentality that restaurants are a dime a dozen but it seems unfair to oneself to dismiss it over service or seating. It might just be an off day, then again the place might just suck but I know that had I left establishments for those reasons I wouldn’t have found the gems that lay behind the bullshit.
Why should I eat and pay the high prices of today and be uncomfortable at a small table? I posted a review last Tuesday about a new restaurant we ate in where the prices were high and we sat at a small table. I won’t go back there again (and not just because of the small table!) Regarding service I would never leave because of bad service BUT I would get another server to wait on me–without getting the server in trouble. Anyone who tolerates bad service deserve what they get and is a poor excuse for not giving a good tip or stiffing them
True. I am sure that I see things differently because I worked in the industry for far too long… the big point you hit on is “justifying” giving a bad tip, I could not agree more. There really is no justification for it unless maybe they crap on your table, that would definitely be insane. I will say there is little to no way of getting a different server without incurring some type of reprimand on the original server and honestly if it is to the point where you need another server maybe that is necessary.
High prices and little worth are wonderful reasons not to frequent a restaurant it seems the uncomfortable seating arrangement added insult to injury. I think sometimes it is just an avalanche of poor occurrences that shape our views of a place. Like Ross… I have hated Ross since I was a little girl because every time I went with my Mom there were tons of people, it smelled funny and without fail I would leave with a migraine. To this day I do not believe the cost is worth my time and agony.
Sonya I was a waiter for 38 years in 5 star restaurants (4 Seasons in NYC) to delis and everything in between–it takes a lot for me to change servers–I post a restaurant review every Saturday and just recently we went to a restaurant that I have been going to for years and had a bad experience–with over 5,000 restaurants in our area a restaurant can’t afford any mistakes though I know they happen! LOL.
That a long time waiting tables. I would be very unhappy (though I enjoyed it just 38 years that is a career). I think that food speaks volumes and I usually give a place two tries, sometimes I can be talked into more, but service I usually only comment to the person I am with if I feel it has been an epic fail and even then I really don’t say much… or do much. It doesn’t affect me, maybe it should.
I was a professional server–offered management many times but always said “No!”–and really enjoyed it–99.5% of the customers were fine–won’t talk about the others!!! LOL
So much easier to play footsie if you’re sitting opposite one another too! 🙂
Another good point!! 🙂
One has to be practical about these things! 🙂
I have no idea how many followers you have (meant to have fewer than 200), but I really like your blog, so I nominated you for a Liebster Award.
Rules: https://ldndiary.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/liebster-award/
My questions: https://ldndiary.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/liebster-award-part-3-my-nominees-and-questions/
Wow. Thanks so much!! I really appreciate it!!