Seating
Let’s eat out! It’s always a little special because you don’t have to think about what to fix, how to cook it, or clean up the mess. In addition, eating out is a chance to catch up with friends, exchange gossip, or make romance. That’s why we pay $14 for a glass of wine that came out of a $10 bottle. We get it. Alcohol sales are how a lot of restaurants make their money. Let’s all toast to prosperity before I rant.
We’re all on the same page here, so why is our happiness low on the priority list? Oh, I know everyone says they are into customer satisfaction. But time after time, I walk into a near empty restaurant with 50 tables, and the host/hostess inevitably seats me right next to an occupied table. Let me paint this picture again… lots of empty tables… but you want to put me at a table next to people who I don’t know nor care to at that moment.
One young lady told me that everyone was being seating in section xyz because they were short waiters. Uh, you mean that a waiter can’t cross into another zone? Really?
A popular restaurant design involves a long couch, or booth that stretches all the way down one wall. There may be 10 kitchenette size tables placed across from the booth, each with one chair. It’s an attempt to create more seating space, but ultimately it is just a long conference table. I was so close to my conference table neighbor at lunch, I heard a strategy for a new Apple takeover just the other day. Just kidding!
I’m a nice person, but I don’t want to share my conversation. What if you’re talking about the boss, the lover, your new invention, or the people two tables down. This is not a dining experience. It’s a diner experience. I understand how things are on a Saturday night when the place is packed, but please, please, please, give me a little breathing room next time. As Brenda says on “The Closer”, thank you so much.
About the author
Sharon Collins is the Director of Content and Brand Awareness for Hungrygrape and the host and Executive Producer of Georgia Outdoors, which airs on Georgia Public Broadcasting. She is a national Emmy winning correspondent and former anchor for CNN. In addition to working on the CNN prime time shows NewsStand and American Edge, she was also a host, producer and correspondent for CNN’s award winning weekly environmental program Earth Matters. Sharon has traveled extensively and is an enthusiastic student in the never-ending education of fine wine and food.
