“Just bob-bob-bobbin along” at the Red Robin

Decided to treat my girlfriend to dinner after church today so I took her to the local Red Robin restaurant.  We were greeted by the hostess who immediately informed us that there would be a 15 minute wait.  Now, confession time:  I have a limited capacity for patiently waiting … for anything.  That capacity is currently being stretched to the limit by my (as yet unborn) granddaughter, Margo.  But that’s another story and, thankfully, it’s really something that I cannot do anything about.

At any rate, 15 minutes is a long time when you are starving, but since I was not starving I told myself it was marginally acceptable.  I decided to use the time constructively by making a call to the rest room.  That trip required a walk through the dining room and as I did so I noticed that there were at least 15 empty tables.

Upon my return, my sweet and compliant wife was found sitting on the “waiting bench” and she could tell something was up when I asked her, “How long did she say we needed to wait?”    She answered and when I told her there were all sorts of empty tables she gently … well maybe not so gently but more like “firmly” … well maybe it was actually “insistently” …. actually she was in “command mode” and assumed an imperative tone … yeah that’s what she did, as she said, “Come here and sit down”.

I ignored her, of course, and went to the hostess again to politely ask, “Why are we waiting for 15 minutes to be seated?”  She responded, “Because we are packed.”

“But I counted at least 15 empty tables”, I responded.  She appeared flustered and I almost felt sorry for causing her discomfort until she said, “Well we don’t have enough kitchen staff to handle the customers we have.”

At that point, I could feel the pair of burning spots on the back of my head created by my sweetie’s loving look from over there on the “waiting bench”, so I backed off to a safe distance to wait before my hair started to smoke.

Several minutes later we were escorted to our table and I asked our escort if I could see the manager and she promised to arrange it.  Lovey started silently fuming again, desperately worried lest I embarrass her by causing a scene.

Enter the Manager … a cheerful and smiley person!

I related the experience to her and asked her if she could explain what was going on.  She was very helpful as she told me that they had a large group of people come in at one time just prior to our arrival and the kitchen staff was overwhelmed with getting their orders ready.  They put a delay on seating people because they didn’t want folks sitting and wondering what was taking so long because their orders weren’t being attended to in a timely fashion.

How odd.

I told the nice lady that I would much rather have been seated right away and been told the situation rather than left standing in the lobby looking at empty tables and wondering why we were waiting.  She thanked me for my input and assured me that she understood and that it made sense to her for the future. Before she left the table she asked if there was anything else she could do for us.  I asked, “How about a free meal?”  She laughed and said she would see what she could do.

When we had finished our meal the waitress informed us that the manager was offering to buy us each a milkshake if we wished.  Linda took a Mango milkshake and I had a Mint Brownie shake.  Ya know … I didn’t hear a word of complaint from my dinner date as she enjoyed the milkshake!  🙂

Now I am still waiting for Margo!