Tonight was one of the slowest nights I’ve ever experienced in the restaurant.  Sunday nights, generally speaking, are slow.  Superbowl Sunday is historically the slowest night of the year.  I worked that night this year and we had a total of 16 guests (compared to last nights 200+).

This Sunday…tonight…19 guests.

That struck me as very odd.  Sure it was Oscar Night but I didn’t think (originally at least) that it would have such a huge effect on our business.  This whole week has been slow in fact (with a couple exceptions).

And…of course…there was the usual strange happenings in the restaurant.  The one that stood out in my mind the most was table 62.  They had a reservation for 7 people (grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, 3 kids).  It was someones birthday (not sure who) so the whole family went out for dinner.  This table stood out initially because the kids had such unhappy and bored expressions on their faces.  Maybe they wanted to watch the Oscars too…

Eventually their server came up to me with a print out from our POS (Point Of Sale) machine.  He told me that the guests (mom and dad) wanted the bill split between two credit cards.  Both credit cards were declined.  This is extremely rare in the restaurant so we were both a bit surprised.  We had been processing cards all day so I doubted it was a problem with our system.  I told him to try the cards again then talk to the guests.  He did and still no go.

The dad was pretty pissed…blaming us for this, yada yada.  He stormed off to the Bank of America ATM just outside the plaza to get cash while mom called the bank.  Turns out the bank’s computer network/system was down…so the card wasn’t out of funds nor was it our computers issue.

It’s funny how people react so strongly to things like that.  I’m a bit torn myself.  Part of me thinks it is miraculous how technology allows us to be able to pay for everything with a simple swipe of plastic.  It makes life so convenient, so simple, so painfully easy to blow all your money.  I’ve grown to expect this simplicity at all times…so when it breaks down it can be frustrating.  But hey…it’s a complex miracle!  Deal with it!

So I might be getting some comments along the lines of “oh my god he wrote something!”.  Yeah…again…it’s a complex miracle.

Deal with it.