I know better than to eat in airport restaurants. However, my 7am flight got pushed to 2pm with a doubtful connection that was supposedly getting me home at 8pm. I figured I should at least do lunch...and was reminded how, while "the Dude Abides," bad managers abound.
Setting the stage, it’s 11am. The left and right sides of the restaurant are “closed.” There are no signs indicating this...but chairs have been strategically positioned to block access. The airport is full of travelers whose flights have been delayed and, presumably, would be looking for something to do to kill time. Like, ummm, eat.
Past that the restaurant (and airport) was woefully understaffed, those servers that were on duty went through their paces with all the enthusiasm of drugged slugs. Except, of course, when someone tried to access the “closed” sections of the restaurant.
Then...oh then, they sprang to attention with perverse zeal bordering on raw abandon, crying out “that section is CLOSED.” When the humiliated patron pleaded that he or she hadn’t seen such a sign, the condescending retort? “Well, there was a chair there.” Only closing the sentence with, “you moron” would have been more tactless.
Now, I get that, during slow times, a restaurant manager would want to focus patrons in a particular section of the restaurant. But, the configuration of this particular establishment offered 2-tops on one side and 5 seat + options on the other. Everything in the middle were threes and fours. I was solo...as were most of the business travelers that had been stranded through the morning. We had already consumed most of the 3 and 4-tops because the two section was closed. And, I watched in amazement as a family of 8 was denied the family section and forced to break into two booths. All because those sections were quite arbitrarily “closed.”
By noon, they were magically open. Not because the place had a waiting line of customers...but because, clearly, it was noon.
I don’t blame the staff. I blame the management for not teaching the staff how to assess a situation and act to maximize it. Left to their own devices, there is nothing else for those employees to do but be snarky pains in the ass. And, ensuring that regulars to that airport will quit eating there.
Of course, one wonders if the manager even cares.
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