Unhappy Hour

So last night we went to a “Take Over Friday”. These events are popping up in various cities, but basically what happens is that word goes out that a certain bar or restaurant will be a meeting place for happy hour on Friday at 5:00. Otherwise ostensibly “straight” locations become “gay bars” for a short period of time.

We are not normally “happy hour” people. These events, though, do a couple of things. First, they support restaurants that have been gay-friendly. Second, it gives a place the opportunity to showcase their best efforts to a potential new client base that tend to spend more than the average demographic on food and drink.

The other thing you ought to know is that it’s not a surprise. The event is coordinated with the restaurant to make sure that there’s not a wedding rehearsal dinner or Sunday School party going on that might clash, either ideologically or space wise. The idea is to have a good time and show the power of a group’s consumer habits, not to provoke ideological confrontations. The event was coordinated long before the email went out announcing the date and location.

So it was a little surprising when 20 or so of us showed up over the course of about two hours to find that the restaurant – which was a pretty upscale place, linen tablecloths, above average price point and pretty good food – completely unprepared.

Basic drink orders couldn’t be filled because they were out of liquor.

Think about that – Friday evening, group coming and the bar was out of key ingredients and had to send some of the already overwhelmed bar staff out to get more.

Bottled beer was handed over unopened, and then there was a delay while the staff tried to find a church key to pop the top.

Then, as we handed over pictures of dead presidents to pay for our libations, we were told that they had no change, but someone was going to try to find some – after the banks had closed on Friday evening.

Most of us were pretty well dumbfounded. It was almost as if we were unwelcome relatives who’ve shown up at Thanksgiving dinner unannounced and without our covered dish in hand.

This wasn’t a garage sale, where when some schmuck pops a $100 bill on you first thing and there’s no change left. This is an established retail business.

Some of us came with the intent of eating dinner there, or at least ordering some food during happy hour. It was pretty quickly apparent this wasn’t possible, though, because nobody brought out menus. There wasn’t so much as a saltine cracker with a bowl of store-bought pimento cheese to nibble. It was as if it never occurred to them that people would come to a restaurant to eat, or that thirsty men buy more drinks.

Most of the group left after an hour or so. Nobody ordered dinner, although lots of us made plans to go to other restaurants to eat once we left there.

There are lots of reasons that long-established restaurants fail. The rumor was that the owner was off at the Ms. Betty Ford Clinic drying out. The person who was apparently the manager would seem to need similar intervention, since her one appearance seemed to explain the lack of liquor in the bar. She’d drunk it all up. The bartender was overwhelmed and the waitstaff from the dining room (which was empty so early in the evening) weren’t pulled in to assist, probably because the manager was in no condition to write her own name, much less reallocate staff in the restaurant.

This place used to be a nice restaurant that was tough to get into. It’s been declining in recent years (probably for the reasons described above), and this was a chance for them to breathe a bit of life back into the place.

Unfortunately, it looks as though CPR has failed. It’s time to stop beating the chest of this old lady and let her expire with what little bit of dignity remains.

The disappointing thing for the community is that it won’t be replaced. The death knell of this place not only means the loss of another independent restaurant, but is going to mean not only that yet another building will stand empty, and that the invasion of the nationwide chains will continue to make our community just one more monotonous blip on the highway.

The take-away here, though is that restaurants – especially high end ones that charge a lot – need to recognize that there are few second chances for a disaster like that. This business relies as much on catering special events as they do the restaurant, and I can’t imagine anyone in attendance who would now entrust them with a “has to come off perfect” occasion.

I’m not putting the name of the restaurant here because I don’t want to add to their grief. I suspect they’re going to be busy dealing with the upcoming business closing, and after that it won’t matter any more.