I try to avoid eating out on big holidays. Most of the time I can get DH to understand this. But one year (New Year's Eve) he had a hankering for seafood and we HAD to go to a local seafood place - nice sit down place. Fine, but even getting there somewhat early -5:30PM- meant that we put our name on the list and had to wait just over an hour.
And what an hour it was! Since the bar area was packed, we were sitting on a bench near the hostess stand.
Reminds me of a fun experience we once had. We had reservations for 7:30 at a now-closed
favorite restaurant on the 2nd Friday in December. So like your NYE, people wanted to be out and celebrating. They had lots of large parties celebrating. And celebrating. And more celebrating. And even more celebrating - to the point where they had people with reservations who couldn't be seated, at all. The large parties were lingering and asking for more coffee, drinks, etc. When we walked up to the hostess, she explained that it would probably be at least 1 hour before we could be seated, maybe more, unless the dam broke and some of the large parties left (she looked really frazzled, and the manager kept coming out to check on the situation but there was really nothing they could do.) But there were still a dozen people ahead of us who had reservations before us. We sat down and decided we'd stick it out about 15 to 20 minutes, then bail if necessary (had to be back to pick up DS by a certain time.)
Now, none of these people I'm about to describe were actually snowflakes. But they provided lots and lots of amusement to those of us waiting. The restaurant had benches around the waiting area where we were all waiting. So we could watch as groups would come in, take a look at what they assumed was the great-unwashed (those of us sitting on the benches), then proudly walk up the hostess stand and announce "Seinfeld, party of 4, for 7:45". Then we got to watch their faces fall as they were informed of the situation and that they could join the these other people who had reservations on the benches, while they wait for an hour to an hour-and-a-half for their table. Some joined us, most left.
The funniest was Mr. Big Shot, who entered wearing what looked to be an expensive tuxedo and leather trench coat. His wife/girlfriend had on a cocktail dress and full-length fur coat. She was also wearing lots of jewelry. Obviously, they expected to have a wonderful evening out and were denied. The way they swept in said "I am IMPORTANT!" Then the Important People got asked to wait on the bench with us. Boy, did he look like steam could have come out of his ears. They left.
We bailed about 20 minutes later than our reservation time and informed the hostess. The wait by then had grown to 2 HOURS.
