Go on, please do. Picture it. Picture it repeatedly, in fact. Do it over and over and over again, until the camera flashes are going off like fireflies in a field of summer night.
This was the situation my boyfriend and I found ourselves in when we accomplished a long-held goal of mine and ate at the Cheesecake Factory in Charlotte. For those of you who haven't been, this particular location of that chain restaurant is very large, very crowded, and because of that, very loud. Lots of tile and metal, just to make sure all those conversations keep bouncing from wall to wall, from ceiling to floor, and on and on and on. Also, it's very dim inside, to the point that you'll be holding the menu close to your face and squinting.
So, all in all, our meal wasn't off to a great start. The waitress couldn't hear us, we couldn't hear her, and we couldn't see the menu all that well. But, to judge from how loud everyone was, people there were basically in a fine mood.
To make matters worse for us, (and perhaps this could be considered a sighting of its own) the managers kept coming by to apologize for screwing up drink orders we hadn't made. That happened three separate times.
But what was worst was the fact that -- perhaps because the Cheesecake Factory is sort of a "special occasion" restaurant -- there were a LOT of people there enjoying special occasions. And they felt the need to document these occasions for posterity. So, there we were in a very dim, loud place, with camera flashes going off from every direction. One table of young women toward the end of our row (that's another thing -- the seating is a small step up from those enormous, long cafeteria tables you sat at as an elementary school student) was having a birthday party. Pictures were taken of this birthday party. A great many pictures... and a camera flash in a very dim restaurant goes a long way. All of a sudden I would see my boyfriend illuminated, and the light would spark off the glasses and silverware.
Then again, and again, and again. If you looked off toward the source of the flash, you'd see a shrieking burst of laughing teeth in the glow. It got the point that my boyfriend and I, and the people at the table beside us all turned toward the birthday girls and barked, "Would you STOP that?!" in unplanned unison. Kind of like the way you see happen in sitcoms.
But the birthday girls just laughed. Or rather, they ignored us and kept on laughing.
Then the waitstaff came round to sing the birthday song, because it just wouldn't be a birthday without a birthday song. Then, God help us all, a party in a booth not far away started taking pictures of each other, and the restaurant, and people in the restaurant, and people taking pictures of each other in the restaurant. That meant the majority of the flashes were coming from the other direction now.
Let me remind you though, that these were hardly the only two tables of people taking pictures of the inside of this special, special place on such a special, special day.
The manager came by to apologize for another drink that we hadn't ordered.
At that point, we finished our cheesecake and got the hell out of there. I really doubt that I'll be returning.
This was the situation my boyfriend and I found ourselves in when we accomplished a long-held goal of mine and ate at the Cheesecake Factory in Charlotte. For those of you who haven't been, this particular location of that chain restaurant is very large, very crowded, and because of that, very loud. Lots of tile and metal, just to make sure all those conversations keep bouncing from wall to wall, from ceiling to floor, and on and on and on. Also, it's very dim inside, to the point that you'll be holding the menu close to your face and squinting.
So, all in all, our meal wasn't off to a great start. The waitress couldn't hear us, we couldn't hear her, and we couldn't see the menu all that well. But, to judge from how loud everyone was, people there were basically in a fine mood.
To make matters worse for us, (and perhaps this could be considered a sighting of its own) the managers kept coming by to apologize for screwing up drink orders we hadn't made. That happened three separate times.
But what was worst was the fact that -- perhaps because the Cheesecake Factory is sort of a "special occasion" restaurant -- there were a LOT of people there enjoying special occasions. And they felt the need to document these occasions for posterity. So, there we were in a very dim, loud place, with camera flashes going off from every direction. One table of young women toward the end of our row (that's another thing -- the seating is a small step up from those enormous, long cafeteria tables you sat at as an elementary school student) was having a birthday party. Pictures were taken of this birthday party. A great many pictures... and a camera flash in a very dim restaurant goes a long way. All of a sudden I would see my boyfriend illuminated, and the light would spark off the glasses and silverware.
Then again, and again, and again. If you looked off toward the source of the flash, you'd see a shrieking burst of laughing teeth in the glow. It got the point that my boyfriend and I, and the people at the table beside us all turned toward the birthday girls and barked, "Would you STOP that?!" in unplanned unison. Kind of like the way you see happen in sitcoms.
But the birthday girls just laughed. Or rather, they ignored us and kept on laughing.
Then the waitstaff came round to sing the birthday song, because it just wouldn't be a birthday without a birthday song. Then, God help us all, a party in a booth not far away started taking pictures of each other, and the restaurant, and people in the restaurant, and people taking pictures of each other in the restaurant. That meant the majority of the flashes were coming from the other direction now.
Let me remind you though, that these were hardly the only two tables of people taking pictures of the inside of this special, special place on such a special, special day.
The manager came by to apologize for another drink that we hadn't ordered.
At that point, we finished our cheesecake and got the hell out of there. I really doubt that I'll be returning.
Comment