Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Return of Wendys

We have been without a Wendys for about a year and a half now. All of the ones in the greater metro area were owned by one person and they all went out of business at the same time, and in a hurry. This past weekend the one right down the road from us has reopened, and I kid you not, you cannot get close to the place!

We just drove by there, it was about 9:15 PM and there were cars in the drive thru completely encircling the restaurant. The inside was full. We are beginning to wonder if they are giving away free food or paying people to come back. Surely there weren't that many people who missed it to the point of waiting in line for God knows how long! Is there?

This weekend we drove by it 3 or 4 times, and every time it was jam packed! To be honest, keepers and I like Wendy's food, when it is hot and prepared correctly it is pretty good, especially for fast food and we would both take it over Mickey D's anytime or Burger King.
But, we won't spend 30 minutes waiting for a chance to order a burger and fries no matter how good it is.

So I wonder, why do people wait in an extremely crowded parking lot or drive thru for a burger and fries or a baked potato or a frosty? Am I missing something? Is this the part of America I am supposed to be a part of and just can't get it? When we used to go out with our children for a meal, which was most of the times we got together with our son and his family, they had no problem waiting 45 minutes or longer at a restaurant waiting for a table. I could never see it. I could understand it even less when the food was overpriced and usually not very tasty at all on top of waiting for what seemed like forever for less than average food.

If keepers and I go into a restaurant and they say we have a wait of over 15 minutes, we go somewhere else. We cannot see any reason to wait when it always exceeds the time they say it will be and if they are that busy the service is often poor and the food prepared sloppily or takes forever and is often messed up in some manner.

I will not tip poor service or poor food and I will tip for good service and food, I have had a daughter work the restaurant business as a waitress and a bartender and she lived on the tips, not the hourly wage, but that is a separate blog for the future. Anyway, at a restaurant we often visit we had terrible service one night, the food was cold, the appetizers and the main course because the waitress was not paying attention, not because she was busy. Luckily it was pizza for the main so we just took it home heated it up later but the onion rings which are normally stupendous there and the cheese garlic bread were both lukewarm at best and cooled off fast at the table. When we left I did not tip her at all. As we approached our car on the parking lot the owner followed us out of the restaurant and asked us, did we forget to tip our waitress or what?
This was the first time this had ever happened to me but I told him, the service was terrible which in turn caused the food to be cold very fast and that we could not even get her to refill our drinks, we got another waitress to do it. He knew we were regulars, not real often but enough that he remembered us. He apologized for her service, or lack of, and we told him, we have been coming here for years and this was the first time I ever did this, and how we loved their food and atmosphere. Ever since then, and this was a good 5 years ago, he always comes by our table and asks us how we are and how is the food and such. We always get good service and we imagine he tells whoever is waitressing us that if they want their tip, they had best deserve it.

So how in the hell did I get to tipping from Wendys, beats me!!! All I know is now I am hungry! Got some chicken wings thawing out for later, will throw them in the wing fryer made for hotwings and keepers and I will have a snack before we head for bed. Or I guess I could run down to Wendy's....nah.

Happy trails

JM


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