The Hard Way

My grandmother has been in town from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and tonight was her last night to be on our side of town.  So, we took her to Cracker Barrel with my parents.  I really love Cracker Barrel - their food is awesome, love the biscuits, and they really do have something for everyone.

Dinner was great, but something awful happened that really helped me learn something.  I finally understand the whole point of where the high chair is situated in a restaurant.  Despite the TGI Friday's issue, the manager finally makes sense . . .

We had Sophia in one of the high chairs at Cracker Barrel, which are really cute and I totally love the design.  We were seated at a round table in the corner of the restaurant, and Sophia was on the outside of the table, facing towards the wall.  When the waitress was bringing our food, a gentleman who was being seated decided he didn't like his table, and jumped up in front of the waitress, and crashed into her. 

She had a large tray of food on her left hand, with a single plate on her right hand.  I don't know how she held onto the tray in the milieu, but she lost the single plate in her right hand, and it crashed down right behind my daughter's head.  The plate shattered on the floor into a million pieces, and the food was all over the place underneath Sophia's high chair.  It was seriously centimeters from Sophia's head. 

I watched it happen, in slow motion, and all I could think was to duck and cover Sophia's head.  Thank God it did not land on her.  She was remarkably unfazed (as she always is), and totally safe.  Unfortunately she did have a bit of egg (over easy) coming up the legs of her high chair.  I'm sure you can imagine how I felt about that! 

So, I learned (almost) the hard way, that you should always put the baby in the least flow of traffic in a restaurant.  Obviously if your table is in the middle of the room, there's not much you can do, but if you are in the corner as we were, always put the high chair next to the wall, so there is no possibility of flying food or plates.

Incidentally, the gentleman who was the cause of all the ruckus said nothing at all, but his dinner companion did pause to ask us if the baby was OK.  Neither one asked the waitress.  She had an awesome afro, a big smile, and a great attitude.  She set down the full tray, sweeped up the mess, quickly ordered the lost plate of new food, and delivered the tray with a smile.  God bless her - she kept my baby safe and a smile on her face the whole time!



Got any restaurant snafus to share?