Giving Thanks for Restaurants

I only eat out occasionally now, but throughout the years there have been a great many restaurant owners who have provided me with food when I've been hungry and weary, a place to gather with friends and family for all types of celebrations and get-togethers, a drive-through lane for a quick pick up of food when time is limited, and an experience in fine dining that would be difficult to create in my own home.

All restaurants are not created equal, of course - I've been more thankful for some than for others. But my guess is that my positive dining-out experiences have far outweighed my negative ones.

Owning and managing a restaurant seems like such an exhausting and risky endeavor. The hours are long, the work is labor intensive, the health department rules and regulations are complex, and staffing needs must be difficult to determine in order to cover shifts with varying peak times for customers. Marketing endeavors are non-stop since there is so much competition for the discretionary dollars that consumers can spend on what could be termed as mainly non-essential spending.

And that doesn't even speak to the issues relating to the food itself. Just keeping everything fresh and available to cover all of the menu items, and then being able to cook the items properly and serve them promptly, etc. - a day in, day out challenge if the owner/manager hopes to achieve customer satisfaction on a regular basis.

Then there is the matter of dealing with the customers themselves. In my youth I worked in restaurants, including doing a stint one summer in a tourist café in Nevada that was a back breaker due to the volume of business that it did. Just as all restaurants are not created equal, all customers are not created equal, either. Some people are just not nice. I'll leave it at that.

Last weekend I stopped in at the Arby's on Wedgewood Lane in Maple Grove for my first visit at that location. I found the restaurant to be clean and well-organized, with a very pleasant young woman manning the cash register. The best part for me was observing a manager who was exceptionally cheery and energetic. He was working behind the counter distributing the trays that had been filled; later he came around to the customers with a tray of wrapped mints and a smile for everyone. I'm giving thanks for that Arby's!

Yesterday I had lunch at Malone's in Maple Grove with six other friends. There was a good selection of items on the menu, the food was well-prepared, seven of us fit comfortably at a round table where conversation could flow easily, and none of us had to do one speck of work in order to enjoy each other's company. I'm giving thanks for Malone's.

I wouldn't want to own or manage a restaurant, but I am giving thanks that others do, and that restaurants are so widely available whenever and wherever I travel or are close by in my neighborhood. Today I am giving thanks for restaurants - my life would be rather bleak without them!

See also:
Giving Thanks for My Home(s)
Giving Thanks for My Privacy
Giving Thanks for Photographs
Giving Thanks for Caring Friends

Sources: Personal experience, and Ephesians 5:20