Opportunity Missed

We had "date night" last night, went to a very crowded Dallas mall to see Sherlock Holmes, so crowded was this mall it took us over 20 minutes to find a parking place.  On our way up the escalator, hubby noticed tucked in the back corner a chain restaurant, well, that I had quite a rant about earlier this year.  Sister was going to a movie that was ending an hour later than ours, we figured we'd be hungry after, so hubby asked, "Do you want to give it a try?"

Hesitant after our last visit (at a different location), I agreed in the interest of follow-up.  Seven o'clock we exit the theater, mall's even fuller and the restaurant was on a 30 minute wait - people in their large waiting area were lying down, so apparently they had settled in.  We decided to check out their bar - all bar seats and tables full, then we looked in their back room.  Not a staff member in sight in the room for the two minutes we looked, but the manager made two full rounds of the rest of the restaurant, doing what I couldn't figure out.  Every single of the 20 or so tables were devoid of guests, the only occupants were the unbussed plates and glasses on about half.  Apparently at one point in the day they had somebody waiting on these tables, why would they stop?

We left, shaking our heads at this missed opportunity.  You pay the top rent, you have to turn the tables - all of them - in this economy, which requires appropriate staffing.  How can such a large, publicly traded company afford to miss such opportunities and stay in business?

It turned to our advantage for the evening however, we crossed Central Expressway to the new Park Lane development and visited a new brewpub, enjoying wonderful service with good food comparably priced to the restaurant's inside the mall.  And satisfied we didn't miss the opportunity to experience someplace better.