We have mucho, mucho, mucho, mucho regulars. One couple has a standing reservation every Thursday at 6:00. Anther couple comes Saturday at 8:00. One gentleman’s reservations go out till mid November. Lots more make their reservations four and five at a time. I’m on first name basis with at least three personal assistants. Jen is my favorite. She lives in Chicago. Half a dozen regulars have been given my personal cell number to make it easier to get a seat. Two regulars are reading this post along with you.

The point I’m making is that we have a lot of regulars I see a lot. I do my best to remember preferences. Both by notes in their profile and a lot by memory.

For example, Brian and his wife like seats 13/14 at the bar. Tim doesn’t care as long as he can see the TV. Eric wants his back to the kitchen. Peter wants the chef’s table. Mel wants seats 11/12 at the bar. Michael gets a reservation at 6:30 even though we avoid 6:30 reservations. Georgia likes to sit in Jens section. Matt is mad at me because Tina did not wait on him on their last visit. This is not an exaggeration. And 75% of our returning bar guests don’t care where they sit as long as David is their bartender.

A lot to keep up with.

So tonight Jason called for a reservation. He actually called three times I saw his name pop up three times. I made a point to answer the last call.

Wanted to know if I had room for him at the bar. I assured him I did.

He arrives around 20 minutes later.

I seat him at seat 12 at the bar. This is prime real estate, as it’s at the apex of the curved bar. The center of everything. Also it’s prime David real estate. It’s where everyone wants to sit.

About our restaurant. About our bar. About dining out in Maine.

There are currently no restrictions on restaurants in Maine. We can seat at 100%. Including the bar. We don’t require masks. We are not socially distanced.

Our bar has 23 seats. It was 24 when I started. You are elbow to elbow. Everyone who’s been there more than once knows this.

You are sitting at the bar to meet your neighbor. I’d like to point out that this is why Adam and I often don’t sit at the bar. We don’t want to meet our neighbors. It’s not uncommon for new folk to ask to be moved as they want distance. We do our best to move them when we can.

You know what to expect. Tonight is no different.

Jason is seated. Seat 12. He has neighbors at 10/11. He’s there long enough to get his food when we seat 13/14. This is not unusual. The other host comes back to the front door to say 13/14 wants to move down. This isn’t great because I have to make sure it doesn’t throw off anything. It does not.

I’m then called over to Jason who is angry. He doesn’t understand why Seats 1 through 14 are full and no one is sitting at seats 15 through 23. I try to explain why. Most everyone requested David. He points out this is not true because the couple next to him is new. He also continues by explaining that he’s immune compromised and he is angry I’m seating people next to him. He doesn’t understand why we aren’t distancing people when we can.

I’m great at dealing with disgruntled guest. I’m a charmer who can turn most situations around. And I can also push back when I need to. But this is a regular. Who knows the chef quite well. I’m trying to tread lightly. Also I’m not good at arguing on the spot. I could never be an attorney. My best defense would be after the jury returns their verdict.

I continue to try and explain. He’s not having it. He then asks where he can move to eat his steak. I’m full. It’s approaching 7:00 by now. So he says he’ll just go.

Three minutes later he’s gone.

15 minutes later every seat, including where he was sitting is full at the bar. I was not seating people next to him unnecessarily. Yes one half was empty. But only for twenty more minutes. There was a continuous stream of people looking for bar seats. Also on a normal day I do try to spread people out. Today I was dealing with a gargantuan emergency. I don’t assign sections to servers till just before we opened. I didn’t notice that one server was going to get four tables at 7:00 until around 6:45. It was not a normal day.

I also didn’t find out till later but he marched up to the kitchen window, demanded the chef listen to his complaints and expressed his displeasure at how the bar was seated tonight.

So. Be consistent.

I’ve personally seated this man elbow to elbow to elbow literally a dozen times this summer and not once did he complain about the closeness. Not once did he convey he had health issues. It was always perfectly fine. I was actually seating him where I thought he wanted. The seating wasn’t careless.

7:00 to 8:00 is often the busiest time of the night. Tonight was no different. The bar was only 75% full. But not for long.

I am as accommodating as I can be. But I have to have all the information to do so. He could have been seated at seat 1 or seat 23. The end seats. Fewer neighbors. He could have been given a table. I had them available when he called. There were options. How have I known him as a bar regular all summer not known it made him nervous to sit there? He could have gently said something a dozen times. But instead he blew up tonight.

I’m trying to decide now if I should call tomorrow to explain what happened and apologize. Or just let sleeping dogs lie.

What would you do?