Tonight was a weird night.

Weird energy.

Weird weather.

Perfect for Halloween weekend.

Except for a little snafu at the start of the night everything was going well.

Around 7:45 a couple comes in for their 8:15 reservation. By all measures, the couple sitting at their table should be up any second now.

PS. The couple at their table is Mr Finn’s daughter and her partner. She had told me she’d be in. She’s so sweet. I bought them dessert. I thanked for her kindness during her last visit.

However, Mr. Finn’s daughter isn’t budging. So we are worried we’ll run late.

Meanwhile, while the couple is waiting, I’m at the door.

The gentleman asks for a nice table.

I tell him all our tables are nice.

He asks to see a menu

We asks if it’s Latin food.

I explain we are an Argentinian steakhouse.

Nothing in depth.

Staccato Questions.

Staccato answers.

He eventually tells me he and his wife own a restaurant.

Ugh. Here goes.

It turns out it’s a real restaurant. Upscale. Beautiful space. He asked me to look it up on the iPad.

Suddenly the conversation takes a turn. More engaging. More warm. For both of us.

They’ve owned it for a while. They do 1.3 million a year in event revenue. He’s the operations manager. She’s the chef.

They have great staff. Been with them forever. Her sous chef for 18 years. They’ve been staffed all summer.

I share our staffing information.

She talks about being a working chef. How they’ve gone away for the weekend to celebrate her birthday. They can do this because of their excellent management team.

Around this time a table exits. And the host and I look at each other with the same idea.

She whispers that she’s going to bus F5.

I say I’ll ask the question.

I explain to them that their table is running late. However, the chef’s table is now free. It will offer a chance to see our chef and the kitchen in action. They’ll be able to see the flow of the restaurant. Also the server at the chef’s table will offer a great experience.

They bite.

And the rest of their evening was magical to quote them. They had an amazing time. Their server, who we’ll call Jen, because that’s her name, pulled out all the stops. Including singing happy birthday to the wife when she brought dessert.

Our chef came out and they chatted for about 20 minutes. Turns out they have lots of mutual acquaintances.

When they left they stopped by the host stand again to let me know how grateful they were for their magical evening.

It really is experienced like this that remind me why I like my job.

A reservation that should have been just like the other 45 reservations tonight turned out to be amazing for the guests and us.

They also tipped the server around 50%. And gave me 20 for making their night.

Cheers. To nice people.

PS. Their restaurant which is pretty busy and pretty big is in a very small town in Connecticut. About six minutes after I sat the couple another couple comes by on their way out. The woman goes to the restroom, the husband I chat. Turns out they live in the same small Connecticut town and know the owners. They didn’t want to interrupt their dinner but did tell me to tell them hi.

Small world. Isn’t it.