It's Andy Fish!

Horrible AI Generated image– it looks like he robbed a zombie and is about to get his.

A contingent of family met this year for our annual Florida trip. I wanted to take us all somewhere nice– and last time I was down there my attorney took us to a really nice Steakhouse in Orlando– and it was exceptional so I made a reservation there for eight of us on Friday.

As the trip drew closer the weather forecast for the Woo was getting worse and worse for the day we would fly out. It started to look like we’d be arriving Saturday– and I discovered that said restaurant had a policy that if I had to cancel the reservation they would charge me $75 per person anyway. So if we were stuck in the Woo digging ourselves out I’d have the pleasure of paying $600 for the food I didn’t get to eat. While discussing this policy I also learned that because we were a party of eight there would be a service fee of $168 tacked on the bill– not a tip mind you, but a service fee. Now I’m no restauranteur but I imagine a party of eight eats about the same amount of food and uses the same level of service as two parties of four– and with my own eyes I’ve seen waiters and waitresses easily handle two tables of parties of four.

This all seemed a bit excessive and frankly, a little bit of highway robbery so we cancelled early enough that we weren’t on the hook for the $600 and placed a reservation at another more casual restaurant that didn’t have these same policies so if we had to change plans because of weather all would be okay in the world.

I understand trying to protect reservations and all the challenges restaurants face, but this was crazy.