Why we never eat out on Friday nights …
By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com
Our playdate was canceled at the last minute tonight, so we decided that we were going to go out for our Friday night pizza for a change instead of staying at home. Yeah, not the best idea I’ve had in a while ….
I had been to the new pizza buffet, Cici’s, with my parents the other day and it was really good, so we decided to go there. Fantastic food, great price. Obviously the rest of Monroe thought so, too, because the line was out the door by the time we pulled in. So we decided that might not be the best idea with a cranky infant and a starving toddler.
Still in the mood for pizza, we thought to try our luck at Pizza Hut. We figured they had a dining room so it would still give us pizza with a sit-down restaurant experience…….yeah, eating there didn’t work either. We got inside the door to discover a packed dining room and a small line inside. We then watched as the empty tables were never bussed and then as the people in front of us got tired of standing there without ever getting acknowledged by a hostess. Eventually, we also got tired of being ignored and hit the road.
So at this point, we already had struck out at two pizza joints and it was getting late — already close to 7:30 and Caitlyn was starting to get upset because she was seeing all the pizza but wasn’t getting fed. What to do???
Well, usually when we order pizza in, we just call Tiffany’s on Monroe St. (I’m sure they know our order by heart at this point — large pizza, half green peppers/half ham, and an order of cheese bread.) So we thought we might as well try the dine-in option over there — if they were busy, we would just order our food to go. But finally we were able to catch a break. We made it there just before a small rush came in and there were only a few people in the dining room. So by the time a line had formed, we had already ordered and found a nice quiet place to sit while still keeping the kids corralled and entertained.
It was good times. Caitlyn enjoyed her pizza while Keegan enjoyed gnawing a pizza crust to pieces. I just wish eating out on a Friday night wasn’t such a hassle. If it had been just Dave and I, we probably wouldn’t have minded waiting to get seated somewhere busy. But when you have kids along, it’s hard to keep them content for long, especially when they’re hungry and can smell the food.
Next time, I think we’ll just order in and stay home. That way we know for sure we’ll get to eat in 20 minutes or less.
March 31st, 2007 at 2:09 am
Or … you could start your own kid-friendly/family-friendly restaurant, with LOTS of room!
Kidding aside, there really aren’t enough of these kinds of places around.
Once about 8 years ago, when traveling alone with my four, I found a rustic buffet in NW Arkansas. This place was all rough-hewn beams, and the long wooden tables you’d find at a biergarten, but with chairs. The buffet had everything, including pizza, and was about 50 feet long. On a Friday hight the huge room was packed … but there was still room for us. The kids also had toys and coloring books available. Sure, it was loud and rowdy, with all that sound bouncing off all that wood. But the kids went back for as much as they could eat, we sat for as long as we wanted, the wat staff teased the heck out of them … I think every town needs something like this.
March 31st, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I remember going with my parents to Shakey’s Pizza in Mansfield, Ohio, in the early 1970s. I later found out this was a chain that had restaurants in a lot of cities.
This was family-friendly place without video games (OK, to be honest, this was before video games were invented). The gimmick was a big movie screen to watch old-time silent pictures. You could also peek through a window through the kitchen to watch the crew make your dinner. Birthday kids blew a candle that was stuck into a marshmallow placed on their pizza. We always had a good time.