Last night my girlfriend and I went to our favorite restaurant…not just favorite in town but favorite, period. It’s a little home style Japanese place tucked behind a gross chain restaurant in the upper-middle part of town.  It seats a “max” of 22 but more realistically, probably about 15 people.

We don’t go to many restaurants anymore due to my strict diet but they have a few dishes I can have on an occasional basis i.e., it’s still “healthy” compared to most people’s meals, but is still about 5 days worth of salt and fat for me.  When we go it’s kind of a big deal for us.  So when we pulled into the tiny parking lot and saw it mostly full my heart (heh) dropped a little bit.  As I pulled my car into one of the last open spaces a couple got out of gigantic BMW and scurried for the door.

As we stepped inside, the couple were talking to the girl who acts as hostess/waitress/chef/etc and were being told that there were no open seats and there were additional reservations covering at least the next hour.  I stepped back and conversed with my date about what to do and kept hearing the couple, who looked like absolutely miserable people, pushing.  “Well what about that table?”  “No, it’s reserved.”  “How about two seats at the bar?”  “Also reserved, I’m sorry.”  They regrouped, conversed, asked again about tables that had “reserved” signs on them.  They were flabbergasted and disgusted that somewhere couldn’t accommodate their wants, regardless of the situation.  They fled, irritated and I approached the girl.  She looked a bit flustered so I politely asked her if it would be possible for us to get a reservation at a later hour, after the next hour or two worth were fulfilled.  She looked at me, looked at the clock, and told me that if we could eat our meal in the next 50 minutes, she would seat us at the reserved table next to where we were standing.

Naturally, we accepted and, naturally, we ate a phenomenal meal.

And here’s the thing.  The place was pretty much at capacity, and all the open seats were spoken for.  We could’ve been turned away, but we acted like decent human beings.  The entitled couple could just as easily have had their meal, as we did, but they were jerks about the situation.  I’m sure they’re writing up a furious Yelp review as I type this.

So here’s me, now, being less than a decent human being and gloating about my “great victory”.  Seriously though, moral of the story:  You don’t have to be a dick all the time.  You haven’t earned that right and even if you have, it doesn’t mean you have to exercise it.  Sometimes just being a respectful person is the best way to be.