It would be a shame if a visit to Denny’s led to such a dire situation! One minute you’re enjoy Moons Over My Hammy and the next … you’re on a stretcher. Perhaps the ill party suffered a bout of bad dining etiquette? Did he/she propose dividing the check instead of asking for a separate check for each person in the party? Wander aimlessly around Denny’s looking for her/his friends? Let’s look to _The Seventeen Book of Etiquette and Entertaining_ (1965) for help and advice! Could this tragedy have been stopped? Read on, inquisitive good-etiquette seekers …

– If you are meeting friends, wait for them near the door, unless the restaurant is so empty that the waiter or headwaiter offers to seat you. In a coffee shop you might walk through to see if your friends have arrived and are seated, but in the sort of restaurant which has a real or imaginary velvet rope barring the door you should ask the waiter to do your searching for you: “I’m meeting a redheaded girl about my age. Is she here please?” It’s unbecoming to cruise through a restaurant alone. (Perhaps our intrepid diner, panicked by the lack of a searcher to whom she could entrust her friend search, ran out into the street?)

– Dividing a check with other girls can be a nightmare. When you are going Dutch with friends, ask for separate checks. It’s no more trouble for the waiter, and you’re spared a session of “You had the sundae with nuts but I had the whipped cream and another cup of coffee so I probably owe more than you …” (Are we seeing the result of an argument over pot roast and a soda?)

– If there is a guest of honor, she sits in the choicest seat at the table and should be spared as much of the check negotiations as possible. It takes the edge off a party to hear its cost caroled down a table: “Everyone but Marge owes $2.32.” Do the dividing quietly or have one girl pay the bill, then tip, and settle with the others later. (Hmmm … is this the aftermath of a violent face-scratching by the slighted guest of honor?)

– If you are in a restaurant with an older woman, let her have the best seat. (Oh dear. Is that patty melt splattered in the street? Did someone take offense?)

Our poor Denny’s patron! My fingers are crossed that he or she will forever look for friends appropriately, pay the check separately, and seat the guests appropriately. Now get out there and enjoy a grilled cheese sandwich with a side of delicious fries!

xoxo!
Miss Sharon