In my previous post, I talked about a recent trip to see Gilbert Gottfried in Nashville. I didn’t mention that my wife and kids went with me to this show. Because my youngest daughter was traveling back to school after the show, we were staying in Nashville for the evening. We decided to grab a bite to eat after the show. I had seen a Shoney’s restaurant near our hotel and we decided to eat there.
My son was on a diet where he was eating almost all meat and was hungry. The restaurant had a buffet so my son decided that would work for him. He didn’t take a good look at the buffet before he had ordered. He thought there was breakfast foods but it turned out to be seafood night. This is more of a family style restaurant whose clientele tends to be older. Because they are older, they tend to eat earlier in the evening. We had expected more of a 24-hour diner than the close early family restaurant. The seafood that was on the buffet at that time had probably been there since about 7:30 or 8 at the latest. It probably didn’t help that we arrived at 9:45 and the restaurant closed at 10. The seafood looked marginal at best but my son gave it a shot. After he decided that it was a bad idea, he returned to the buffet to get some meatloaf. While not great, meatloaf that has been out all day is a little better idea than seafood that has been out for the same amount of time. While he wasn’t happy with his food, it seemed to be enough to take care of him.
My wife wasn’t hungry and just ordered coffee. My girls had ordered 2 desserts which were brought out separately with time between. They shared with each other so the delay for the second one didn’t bother them. I had placed an order for onion rings. It was when our waitress brought my onion rings that I noticed her name was Marti. I also noticed a big knot on her forehead that wasn’t there when she had taken our orders. I asked her if she was alright and what had happened. She told us that the freezer door hit her in the head when she was in the kitchen. She appeared to be a little shaken from the blow to head. She didn’t look like she was going to fall but I thought it might be a good idea for her to sit down soon. It also looked like her right eye, just below the knot on her head, wasn’t tracking like it should. She wasn’t completely cross-eyed but her eye wasn’t moving like it should. When she went back to the kitchen, my son wondered out loud if the door to their refrigerator was made of cast iron. After a couple of minutes, we heard a crash from the kitchen. Almost immediately after the crash, we heard a voice declaring “IT WASN’T MARTI!” When she came back with the second dessert, I told her that we were concerned that the crash was her passing out. She started talking about her youngest son being clumsy. She talked at length about all her kids including her young adult son and her youngest son from her second marriage. Then she told us that she had been pregnant 3 times but she had a miscarriage in the doctor’s office. Details like the amount of blood everywhere and the fact that they wouldn’t allow her to change her pants made eating onion rings dipped in ketchup a little less appetizing for a little while.
We observed wallpaper peeling off the wall and water damage to the carpet. While it was a franchise restaurant, it appears to be a restaurant on its last legs. The times are changing and leaving places like this behind. It makes them entertaining places to visit but I’m afraid it may be a little dangerous to actually consume food there.