Ray's Ridiculous Policy

A group of friends of ours had dinner on Saturday to celebrate 2 birthdays. It was a casual evening, and we had it at Ray's Crab Shack in Newark.

During the planning a week or so prior, the venue was decided on and my wife was tasked to make the reservation. She called and placed a reservation for 12 people for 7pm. Whoever took her call said they would call back to confirm.

After about an hour, another lady called. She asked if we could move our reservation earlier to 6:30pm, which was fine. But here's the kicker. The lady on the other end said that they have this 2-hour policy, wherein a party (or a fairly large group) has up to 2 hours to eat or get kicked out. Seriously???? I have never heard of such a policy, anywhere !!!

I couldn't hear the arguments because my wife was having this conversation. I only heard her reactions. Like my wife said, we've been to different restaurants here and overseas, and far fancier and swankier than this crab shack, but no one has told us we only had 2 hours to eat. It was just RIDICULOUS.

What made it even worse was that this lady even wanted us to move up the reservation to an even earlier time so she can drive us out earlier and still have enough time for a second seating of customers. That was just plain cheap and tacky, if you asked me. I wanted to grab the phone from my wife so I can straighten out this gal and kick some sense back into her head.

My point is if I am still eating and I am paying for what I am eating, then no on can tell me to leave for no apparent reason just so they can accommodate other diners. That is just plain WRONG. Now, if I'm done eating and I just sit there and chat all night, then that is a different story. Even so, no one can kick you out unless you're causing havoc in the restaurant.

When we got to the restaurant, I had planned on talking to the manager, once we're seated, so I get a better understanding of this policy (if it really is) and hear their rationale behind it. But to me, no matter what they say, it's not going to be logical. Can't be, and will never be. It's a good thing we were seated right away, and I decided that it was not worth having that discussion. I will deal with it if and when it happens. Fortunately, we were done eating with lots of time to spare. Otherwise, it would have been an uncomfortable situation .... for them, not us.

Can you imagine that? So, you have been forewarned. Ray's Crab Shack on Mowry Avenue in Newark.

Eat up or get out !!!