Closed on a Saturday Night?

There's too many contradictory statments, and not enough detail for me
to buy this one.

You say you eat there at least a few (3 or more)times monthly.Why did
you wait weeks to express your displeasure with your missed
reservation? Why are you doing it in a letter to corporate instead of
taking up with the manager on one of the several subsequent visits you
must have had by now? Why does the receipt of coupons suddenly trigger
this letter to corporate with no details? Surely if you frequent this
restaurant as often as you say, you would recognize the employees who
were there.

I think that there is something amiss.

You never know what could have happened. Maybe there was a tragedy.
Maybe they all quit because of something management did. Maybe they
all had the flu. Whatever it was, it happened and although it was
disappointing and a waste of a trip,stuff happens.
When you complain you are looking for a remedy, but I am sure they are
already on it due to the fact they had to close and lose revenue, so
this seems like complaining for the sake of complaining. Not sure what
it will accomplish.
They could have given discounts to customers showing up to apologize
but I guess they had other things going on.

Okay... so you emailed the company headquarters instead of calling and
having a conversation with the manager?

Actually, management can't predict when a bunch of employees will be
absent at the same time. Perhaps you would have better peace of mind
if you just found another place to dine that Saturday night.

Yes, these types of things do happen. But still, to completely close
the restaurant seems a little extreme. And the fact the the OP had
made a specific reservation for that date, only to find it closed, I
think it's a valid complaint. The manager of the store should have
offered some sort of discount for the OP to use towards the next
dining trip.

I could understand if it was someone random walking in off the street
on a whim to grab a bite to eat. But the OP had made plans in
advance, was given the reservation (which you usually have to leave
your name and phone number to do, at least that's how it worked at
restaurants I've worked at), so at the very least, he should have
received a call from the store to let him know there was a problem,
and he wouldn't be able to eat there.

Although, to assume this location would be closed on Thanksgiving just
because the one day he went, they had some sort of employee call-off
crisis is sort of going overboard.

Repeat after me: these things happen.

Repeat after me: there are no real guarantees in life.

It's unfortunate, but it seems like something unusual happened that
was outside of the control of the restaurant. Maybe. Perhaps a new
manager was cruel to several staff and that's why they didn't show.
Perhaps the staff all got sick from something in the restaurant.

Or perhaps it was coincidence. You don't know.

Give them the benefit of the doubt. Try going back again before
Thanksgiving. If they're open and the service is back to normal, then
look upon this as a one-time fluke. If things aren't so good, then
maybe there is a longer term problem and you should go elsewhere.

I just don't understand people who are regular customers ("eat there
at least a few times monthly") and yet, after one problem, give up.
I'm going to guess that you eat there 3 times a month ("few"). In a
year, that's 36 times. If you've been doing this for even 3 years,
that's over a 100 good trips there. Are you saying that a single bad
experience should ruin 100+ good ones? Doesn't seem right to me.

Great post - exactly what I was thinking.

So very well said, Jeffrey!

Neal, please understand that things happen. People call in sick and
acts of God, terrorism, etc happen in life. I am sure you would have
much rather been seated and waited 3 hours for cold food...then you'd
be on here complaining about that.

We aren't guaranteed a tomorrow by anyone. It's just a restaurant and
there are others. I am sure they will be open but you never
know...Bush might drop a bomb or Bin Laden may do something or another
Katrina might blow in or God forbid someone may get ill.