Emmy's on the phone
 

Since we had a gift card to Cheesecake Factory, J's lad wanted to eat there -- since it was his last weekend with us. J objected, pointing out that trying to eat at the Cheesecake Factory in King of Prussia on a Saturday is futile. But the lad would not listen, saying that it "had never been a problem for him" in all his 24 years of eating at the Cheesecake Factory in King of Prussia on a Saturday.

She notified me that we would be attempting to E@CFiKoPonaS, and I again objected. But J had decided not to argue with the lad; and so I decided that I would just go along and see what happened.

Well we entered at about 6:30pm, with a party of five, and they said the wait for us to E@CFiKoPonaS would be three hours.

http://cellar.org/2012/cfrefugees.jpg
Mall refugees of unknown origin. After a long day of tourist
shopping they become confused and attempt to eat at Cheesecake
Factory. Unable to wander aimlessly due to exhaustion, they now
camp by the automatic doorway and may depend on spare change to survive.

http://cellar.org/2012/cfrefugees2.jpg
Cheesecake Factory lottery hopefuls gather near the entrance, but with
only a tiny amount of seating provided, most of them are forced to
awkwardly stand around in despicable conditions.

Three hours would be too long to expect his four-year-old to wait to eat; and so we aimed the cars at another highly-branded/marketed chain restaurant, drove a couple blocks, and this time were told two hours.

So we went across the parking lot to a less-marketed restaurant and were told 45 minutes; meanwhile the lad has called Chili's and the wait there is 20 minutes, and after moving the convoy there and entering the place, it was not another 35 minutes until we were in fact seated.

And after that it got pretty good, as we were assigned an excellent seat and waitress for our troubles.

Meanwhile the four-year-old has become intrigued by a hand mirror, so I bring out my Xmas present -- my new Android phone, and switch it to use the front-facing camera. This means as she holds the phone, she's looking at herself. And she's blown away by this. We tell her to press the button to take the picture.

http://cellar.org/2012/emmyandthephone.jpg

And at this point she was so hungry she ate the phone.

The End.

I'm liking this thread so far.
MOAR!

Oh there is no moar, sorry...! That's the whole story of our Saturday night.

Unless we have more adventures with the little lass, which I guess there is a good chance of happening. I should be more like you Sundae and document these sorts of things fully, with pics of the food and whatnot.

Aye! Everyone should.

I liked what I saw anyway.
And the narrative was sharp.

Damn, 3 hours... that means there were other people who were told 2.5 hours and said, "Yeah, that sounds good. Put our name down." 9:30 PM is perilously close to when the mall closes anyway, isn't it?

I'm kinda flabbergasted by that -who waits for anywhere for over 30 minutes? And it'll have to be damn good for that and they'd better have a beer for me while I wait.......

Yes, the mall closes but enough internal mall area is left open so diners can wait or leave.

At this point the whole system seems broken. They give people pagers, but if you're shopping when your number comes up, I doubt they wait 15 minutes for you to run back to the restaurant.

They should open a second Cheesecake Factory across the road, like they do with Starbucks.

Gino's is just down the road. I admit I was not impressed with the resurrected Gino's Giant, which has not been around for over 30 years, but it was cool to try it again.

For such an old mall, K of P is freaking huge. They should rent out Segways or maybe invest in those Star Trek elevators that can move sideways as well as up and down.

Next time fly to Minnesota and try Mall of America. With 50 restaurants you can't go wrong.

For you Brits, you could (probably) fit Buckingham palace into the center garden.

three hour wait for food? that means their prices aren't high enough. they could be variable, so that the middle of the week gets the happy hour(s) treatment.

It's a chain. Maybe they don't have price leeway.

I gotta admit, if I went to a Cheesecake Factory, and saw Ruth's Chris prices, I'd be nonplussed, even if it was the best restaurant in the area, despite the fact that that would be economics 101 at work.