Thank God we’re not one of those restaurants who sing to people on their birthdays. I’m not sure why there are still restaurants that do that anyways. Every time the servers start streaming out of the kitchen clapping their hands and singing grotesquely out of tune birthday chants, NOBODY in the surrounding area looks happy. All it does is disturb the other patrons, disrupt anything the servers have going on, and the birthday-person gets a miserable embarrassed look on their face (unless they’re drunk and surrounded by 14 drunk friends.) At TR’s we bring out a brownie sundae with a smile on our face and some extra spoons and walk away unembarrassed and much more dignified. However, on the rare occasion that a large group brings their own cake, all are guilty to submitting to shameless acts of birthday gaiety to try and score a piece and/or the rest of the cake.

Last night was one such instance. We had a group of 30, super annoying, raucous guests, who first came and sat at the bar where Joel and I had to deal with all manner of crazy requests from them. Finally, they sat down with poor Jessica who had been having a rough night as it was. The entire time they were sitting, no one stayed put. They all wandered around and visited with the other end of the table, and delivering food was a nightmare since no one was sitting where they were supposed to. I felt sorry for Jessica, and the other patrons who had to put up with all their noise and commotion. However, the end brought hope (and a $70 gratuity!) They had one of the most amazing cakes I have ever had a taste of at TR’s. Thick, fluffy, whipped cream frosting and a spongy, moist, white cake made us all smile ever more broadly and manipulate service ever so cunningly to sample the heavenly sheet cake. And Eureka! When they left, they left the rest of the cake for us poor, lowly service people- who promptly devoured it with little to no decorum back in the server alley.