[SteveZ]

For me, a restaurant outing is more about the company than the food - no matter what kind of rave reviews the restaurant gets or how wonderful the chef thinks s/he is.

That being said, I can't fault a place for long lines - if their business is that good that they can't keep up with demand, well I just wish I had stock in the place.

However, I'm not one who enjoys $6-10 drinks at the bar, and really have had my fill of sitting on pine waiting my turn for something to happen. That includes everything from straining to hear if my name is called (like I'm some lucky lottery winner) or whether the beeper they give me starts to vibrate. If the place cannot take me right away (or pretty close to it) then I'll remember that the next time I go there (went at the wrong time of day) and for now will take my business elsewhere. There's a lot of places in-and-out of TV which serve food.

A long time ago I remember hearing the line, "Life's too short to dance with ugly women." That line can be modified many ways, and the end-line centers on "too short" I'm not mad when a place is too busy to take my business - I just modify what I do accordingly. I've been known to change sit-down dinner plans for something else. Again, the company I'm with is the important part of the outing, not what culinary delight ends up in the stomach.

The Villages are neat, in that if you are flexible and fun-loving, then there are options available. I can picture the time will come when I'll be at Lake Sumter Landing and not get seated at one of the restaurants during high snowbird time. So, the option may then become a plastic-cup marguarita and a hot dog while I have a dance with my spouse to the music in the square. I can't see anything like that as "less" and in many ways it qualifies as a "more."

Again, "Life's too short....."