Do you know when your table will be available?

It’s summer, so it’s time to adapt our lifestyle to that time of year. More going out at night, going to clubs, restaurants, it’s all part of the summer style.

I went out to dinner with my best man and our wives. We went to a place that is a popular Adriatic destination, which has a population of a couple of thousands of people during the day but is packed during the summer and it’s hard to find room for anything – parking spaces or restaurant tables.

We come up to the first restaurant and we could instantly tell it was totally full. We ask the young waiter at the entrance is there an available table for four.

No, we’re completely full!
Do you know when you’ll have a free table?
Who knows, you can go on a half an hour walk and come back, maybe something will open up.

Sure thing chief, we tell him off and continue on our way. We walk some fifty meters and come to another restaurant. A big place, with two huge terraces. Of course, both terraces were full. We’re met at the entrance by a pleasant beautiful girl and we ask the same question.

Hold on a moment, let me check with the waiter if we have a table for you.

She goes into the restaurant looking for a waiter and a free table. She was gone for at least five minutes. By the time we already thought that maybe she found a free table and decided to take the opportunity and hold it, she comes back with the news.

Sorry, but we’re packed, so by the time I was able to find someone who could help us, well, unfortunately, we just don’t have anything available.
Do you know when a table will become free?
Well, I gotta check that with my coworkers.
No thanks, dear, we’ll get going.

And so we went. We come up to another place, even bigger than the last one. Again we are met by a beautiful young woman, smiling and cheerful.

Good evening, we need a table for four.
Hold on, let me see what we have – she says and proceeds to type something into a tablet that she was holding.
Unfortunately, no tables are available at the moment, but table 23 will be free in 13 minutes. Feel free to wait, have a digestive at our bar and I will reserve a table for you – she said confidently.
Thirteen minutes? Okay, let’s see that bar you’re talking about.
Great, there you go and here’s your token, it will ring and vibrate when your table becomes available.

We were really doubtful, but interested in her story, so we take that plastic gadget that will tell us when our table is ready and we leave for the bar to drink some rakija. As we’re walking up to the bar, I say to murmur to myself:

If there isn’t a table in thirteen minutes, I’m going home to make some pasta.

So we order our rakija at the bar, spark some cigarettes and chat. Suddenly, after sixteen minutes, the gadget we got starts vibrating and ringing. Could are table really be available? We didn’t even notice how much time had passed. We go up to the young lady that gave us that amazing and smart piece of plastic. Without saying much, she takes us to table 23, which was already set up to accommodate four people.

Okay, how did you know this exact table would be free in thirteen minutes?
Well, I didn’t know, the software I’m using knows. It knows everything, it’s amazing!

So, after drinking shots of rakija we order another round while we’re waiting for our food and we talk about this software that knew when our table would be ready.

It knows so much more?

Do you want to know what software we were talking about? I’m sure you do 🙂