Another thought on 79th Street...

Since Worlee brought up on his blog what he would like to see occur on 79th Street, here is another thought. I will not name a certain restaurant along 79th Street, but every time I patronize this place there is always something going on.

For example in the carryout area there is often a man there who has bootleg merchandise on sale. Namely he has sold bootleg movies or that is movies that are currently available at a movie theater near you. He also sells designer purses and handbags as well. People will check out what he has too!

On the last time I was there, a woman was letting people know to try her free sample butter cookies that she also had for sale. Now this to be fair seems far more appropriate to peddle in a restaurant than what the man above sells sitting at this restaurant.

At another point on that particular evening, a man came into the restaurant looking to sell a pair of shoes. He even went up to the carry-out window to see if anyone in the kitchen was interested in buying them. Then went so far as going into the dining room to see who would want to buy his shoes. This does bring to mind another incident from another evening that I had witnessed, a man attempting to sell deodorant and toiletries during his brief stay.

Finally on this particular evening, a man was in this place begging people for money. He wasn't selling anything at all just looking for some spare change. To be sure this isn't very uncommon it's happened at other establishments where a person knows you got to pay for food so they come to you while in line asking you for some change. Sometimes they come to you when you've already placed your order and waiting for it to be ready. Or as it was in one case on this particular evening this man was outside to ask you for some spare change. BTW, the begging man also went into the dining room to bother someone for some change. Of course to give credit where credit is due a manager at this establishment did go and kick this individual out of the restaurant.

The point of writing this is to say it's expected that none of this activity should occur at a restaurant. I would be bothered by the fact that this is the price of doing business on a major thoroughfare such as 79th Street. No one should be bothered by a beggar nor a salesman while eating in a dining room. Hopefully we can all agree on that!

I should also note that this restaurant has another location in Roseland - on another night but at roughly the same time I has been at 79th on the more recent trip - there wasn't a lot activity to note. In fact it was almost dead on that particular evening I had visited. And while my belief was that 79th Street was a better location than going into Roseland, now I'm starting to wonder.

My hope is that at some point enough people would say they will no longer tolerate this kind of activity along 79th Street.