Review

So I figured that with the qty of times my family and I eat out that I should start reviewing the restaurants here on my BLOG. For not other reason that I have experienced a lot of food and restaurants and I always like a sounding board.
As a preface Northern VA is the land of chain restaurants so a lot of the restaurants I re view will be chains. This sort of defeats the purpose on the food front but not on the most important front- service.
Last night we all went out to eat to the local Ruby Tuesdays. There is nothing more "chain" than Ruby Tuesdays but due to recent experience we decided going back again was worth a shot. The food is always just OK. And in fact we did not order much- just soup and salad- BUT. The manager of this particular Ruby Tuesdays is the best manager I have ever seen. She is keenly aware of all customers needs and gets involved. There was a period of time when our waiter was not by to check on us and my water glass was empty. The manager came by to ask if I was waiting on a refill- I told her no, the waiter had not been buy. In about 30 seconds she had someone bring me more water. She then proceeded to come by later when we were looking for the check and tell us our meal was on the house. I told her no way- I would not accept it because overall the service was fine and the meal was fine. We paid and told her we very much appreciated the attention.
The points are:
1) She knew who we were from only being in there twice before
2) She made sure we (and all the other customers) were taken care of
3) She made our meal pleasant with conversation and being involved.

These actions turn a normal run of the mill chain into a friendly local establishment. More restaurants could learn from her and of course we will return.
The sad fact is that generally these fantastic managers end up moving on up and we never seen them again. I hope she gets a promotion but I also hope others can learn from her lead.
CHEERS!