Live Viewing Reviews

Hey!

Just wanted to take a moment to remind you about our event tomorrow night that you have rsvp’d for. Brianna Jenkins and I will be there and will be doing a live cooking demo and live viewing of Episode 6!

There will be free appetizers and Karma Tequila will be our drink sponsor and I created “The Herbilicious” which you are going to love for only $5!

Also, we are kicking off a school supplies drive benefitting The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta so please visit their Wish List and see what you can do to help the local children of Atlanta. Bring the school supplies with you tomorrow night!

Episode 6 Live Viewing Party

Location: ROOM at Twelve Centennial Park

Address: 400 West Peachtree St, Atlanta, GA 30308

This seemed like the perfect remedy to my vacation slump. When the invite arrived, I was sorta looking forward to it, even though I don't watch the show, don't watch Food Network at all, and I don't know who either of these contestants are. However, this offered me a chance to leave the house and to dine at Room at Twelve. I've dined at Lobby at Twelve and I like it a lot, very vibrant bar scene, great wine list, occasional sighting of the Atlanta celebrity. Love it! So I thought, Room at Twelve, here  I come.

I didn't invite any of my friends to come with me, because let's face it this was to happen on a Sunday night, in downtown Atlanta with no offer of free drinks, food or anything (ignore the free hors d'oeuvres note, because that didn't happen) so there was really nothing in it to entice them to come. If someone else had invited me I probably would have shrugged it off as well. There has to be something more to make people go out on a Sunday night. So I RSVP'd as a one-r, what else is new?

This invite was actually misleading because this did not happen anywhere as close to what was described above. It was more like Dinner with Herb Mesa. We were asked to come have dinner at this restaurant, then Herb will do a mini cooking demonstration, followed by a live viewing of the show. I thought it would be more like a cocktail party that offered the opportunity to mingle, to interact or do anything unless you were one of the lucky few who Herb greeted but more on that later. There were a whole bunch of us seated at dinner tables in the restaurant encouraged to have dinner there. That was it.

If you don't know anything about Atlanta events, at least know this. Well, these four points I will bring to your attention.

1. The event organizers actually don't know how to handle people who attend events on their own. There's a total lack of enthusiasm on their part when you say, hey, look for my name on the list and it's just me no, plus one. Their face completely drops and they start scrambling for what to do. Immediately, you are seated at the "kids table" or what I choose to term as "as far away from the rest of the group as possible" which is a sad reality. For all you know I am a writer, a critic, an event critic who has come to critique your show and if I was, why would I show up with someone, I would show up alone so it would give me more time to work on my review.

2. Not only are you seated at the "kids table", there is no service at this table because they instantly forget that you are with the rest of the group. How can they remember, that's the table for the people they are not sure how they got there. Why don't you sit me with the other singles or some place where I can mingle, let's try that. Why put me here where you can forget about me? So all the goodies that are passed around never get to my table? It's like I don't even exist.

3. Because you are in the non-existent table, the event hosts, in this case Herb and Brianna, don't stop by to greet you. They greet everyone else in the coupled up table but they don't stop by to greet you. Why would they, you dared to show up here by yourself?

4. This next point holds true for any event, last night's was no exception. The event photographers are trained to take pictures of groups, couples etc. There is this unknown rule of photographing events that has a two person minimum. I've noticed this but I didn't know it would be so apparent considering I take pictures myself. It almost makes you want to bring your own camera and document them as they skip you. At first I thought maybe there's something in my teeth or I'm wearing a color that does not look good on camera. Nope, none of these things. There's a 2 person minimum etched in their brain and one person just won't photograph as good.

This was my Sunday night. Disappointing a bit. Even more disappointing because the food at Room at Twelve was awful. The Calamari was comprised of batter and oil, nothing else. Worse than what you would get at a fast food joint, not a "fine dining" restaurant. The service was hazy, one minute they were there and next minute...poof!. It was horrid. My rating of the evening was a 5 out of ten. But I am not discouraged. I just think that with a little practice people will get used to seeing people on their own. We need to force feed them a dose of the singles. Now, they don't quite know how to deal so I forgive them.

With all that being said, I would still go out again. Part of being a writer is experiencing life, part of living is taking a bite out of life, good or bad. Sometimes I have good times, sometimes I don't. But at least I have something to write about that more than makes up for it.