Last night our daughter was of at a sleepover, so we headed off to meet friends at "The Three Nines" - a typical enough "drink until you drop" kind of place. While the ambiance isn't much, the food is good, the drinks are cheap - and the staff are quick to note when your glass is empty or your plate is pushed to the side. All in all, it's a good location for a trvia game. Which is not to say that we did well :)

A week ago, we managed to come in second, barely missing first. Last night, we were completely clueless - for far too many of the questions, we just had no idea. We came in dead last, with only a handful of correct answers. Still, it was an enjoyable enough evening, a good night out with friends. We had been going to a game that the same guy was running at a local establishment, "The Luna C Grille". That ended pretty badly - the service there was just awful, the food mediocre (but expensive).

The Columbia game had been at another local bar, but things got ugly there between the guy who runs the game and a few drunken regulars. The management of that place inexplicably decided that having 70 people in once a week was less relevant than the desires of about a dozen regulars. Who knows - maybe they do spend as much as the larger crowd if they come in every night.

Back to the game at the "Luna C" - the first week there were 7 teams, around 50 people total. That's a big crowd for this place - it's not usually that full. The service was just awful. The waiters spent a lot of time ignoring us, and looking annoyed when they did have to deal with us. This performance was repeated the next couple of weeks. It wasn't just us, either - fewer teams started showing up (one team was banned by the management when they became incensed enough with the lack of service that they just walked out). By the time Glenn (the guy who runs the game) called the game off at that location, only one team had not announced that they wouldn't come back.

This place is a mystery. My daughter is fond of a couple of the dishes there, and it's convenient to our house - so we've gone in a few times. The service has never been good. The place is trying to be an upscale restaurant, but - they are behind a Giant supermarket and the windows look out on the local gym. Scenic, it's not. Even if that's what they're going for, being rude to paying customers gets you one thing and one thing only - bad word of mouth. They now have that in a pretty big way, having irritated a whole bunch of locals who play in this game.

If you live in the Columbia, MD area, or are passing through - here's a tip. Avoid the Luna C Grille. You can pay a lot less for mediocre food and bad service.