JOANNA ALLHANDS

Allhands: Why I'm quitting downtown Gilbert

Joanna Allhands
opinion columnist
A street view of downtown Gilbert in 2014, before additional restaurants brought crazy-busy crowds.

We love to go out to eat on the weekends. It's one of the few things we do for entertainment.

We usually head to downtown Gilbert. It's close to home, and there are so many good restaurants there.

But we're taking a break, at least for a while. And here's why:

It's become far too stressful.

It's not a problem with parking, traffic or other infrastructure. Gilbert has done a commendable job preparing for the throngs of people who flood the district. The problem is the now-standard 45-minute to an hour-plus waits we've experienced at multiple restaurants.

Oh, we've learned all the tricks of the trade: Going during off-peak hours. Sitting at the bar. Checking in early with the restaurants that use the No Wait app.

But that hasn't worked out so well recently. Other people have figured out the bar seating thing. And wait times on the No Wait app have become less than reliable. We chose to eat at one restaurant because the app said it had a 5- to 15-minute wait. We jumped in line and high-tailed it over there, only to find that the wait was at least 30 minutes and they'd do their best to work us in.

Once we were seated, it took another 45 minutes to get our food. By then, this mommy was ravenous, and so was our 5-month-old. I scrunched into the far corner of our booth to feed him, hoping no other customers would object to my tell-tale nursing cover, then wolfed down my food when it came and promptly headed to the car with a screaming child while my husband paid the bill.

Like I said, way too stressful.

There is a relatively easy fix: Reservations. If restaurants accepted them, we could better plan our time out. The table would be ready, we could enjoy our meal promptly and be on our merry way. I'm sure lots of other parents with small children would eat out more often if they had this option.

It won't happen. Restaurants have little incentive to invest in Open Table or some other reservation system, because the crowds are already there. Most tables are filled with kids. I'm sure at some point we'll come back, too.

But, at least for now, we'll frequent other mom and pop places. For us, it's a Yogi Berra problem: Nobody goes to downtown Gilbert because it's too crowded.

A look at the Valley's thriving restaurant industry: