Project:Denny's - Viewer Reviews


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Birmingham, Alabama

"The Denny's on Montclair Rd. in Birmingham, Alabama, is far and away the only Denny's I have ever eaten in. There is also a Denny's about a quarter mile from Birmingham Southern College in Birmingham, but I'll be cold in my grave before I'll go THERE! Nobody who works at the one on Montclair road looks like Weird Al, and my spies inform me that the one near BSC is Al-deficient as well. I feel that I should mention that one of the cooks at my Denny's does look like the guy who hassles Al in the "I'm Fat" video, at the beginning. I once got a free Grand Slam there because I found a hair in my eggs. " - written prior to September, 1999
- Kerry Forester

Gulf Shores, Alabama

"You gotta come to the Denny's in Gulf Shores Alabama...The manager looks just like Wierd Al Yankovic!..You gotta see it to believe it!!!!!" - written prior to September, 1999
- SpaFF

Huntsville, Alabama

"After me and my husband came in the resterant we sat for 15 min. waiting to be served , then when we watched as 2 employees were discussing who was to be taking our order still niether came till another party came in and was seated behind us . The lady who took thier order then asked us , knowing no one had taken our order , if any one had taken it and then preceeded to take it after waiting another 10 min. Well it took her 30 min to have our order ready and when it got to us mine was cold , and when my husband ran out of tea she had to go make more and by this time we had been there 1 and a half hours so needless to say he just told her to get him something else because he didn't want to wait till she fixed another pot of tea .We were very upset to say the least and did complain to the manager because we had to wait another 10 min. just to get our ticket . The food wasn't all that good and we felt we shouldn't have had to pay the full price but the manager only took off 3$ . All I can say is if your anywhere nere that place don't stop there cause while we were there another person left cause he had been waiting for so long also .This place was slow beyond extreme , the service was the worst , and the food wasn't nothing to brag about either ." - written prior to September, 1999
- Nona Young

"I live in Huntsville,Alabama and we have a new Denny's less than a year old the service is very less than perfect. the servers were lazy,sloppy and inexperienced. We have the ability to send them plenty of bussiness from our nationally known hotel but from the way our employees have been treated by staff and management i would rather drive 25 miles out of the way to receive just half of the service that denny's did not have." - written prior to September, 1999
- Lisa Green

Montgomery, Alabama

"On Sunday I took my family to the Denny's on the Eastern Blvd in Montgomery. It had to be the worst Denny's experience of my life. This was quite a shock as I have taken my family to Denny's around the country and always been pleased with the service and quality of the food served. The Denny's in Montgomery had incredibly slow service, followed by mediocre food. When I found food particles stuck to the bottom of my coffee cup, I spoke to the manager who said "Sorry, would you like another cup?", but made no effort to take the coffee off my check. As I was paying the bill, the manager said that the waitress (who was standing there) would "try to do better next time", to which the waitress rolled her eyes. If you pass through Alabama, I would suggest by-passing the Denny's in Montgomery" - written prior to September, 1999
- Ian Pritchard

"Twenty years ago I was a member of a nightclub band working in Montgomery , Alabama. One Saturday afternoon, after enjoying our mid day pot fest in our motel room, we developed a serious case of the munches. Three or four of us decided to go to lunch at the local Denny's. Upon arriving, we noticed a circus like atmoshere . Banners and flags were everywhere. There was music being broadcast loudly over a P.A. in the parking lot. There seemed to be an unusually large number of people there for an afternoon. There was also a remote radio broadcast booth set up near the front door. Now in those days, being the typical musicians that we were, we were very longhaired, and very noticible because of our looks. We drew stares by almost everyone there including the manager. We were seated and almost immediatley approached by the manager. At that point were expecting a problem.He was, as it turns out, a decent enough fellow. He asked us if we were "entertainers." We told him we were, and at that you would have thought we were the Beatles by the way he took care of us. Seems Denny's was throwing some kind of promotional that day. He asked us if we would mind being interviewed by the radio folks. No problem. They came and stuck a "mic" in our faces and asked us who we were and why we had chosen to come to Denny's. We told them that we traveled the eastern coast north to south and the first thing we did when arriving in a new city was to find the local Denny's so we could get "a great meal". I thought the manager was going to cry. He felt so grateful for being endorsed by four hairy, stoned to the gills Texas rock and rollers, that he gave us carte-blanc of the menu free gratis for the rest of our stay in Montgomery. One of my favorite road stories and not a bad Denny's tale either, if I might add." - written prior to September, 1999
- Steven Lowrey

Opelika, Alabama

November 12, 1999 - "This here is the true story of an attempt at the free Denny's birthday meal. This story must be recorded for posterity. All names and locations are changed to protect the guilty.
I am Eric and this is the story of a Denny's Free Birthday meal gone bad.
Knowing that Denny's has (had? do they still have it?) a free menu for birthdays I once thought about trying to hit at least 3 Denny's on my 1000 mile drive/trek home from college from a major southeastern US university to my parents home in the suburban NYC area. My birthday being in Dec. near the fall semester break, I almost was able to schedule it right once but the flu kept me off the road. But I digress...
As a transfer student to this major southeastern US university I struck up friendships with students younger than myself. Around February 1991, one of my friends, Greg, we shall call him, was going to celebrate his 21st birthday. His birthday was on a Wednesday, not usually a party night at our school. I offered to be his designated driver and jokingly mentioned the Denny's Free Birthday meal for him after our night on the town. There was a Denny's in the next town over closer to the interstate. We would meet at a local party bar at 6:00 and let the partying begin.
Now the deal with Greg was that he had never partied in high school or for that matter even in his first two years in college. Myself, as a transfer from a small suburban NY college, had seen the bottom of a beer bottle many times and that didn't count the high school drinking in the woods and on the beach on the NJ shore.
So I hit the bar around 5:30 and Greg showed up around 6:00. I bought Greg his first legal beer and got one myself. (I would milk a total of two beers that night and drink a freaking' gallon of Coke. Yeah this has bearings on the story) Of course I talked up the bartender about Greg's 21st and soon he had a free bar shot of something. Pretty soon Greg and I were bullshitting with the two guys sitting next to us and eating the hell out of the free bar pretzels. Then the two guys were buying Greg first a mixed drink and then another beer. We really didn't even really know them even though I think they thought they knew us but free booze is free booze in my book.
Pretty soon all of us moved to a table and then a girl, Joanna, Greg knew from a class, happened by with her roommates. Upon learning about Greg's 21st, Joanna bought him another beer while me and the other two dudes chatted up the roommates. By this time Greg was damn lit up. Then the band started and Joanna and her roomies wanted to dance so we all started to dance with them. I know I bought Greg at least one more beer as we danced and sat with the girls between songs.
Around 11:00pm I was worn out with the band noise and Greg was pretty blasted. Plus Joanna and her roommates had drifted away as had the other two dudes. I yelled to him that we would leave so we could go get his free Denny's meal and I would buy my meal, being hungry as hell. We got into my 1985 4door metallic grey Dodge Omni and we drove 20 minutes to the other town to the Denny's. So I am figuring we got there in time for him to qualify for the meal. By the time we got there and got out of the car, Greg was staggering. Now this Denny's, being closer to the interstate in another town, didn't attract any or very few student types, especially at 11:40pm during the week. There were a few older folks at the tables and a few trucker types at the counter so we stuck out a little. The workers out front were a couple of skinny middle aged waitresses at the counter, the older matronly waitress who was seating us, and a bus boy who looked like a homeless man was servicing a closed section of the restaurant. We went to get seated in a corner booth and I mentioned the birthday menu. Our waitress gave Greg the birthday menu and me the regular menu that we spread out on the table in front of us. Around this time I had to piss like crazy from all the Cokes in the bar so I told Greg to order me a Coke for my meal and I would be back in a minute. I went and hit the restroom and then made my way back through the restaurant. Sitting back down I realized Greg didn't look all that well as he sat there with his face in his hands and elbows propped up on the table.
I said to him "How you feeling?"
His response " Not too good."
"Need to hit the restroom?"
"No," Greg responded" I just need to sit still for a minute."
At this he looked up from his hands and started to GUSH (with emphasis on the SH sound) vomit into his hands, through his fingers, onto the menu, around his glass of Coke. A beer and booze smelling, liquid/pretzel slurry issued from his mouth ... no one in the restaurant would have a reason NOT to know why he yakked.
"Ow shit "I said as I got up to go to the waitress who was just approaching to take our order. Seeing the vomiting state Greg was in she yelled at me" Get him the hell out of here!" I offered to pay for the Cokes and cleanup but she just said " Get him out of here!"
I turned back to the table and caught the look of death from the busboy/homeless man wiping a table in the closed section of the restaurant. A flash of realization came to me that I then knew who was going to have to clean up the vomit which by now had covered most of the graphically illustrated birthday menu in front of Greg.
By this time, Greg was muttering something about "Being so embarrassed" and drunkenly attempting to clean up some of the puke with a regular paper table napkin. I grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him out of the booth. Saying " I am so sorry" to all who could hear I steered him down the aisle to the door all the while he kept saying, "I'm so embarrassed." I heard one "Son of a Bitch" from one of the gentlemen in the booths but we made it to the door with the waitress following. She yelled "Don't you come back" as I poured Greg into the passenger seat of the Omni. I started the Omni, put it in reverse, backed out of the Denny's parking lot and across 4 lanes of a state highway with my lights off. This was to make getting my license tag number harder for the waitress in case she wanted to report me as drunk or having ripped off the restaurant in revenge for the puke pool Greg just left on the table.
As I gunned the car away from Denny's, Greg was practically crying in embarrassment about what had just happened. He was wiping off what amazingly little puke had gotten on his shirt with tissues.
I started to laugh uncontrollably and pounded on the dashboard and the roof of the car with my right fist as I steered with my left hand. Greg said, " What the hell is so funny, man. I'm embarrassed as shit about this. What the hell am I going to do?" I yelled, " You aren't doing anything, Greg. Have you ever been to that Denny's before? NO! Are you going back there? NO! Were there any students working there or eating there? NO! Is that Denny's even in the same town as our school? NO! Did you pay, give out your name or give them any info other than today was you birthday? NO! Greg, that had to funniest damn thing I have ever seen and experienced and got away with. You've just performed an awesome end to a 21st birthday."
I let this sink in to Greg's sodden brain a little and all of a sudden he started to grin, laugh and say "Ohh, Man, Oh, man. Just don't tell anyone we know." "No, problem." I answered.
I drove him back to his apartment and helped him inside. And then I went back to my apartment.
I went by the next day after his regular morning class time to see how he was doing. I found him still in bed at around 11:30am as he had skipped his three morning classes. He both thanked me and cursed me for the evening before.
We never partied together again (I wonder why?) though we are still in contact as close acquaintances even after we graduated. I have kept this secret for around 10 years but the Denny's Project is the forum where I believe it should be saved for posterity."
- Eric

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

" The only Denny's in Tuscaloosa, Alabama used to be on McFarland Blvd., but recently closed down. Before the closing, a friend and I (hey, Lisa!) had a strange experience with a "bullet" (that little ceramic dish they put the mayonaise in if you ask for it on the side). We were experimenting with the glasses moving across the table of their own accord (this happens at every Denny's I've been to, but only if there is a soft drink in the glass). We then placed the mayonaise container in a puddle of water (from the condensation on the soda glass), and it just sat there for a couple of seconds, then �� WHOOOOSH! It shot across half the length of the table in a flash. Kind of spooky. Must be the feng shui of Denny's (incidentally, whenever I have asked for a side of mayo, at numerous Denny's, I have only received it on the first attempt of the waiter three times, all at Denny's with abnormal floor layouts). Anyway, this Denny's in Tuscaloosa closed a few months ago (alas). Since then, the big sign out front still reads "Always Open," with a sign below that reading "CLOSED." A Zen koan right to the end... (my girlfriend took a photo for me, and a week later the building and sign were demolished). " - written prior to September, 1999
- Greg Carden

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