Norman Brinker

I continue to wrestle with the discretionary rules associated with who makes Celebituary and who doesn't. In this case, I have a very personal reason for shinning a bit of light on one Norman Brinker, famous American restauranteur. My blog, my rules.

Among other things, I have spent the last eight months of my life advocating a new solution that eliminates the need for patrons to wait to be seated at restaurants, or anywhere for that matter. The solution is called QLess, and it is quite ingeneous really. It works by using patrons' own cell phones as pagers, thus giving customers limitless room to roam. But more so, by changing the perception of what a "wait" is in the first place, it raises the tendency for a customer to wait in the first place, which ultimately means reduced turnaways, more seated customers, and higher revenues per store. Or so goes my sales pitch. It's a proposition that the man who played a role inventing the salad bar would find highly compelling. Well, not that we would have met with old Norman anyhow, as he abdicated his throne a while back. But, believe you me, I know the name "Brinker," and the word flew off the page of recent deaths list in a way that Hugh Hopper or Kenny Rankin couldn't even come close.

Now, the problem with somebody like Brinker is the part where I tell y'all something you might not know is somewhat irrelevant as you probably don't know of him anyhow, unless you live in Texas or are in the restaurant business. But, anyway...he founded the famous, but recently closed Steak and Ale, he loved polo, and actor Mark Harmon depicted him in a 1978 movie entitled "Little Mo" about his first wife, Maureen Connolly.