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Did you know what you were getting into Super Bowl Sunday when you saw the Denny's Ad?

By Lori Ann Santini

     I will keep this short and to the point. My hats off to the staff at Denny's Restaurant  in Batavia today.  I could not believe how well they survived the overwhelming crowd that formed early this morning and continued through the day.

     One of the ads for the Super Bowl announced that between 6am and 2pm you could receive a free Grand Slam Breakfast meal at Dennys.  After searching the internet to confirm this, I decided that I would give it a try. I loaded up my two toddlers and headed out.

     When we arrived at Dennys I thought for sure that I had made a mistake. The lot was full. Total strangers were helping to direct traffic. The waiting area was full to beyond capacity. The crowd was calm and patient. The staff took names and the number of people in the party. We waited about an hour. I didn't think that was too bad for the crowd. The staff was better then some fine quality restaurants I have eaten in.

     Thank you to my waitress Lori, The busboy that would play peekaboo with my son,  the lovely Mom/Son (Sue) group that ate with us, and everyone in the kitchen. I applaud the job very well done.

     By the way, we did not know Sue and her son when we entered Denny's. I offered to have a couple join us in order to make room for another group at another table. It was a great experience. It was a delight for my kids to have someone elses attention for awhile too. Thank you.

Brian Hillabush

As somebody that has covered sports at all levels for a long time now, I'm always for free food. But when I saw that ad on Sunday, I figured it would be way too crazy all day and put it right out of my head.

Feb 3, 2009, 9:05pm Permalink
Lori Ann Santini

The staff was the calm in one tremendous storm. Wow. I would go back in a heart beat just to applaud them. Lori has served me before and has never been a disappoinment.

Feb 3, 2009, 10:02pm Permalink
Gabor Deutsch

I thought it was free monday so a friend and I went to Denny's and decided to stay and pay for Grand Slam anyway. It was worth the money and the entire staff were very friendly. Yesterday I went shopping around town and passed by Denny's twice during 11-12 and the line of cars kept me from stopping in and getting the freebie. I would love to know how many free grandslams they served during the promotion.

Feb 4, 2009, 10:14am Permalink
Russ Stresing

The local Denny's was already jam-packed at 6am on-the-dot. At 10:45, the parking lot was again chock full of cars.

On CNN Radio, the CEO of Denny's said that because it was such a success, not only are they considering doing it as an annual Super Bowl event, they might do it more often during the year.

The promotion is basically being explained as alternative advertising. In fact, this article explains that if people who got a free breakfast bought a beverage, Denny's almost broke even on that particular transaction.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/03/news/companies/dennys_breakfast.fortune/

Feb 4, 2009, 11:13am Permalink

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