I was standing in a high-turnover franchise watching a disaster in slow motion. The kitchen was full of food, but on Table 14, a Carbonara was turning into stone. It had been sitting there for 20 minutes.
The manager was red-faced, screaming into a WhatsApp Group that no one was reading. He thought he had a "lazy staff" problem. He was wrong.
The "Hurricane" started at the bar, because a takeaway phone was ringing next to the beer taps. That one distraction created a Log-Jam that backed up the entire restaurant.