Unfriendly

Earlier last night, we found ourselves in Swampscott. Having had dinner with friends, we were in the mood for dessert, so we followed them to an ice cream place. We drove past it and turned into a big parking lot, which belongs to a restaurant called Anthony's Pier 4 Cafe & Hawthorne by the Sea Tavern (a satellite branch of the Boston waterfront restaurant). The lot probably holds four hundred cars (it looked like the kind of place that hosts a lot of weddings and other functions), and at around 9:30 on Saturday night, it was maybe a quarter full.

We parked the car and got out, and a guy came walking across the lot toward us. I thought he was some sort of valet (he was wearing a white polo shirt and black pants) but he said, "Are you going to the restaurant?" We said no. He said, "I'm sorry, but you can't park here."

I imagine that North Shore locals are familiar with this place and its policy, but it really struck us as dickish. It's not like there was any shortage of spaces, and we probably weren't going to be there more than fifteen or twenty minutes.

We drove back onto the street and found a space nearby, but it's just such a selfish and unfriendly thing. The idea that this place feels it's necessary to pay someone to stand out in the parking lot and chase away the riff-raff makes me pretty sure I'd never want to go there.