from a restaurant review

There's two front doors, one to the restaurant and one to the bar, but you can't tell from outside which is which, and if you pick the wrong one, the only way to cross over is to sidle behind the maitre d' station (for which the maitre d' has to sidle out of the way). Acoustics are noisy, and the jazz playing in the background and the soft voices of the staff don't help. Apparently they can't hear you either. This happened more than once:

WAITRESS approaches my table.
WAITRESS: [unintelligible]
ME: What?
WAITRESS: [nods as if fully satisfied, goes away]