Telephone line, give me some time, I'm living in twilight

Why I hate the telephone.
I hate the telephone because people who should know better drop whatever they are doing to answer it. I'm not talking about when you're sitting on the sofa watching Wheel of Fortune reruns and the phone rings to tell you your great aunt Millie just kicked the bucket. If your not really doing something else, sure by all means pick that baby up and get the 411.
What I'm really talking about is customer service situations. Wait, wait...don't stop reading yet. I'm not going to bore you with another sad tale of lame telephone support from Dell (sorry Dell, don't mean to single you out, but I do hear a lot of bad ones about you).
This is more about customer service inside stores and restaurants.
I've had this happen to me twice within less than twenty four hours: I walk into the restaurant, wait my turn, begin to give my order, the phone rings and the cashier interrupts me to answer the phone and proceeds to engage the other party in an entire conversation. Guess what...both times the cashier forgot what they were doing with me and I had to start completely over.
The first instance was the most egregious. I started to give my order but was interrupted before I could open my mouth. Nearly acceptable, except this is a little like someone cutting in front of you at the water fountain in elementary school. You know how mad that made you then. After about a three minute wait, I proceed and get half way through my order and the phone rings again. About three minutes later, the cashiers back (after placing the phone orders ahead of mine), but she's forgotten everything about my transaction. Now she forces me to play Mad Libs with my order ("You want a adjective name of potable fluid to drink?")
This time I get satisfaction though, as I say "I guess we've had time to think about it and decided not to eat here." And with that we left.
The second time was just a few hours ago. Once again, I'm inflicted with orderus interruptus by someone apparently lost and searching for the restaurant. And, again, the cashier suffers amnesia about what she was doing two seconds before the phone rang. I should have walked out that time also, but I'm trying to be a more patient and understanding person in general.
Now, don't get me wrong with this...this is not the fault of the person on the other end trying to get help themselves. I've been from one side of this country to the other and most people respect societal "rules" when they are aware of them. This is a customer service breakdown.
Restaurant owners and managers, take note: It is stupid to put a phone with your main line from the outside beside the cash register, unless your going to train your employees in proper customer relations etiquette. And what would that be? Simple..."XXX Restaurant, hold please". Finish waiting on the people with cash standing right in front of you...then take the call.

Peace out (even to Ma Bell),
HBH