The restaurant data is the only one that is at odds with intuition, and strongly so. Why would Thursday be 3.5x more popular than Wednesday? Without an explanation, I'm more willing to believe that there was a data anomaly.
This is anecdotal and I don't have data to support my claim (although someone can probably find something on Google).
You've never heard "Thursday's the new Friday"? College kids and young employeds party hearty on Thursdays now. It started in the early 2000's.
Uncle Google shows that even the NYT knows about it: http://www.google.com/search?q=thursdays%20the%20new%20frida...
Remember: just because you can't figure out the reason intuitively, and immediately, doesn't mean there isn't one.
It just occurred to me that there are probably reading this who have no idea what it was like when your schedule was entirely set by your employer with no wiggle room. Yikes!