Two ladies walked onto our patio with a three year old. I politely greeted them and before I could
even finish my opening question, “Would you like something to drink besides wa—”
one of the ladies wearing a green t-shirt responded rudely, “No. Water is
fine.” Okaaaay. I took another
shot. “How about anything besides water
to drink for the little one?” She
practically cut me off again and said, “No.
Water only.” Geese. Someone needs a Xanax. I decided to leave them alone for a bit
to allow them to get situated (as well as to mentally prepare for my next
encounter with that woman).
After I saw their menus set aside for a while, I decided I
should return, albeit reluctantly. The
lady in the green t-shirt said, “We’re going to share a rainbow roll. But I want all of the fish seared.” Hmmm. I looked up into the left corner of my brain
to contemplate this possibility. When
she noticed this, she quickly validated her demand with, “I know they can do
it. They’ve done it for me before.” Really? Where?
Here? I’d never seen this lady before
in my life. Something about this
woman told me she was lying. I replied
as politely as I could, “Okay. Well, I
still have to ask the sushi chef if we can do it.
It’s not a usual request. It’ll
be a few minutes but I’ll be back.” I A-lined
it back to the kitchen and asked the sushi chef if she could sear all seven
pieces of the fish on the roll. She rolled
her eyes, pondered for a moment then gave me the go ahead.
I ordered the specialty sushi roll in the computer then told
the lady we could do it. She said, “I
knew it.” Perhaps
a “thank you” would have been nice to hear, Miss Appreciative.
And now for the doozy.
As I was shaking my head in annoyance at the side station, I
saw her take out a paper bag of tacos wrapped in foil. Oh no
she didn’t. She took the tacos out
of the foil and put them on one of our plates.
She started cutting them up and feeding them to the kid, taking bites
herself along the way. Keep in mind
guests aren’t even allowed outside bottled
water at our restaurant, let alone actual food.
Let me recap. Not
only was this lady rude, she was sharing
one single sushi roll with her friend, demanded special preparation for the
roll and at that point had more food on the table than she even ordered. And her roll wasn’t even out yet. A
restaurant is a place of business. It’s
not a picnic bench at the park.
Reason #178 of why you should be nice to your servers: If you’re nice to us, we might actually let
you get away with bringing your own tacos into the restaurant we work at. If a guest is friendly with me, for example,
going out of their way to say, “Please” and “thank you,” I’m probably going to
let the “no outside food or beverage” rule slide a bit. But this green t-shirt lady? Not a chance in her picnic party.
Just about then, the food runner brought out the sushi
roll. I took a deep breath before I
walked over to her table (because I hate laying down the law to people, especially
the mean ones). I would be a horrible policewoman.
“How’d that turn out? Just how you wanted it?” I asked as politely as possible even though I
was fuming on the inside. Green t-shirt
lady replied, “Yes. Fine. I need Ponzu sauce.” Of
course she needed something. Yet again,
I A-lined it back to the kitchen to fetch her stupid sauce. As I headed back, I realized it was time to
say something about the tacos. It was
beyond ludicrous that she would even think that was acceptable.
On my way down to her table, Ponzu sauce in hand, I gave
myself a pep talk of epic proportions.
With my mental boxing gloves on, I was ready. I placed the sauce on the table and flexed my
authority. “Alright, here’s your Ponzu sauce… You know, you’re not supposed to
have any outside food here. I know it’s
for the little one, but still. If I told
my manager, she would make you finish it on the boardwalk or throw it away. She would not be happy with this.” Green t-shirt lady gave me a nasty look and
said, “I’ll take the check.” So rude, yet fine by me. Good riddance lady.
I dropped the check.
It was $19.48. I stood at the
host stand and told one of the greeters what was going on. Just about then, I saw green t-shirt lady put
down cash, pack up her things and leave.
At that moment, I told one of the greeters, “I bet she only leaves a $20
dollar bill.” I was right. She left me
fifty-two cents for a tip after everything I did for her. Of course it’s possible she would have left
me that amount regardless of whether or not I behaved as server and policewoman. I guess I will never know. Regardless, I laid down the rules, kept my cool
and perhaps saved another server from having to deal with that
ridiculousness. I bet green t-shirt lady
thinks twice about bringing in outside food to another restaurant again.
Or maybe she will keep breaking the common sense restaurant laws for the rest of
her life. Who knows.
But at least she won’t be doing that at the place I work at. And as for my fellow servers, I know they
appreciated my police work too.
Because
not only do I serve humanity, I serve with my fellow servers in mind as
well.
No comments:
Post a Comment