Winning!

It was a coveted balmy October night in San Diego and a large convention was in full swing at our hotel.  The restaurant got hit hard, as expected, and we were cranking out drinks and decadent dishes as respectably as possible. 

I saw a single lady get sat at my last available table.  I was juggling a lot at this point; taking drink and food orders, inputting them into the computer, getting drinks from the bar, dropping checks, running credit cards, etc… It was not an easy evening to say the least.  I hurried as quickly as possible to get to the point in which I could greet her and give her my full attention.  She was facing away from me and just as I started to walk over, I saw her pick up her purse and begin to get up.  Uh oh.  “Hi ma’am!” I began with a huge smile.  “I’ll be taking care of you tonight.  Thanks for your patience.  We’re quite busy, as you can see.”

No smile on her end.  Just a frank, “I was just about ready to leave.  I’m really hungry.”    Of course I had to reply with, “I apologize.  Again, as you can see we’re very busy tonight.  But I am ready for you now.  I can take both your food and drink orders if you’d like.”  She agreed.  “I’d like a glass of the Malbec and I’d like a bowl of tomato soup.  And I’ll have the beet salad.”  I responded quickly, “Great.  The soup will come out quickly.  I’ll be right back with the wine.   Also, my assistant will be by with bread for you at any moment as well.”  She seemed reasonably content with my plan but was definitely still irritated.   I figured as long as she had water, wine and bread on her table as quickly as possible, she couldn’t be too upset.  Right?  

Wrong.

As I shuffled about my station, I kept my eye on her - as well as my seven other tables.  I asked how her soup was and I commented on how quickly it came out.  Thank god for food runners.  She didn’t say anything.  Perhaps she gave me a head nod, but she didn’t give me any response like she was actually satisfied with how quickly it came out.  At this point I had a feeling there was no winning with his lady. 

I had no time to dwell on her so I continued onward with my juggling act. 

After some more time went by, I noticed she had put the soup bowl aside.  I fired the beet salad (“firing” is an industry term used to let the kitchen know the table is ready for it’s next course).    I continued multi-tasking and juggling what felt like 20 things at once.  As I was taking an order at a table, I noticed my assistant was giving me the I need to tell you something look.   Oh no.  After taking that table’s order, I hurriedly walked inside.  “What’s up?” I asked him.  He said, “The lady on Table 11 said the salad is taking too long and she just wants her check.”  Oh God.  Of course. There’s absolutely no winning with this woman.  I didn’t even care to talk to her about her “situation” first.   I took the salad off her check, printed her ticket and began to walk over.   As I was literally heading over to her table with the check, the food runner arrived with her salad.  Yes!  At least it came out before I dropped the check (keep in mind, it honestly didn’t take long).  The food runner stood there frozen, looking as if he was taking a verbal beating from this woman.  Rut ro.  What am I walking into?

As I briskly walked up, the lady was telling the food runner,  “The salad took way too long to get here.  I don’t want it.  It should have been here immediately after I was finished with the soup.”   She actually said immediately.  I told the food runner, “I’ll handle this.”  I piped up.  “Well the salad is here now ma’am.  If you think it took too long you can still enjoy it and I won’t charge you for it.”  She didn’t like that idea either.  Who turns down a free beet salad?   Especially when it’s right there, ready to eat.   I continued.  “I’m sorry it took too long for you, but it seems like it came out in a timely manner.  I knew you were hungry so I had the soup come out first to be as quick as possible.”  She just shook her head, “Well maybe you should have asked me if I wanted the meal coursed.  I would have preferred to have both out together.  You should have asked me.  You’re just too busy anyway.”  The nerve of this lady.  I couldn’t win with this woman.  There was no need to argue, nor spend any more time with her.  She was over it so I was over it too.  I dropped the check, apologized one last time and walked away.  

What more could I have done? 

The answer: nothing.  Years in the restaurant industry will teach you many valuable lessons about people.  Being a server is truly an education in sociology and psychology.   You have to like people as a server; friendly, rude, impatient and everyone in between.  There will always be people in this world you’ll just never be able to please.  I realized this lady was one of those people from the moment I walked up to her table (remember she was ready to leave before I could even say hello).  Nothing I could have done would have changed her attitude or made her dining experience better.  Even if it had been a slow night and I had greeted her in five seconds, served her salad immediately after the soup bowl was taken away (virtually impossible), she still would have been unhappy about something.  

Perhaps it was just her mood that night, perhaps it had something to do with what happened to her that day, but the one thing I did know was that it wasn’t worth my time to argue to try and fix it. 

In serving humanity, sometimes you just have to let those ones go.  And when you look at it from that perspective, who’s really winning now? 

That would be me.

Be polite.  Do what you can.  Don’t dwell.  Move on. 

Who’s next?  ~ HK ~