A Server's Nightmare
Serving is a wonderful profession and an easy way to make quick money.
Unfortunately, people can be on their worst behavior when coming into a restaurant. Here are a few of my most horrific experiences:
The Funeral Party:
I was working at Mellow Mushroom and a party of over 25 people came in thirty minutes before closing time. It was apparent that a handful of members had already been drinking. They immediately came in and started demanding 25 shots.
My wonderful bartender made the 25 lemon drop shots and then stated that would be the last round due to lack of ingredients to make any more.
After the shots were taken, a lady approached the bar demanding more lemon drops. We explained that we could not make them, and then the woman proceeded to scream profanities at the bartender.
A few moments passed and management discovered that the party was mixing their own drinks on the patio, which is against the law. It was expressed that this is not allowed, which turned into a heated argument.
Hot headed party goers were expressing to my manager that they would “put his head through a wall” and started to threaten all of the managers as well as the bartender.
We got all of their food out and immediately gave them togo boxes as well as their checks and told them to leave.
The main culprit of the party expressed that nobody would be leaving us a cent in tips. This scared me because I was their server. I had gotten them all water, bar drinks, appetizers, pizzas and plates.
Luckily, the mean lady realized I had not inconvenienced them and still tipped me. But the entire experience with them was atrocious.
The Stall Sneaker:
While working at Mellow Mushroom I was given a party of 20. Things seemed to be going well for the first half of their stay.
One of our hosts was using the bathroom and expressed that a little kid had been banging on the door, and eventually crawled under her stall. The child just sat there and stared at her. This scared the host and she told management.
Unfortunately that child was from the top 20. After my manager explained the situation to the parents and politely asked them to watch the child, things took a turn.
From that point on the party would not look at me or speak to me. Any time I checked on them everyone would roll their eyes and scoff. This was frustrating, since I had been taking great care of them.
I asked them if they were ready for their checks and got no response. Just stares and scoffs once again, so I brought out the bill. They left cash on the table and immediately left.
At this point I was not expecting much of a tip, but I did not expect them to short the bill. They paid for ¾ of the bill. Luckily that did not have to come out of my own pocket, but some restaurants would make their servers pay the difference.
This entire experience was extremely upsetting because they were my only table for my entire shift. And I got nothing from them except for rude attitudes, just because their child was misbehaving.
I could go on and on about horror stories over my last 2 years of serving. Even after moving up to more of a fine dining restaurant, I still encounter people like this quite often.
My advice is to be kind to your servers. There is no situation at which it is okay to throw a tantrum, verbally berate or not pay the tab after a dining experience.
