Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Appalled

Sorry Folks, but I need to do a little venting because I am in shock of something that happened this evening. (There is a little graphic language in this because it is dialouge in the story so please keep that in mind when reading.)

A little backstory...

A few months ago it was kind of getting late in the night, and I was at work--there weren't many customers in the restuarant at the time. One of my servers came into the kitchen crying because a man was being rude to her. She said he was angry and rude because there was lettuce on his burger and was apologizing to me because she didn't remember him asking for no lettuce. I calmed down my employee and fixed the man's burger and walked into the dining room (took a total of about 3 minutes to fix). I found the man angrily standing in front of the entrance to the kitchen--waiting to speak to me. I smiled and told him I had fixed his burger, and while holding it in my hand, he continued to belittle and scream at me about how incompetent he thought my employee was for putting lettuce on his burger. (Does any one else see a problem with anyone getting this angry at a stranger over lettuce?!?)

He refused to eat the burger or even take it to go--even though it was IN MY HAND and fixed. He left angry and swore he'd never be back; however, the next day he returned when I wasn't there and joked with the staff and manager on duty at the time laughing while saying "I was an asshole to those girls last night."

Since then he's been in a couple times, always speaks and is genuinely pleasant to me, and I try not to hold it against him. BUT we still fondly refer to him as "the burger guy" haha...

Then tonight....

A friend and I went to a local restaurant for her to have a late dinner, and I was going to have dessert and sit with her so she didn't have to eat alone. We were seated at a booth in the back--there were only about 3 other tables in the restaurant including a couple at one booth right behind us and then a couple guys at the bar--one of which happens to be one of my employees.

My friend was texting and receiving messages while we sat and waited on the server to bring our drinks and take our order. The woman at the booth behind us said something (I'm assuming asking what the noise was) I didn't understand and he loudly said "I guess it's someone's f***ing phone going off!" I asked her if she heard him--she hadn't and then she put her phone on silent so it wouldn't disturb anyone including them.

The server brought our drinks and there was a piece of ice stuck to the side of the glass. I was talking to my friend while trying to get it unstuck with my straw and knocked my glass over! It was embarrassing because I hadn't even taken a drink out of it yet, and it almost went all over my friend. The woman from the next booth again yelled "That's what you get you stupid bitch!" I was shocked. Then my employee joked from the bar "Hey, Kristen! Do you need a lid?" I joked back "I think I need a sippie cup!" We laughed and the man then said loudly "I think you need a f***ing babysitter too!"

I am a 25 year old adult professional woman in a nearly empty restaurant being treated so horribly by a stranger that I nearly LOST it. I was angry I needed to walk away. So I went to the restroom to get away and chatted with my employee and his friend at the bar briefly and walked back to the table...having to walk past the angry booth to get back to my seat. Apparently while I was in the bathroom, the couple was still angrily speaking loudly about us and my friend turned around and said to them calmly "Didn't your mother ever teach you that if you don't have anything nice to say then you probably shouldn't say it?" The woman yelled back something about jumping over the booth to get at my friend.

They were packing up to go boxes and about to leave when I walked past them, but I got a good enough look at him to realize he was "The Burger Guy" and it ALL made sense.

Although when this all happened his back had been toward me, so there was no way he knew it was me before I went to the restroom, but the attitude made sense. It is clear that he/they do not care who you are or if there is a reason--they will be rude. I am still in shock at the way this situation unfolded (over a cell phone getting text messages at 10pm in a nearly empty restaurant). Some people have ZERO respect for people or know how to behave appropriately....

9 comments:

  1. I know I'm not supposed to judge, but it sounds like this guy is Not a born again Christian! I also know its hard not to retaliate, but I am proud you were able to keep your cool! We just need to pray for him.

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    1. I agree dean he needs lots of prayer

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    2. I was half asleep when I replied and I just realized I wrote Dean instead of Deann... I'm sorry lol

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  2. The whole situation is insane. First off, it's lettuce. Remove it from your burger and go about your day. It's not the the lettuce infected the burger with it's lettuce taste. Ketchup on the bun that messes with the taste I can see politely asking for another, but lettuce is beyond petty. Was he afraid he might get some healthy food in his diet?

    I can personally understand getting irritated over a phone going off. The sound of it repeatedly going off grates on my nerves. But I can't understand calling names over it. Again, that's petty. You're friend did the right thing and turned the sound off when she realized it was getting on their nerves. They should have thanked her.

    Where was the restaurant management?! They should have intervened to keep you from being verbally assaulted. Cussing someone out and name calling and physical threats made over absolutely nothing. Such shameful behavior.

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    1. I understand they were irritated over the phone. It was not very loud to start with and The music was up. It wasn't very quiet in there to start with so they were probably the only people besides us that could hear it and it was maybe 3-5 text messages and it was a tone and not a song playing over and over. But nonetheless we put it on silent. It was late in the evening so it would not surprise me if management was not even aware. I did not say anything to the staff. Not sure if they even heard or knew about what the people were saying. Because we did not engage in an argument with them there wasnt a scene. Just us listening to the gripe at us... I'm not mad at the restaurant. I understand that some people are outrageous and I'd hate in my restaurant to have to play babysitter and tell them "please speak kindly to one another". Don't get me wrong I would if I had to but it's so petty that I hope I never have to lol

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  3. I couldn't agree more with Kasady! Lettuce, really? It isn't like anyone has a lettuce allergy. GOOD GREIF! And when people's phones go off all the time, it is VERY annoying, but nothing to cause a rukus over.

    I work for a restaurant group too. I'm not a manager in a restaurant, but I do know that anyone acting like that in any of our locations would be asked to leave. So where exactly was the manager during all of this? I would have made him/her aware of the situation. And the other manager at your location he was joking with about being an asshole, should have stuck up for you and his/her employees telling the customer that isn't appropriate.

    WOW! Some people never cease to amaze us... sorry that happened to you! Hope today is much better!! :)

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    1. I don't think I was clear about the "next day" part bc I was trying to shorten the story. My staff and the other manager were not laughing with him about the way he treated me-he just was rude and laughed and told them how he knew he was an asshole to me and the server the nite before-he just didn't care...The manager defended me as much as possible while trying to please the customer.

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  4. Regardless of if the phone had a blaring song with vulgarity or was just a tone they didn't have to act like that. They could have just asked you to turn it down without acting stupid.

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    1. I agree Kasady.. Glad I'm not the only one who thought that it was completely obsurd. I thought I only got yelled at for crazy petty things I didn't do while at work.... LOL

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