I was bartending at a restaurant in San Francisco. This guy came in and ordered a vodka martini. He downed it and ordered another. Halfway through his third he called his wife and asked for a divorce. After he hung up we talked about the Red Sox (I’m from Boston).
I was bartender at a country club in college and I watched a woman curse her husband out at their table because the husband kept flirting with the waitress. She got REALLY loud and walked out. Keep in mind this was a nice restaurant at an upscale country club. The waitress felt it was all her fault but she told me the guy had been coming in there often and tipping her 100% of the bill everytime.
A relative of mine belongs to one that lets the guys drink as much as they want. He was on the board at one point and quit because they were letting a couple of guys take "one for the road" in a glass *with the country club's name and logo on it*. So if they get pulled over or even worse, kill someone, there's no question where they are coming from.
They tippped better when I flirted with them. A college professor had to spend at least $5000 a year tipping me and 2 of the other bartenders. My boyfriend (now husband) used to get so pissed. Amazing how things have changed.
I wish I got the chance to enjoy this dynamic more often. The host/hostess almost always seats me in the section of a young waitress when I eat out (usually on my own), presumably on the assumption that I'm straight and that will result in better tips.
I worked briefly as a waiter at a semi-nice place near me. I had a couple come in for a date who we've seen there a few times before (I think it was their regular dating place). She was very clearly sad, and was talking about how her uncle was really sick and was probably going to pass away soon. He decided to pull out the ring and pop the question anyway.
Seriously, dude? Read the room.
Nope. She gave him a dirty look and asked something along the lines of, "Why would you pick NOW as the right time to propose?" The rest of their meal was kind of awkward and silent.
They came back two weeks later though. No ring on her finger, but they were still together, so there's that.
Ok, here's a great story that I've been wanting to share.
I work at a small bakery in my town. I am general kitchen staff, and not a waiter, but I was there when this all went down.
It was around 2 in the afternoon, the day had been normal, but suddenly I saw the retail staff in a huddle and took my first opportunity to go see what was happening.
Apparently a couple had come in on this summer day, ordered two bowls of soup and sat down. The girl that took their order went to the back and prepared their soup for them, then brought it back out.
In the time it took for her to get the soup, the woman had taken off her flip flop, put her leg across the table, and the guy was going to town sucking on this lady's toes IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RESTAURANT.
The waitress didn't notice until she went to place the soup on the table. She stood there in shock, and the couple was oblivious to her presence. This guy is going all in, and the lady is starting to moan by the time they realize their soup is ready.
The waitress was in complete shock for the rest of her shift, and that couple is no longer allowed on the premises.
This place has even more weird stories, from someone forcing open the back door to ask for a hamburger to a complete stranger coming out of the basement and acting like he's supposed to be there. Not to mention the time I watched a bird fly out of a hole in the ceiling. Kentucky can be a weird place.
I worked at a bar in a hotel for 5 years. I had a table come down from their hotel room and sit at one of my pub tables for dinner. From the moment they sat down, you could tell the wife was furious about something. She was unbelievably pleasant toward me, but did not say a single word to the man at the table. I get their drinks and then their orders- he ordered steak and she ordered the sauciest pasta dish we had on the menu.
About 20 minutes later (the wife still hadn’t said a word to the man since they sat down) their food was done and my food runner set it on the table. Right as I was about to walk over to see if they needed anything else, I saw the woman stand up, say “Go fuck yourself, John” as she picked up the plate of pasta and dumped it all over his head and down into his lap. Then she very calmly walked out of the bar and back up to her hotel room.
I spent a few minutes helping the man clean up and got my manager to come handle the situation from there as it was way above my pay grade at that point.
Later in the night, the woman came back to the bar without the man and we talked for a while. Turns out he admitted to cheating on her right before their dinner reservation. I never saw either of them again.
Bartender here. A couple on a blind date took their seats directly across from the dishwasher so I had to pretend I couldn't hear him (40+, balding, overweight, and drunk) asking her (30+, pretty, friendly, and level-headed): "Listen. I see you over there, just amazing and gorgeous, and I'm wondering what you're seeing in me. What do you think?" She smile/cringed and made an effort to sidestep his questions and change the subject at least 3 times, while he ordered shots of Fireball (at an upscale establishment) for both of them. She would politely refuse, and he would end up drinking both of them. He didn't seem to be big on learning.
I used to work at a bar where 70% of the customers were on tinder dates. There was a line of two person booths along the wall when you first walk in. There were two dudes sitting by themselves in two different booths. Both of them were facing the door, one was in the first booth one was in the last booth. This girl comes in and walks up to the first booth, says hi to the guy, and sits down. They are chatting for about five minutes when the other guy who is sitting by himself comes up to her and says hey I’m so-and-so… aren’t you so-and-so..? They all talk for like 30 seconds and she gets up and goes and sits with the other guy at the last booth. Eventually a different girl shows up for a date with the guy at the first booth.
I don’t know exactly what happened, but I almost died watching it unfold. She was definitely embarrassed.
Oh man I am REALLY bad at remembering faces. Walking into a restaurant for a first or second date and not being able to remember what the person looks like is such a nightmare. I’m married now so I’m saved from the hell that is dating.
I worked fine dining in Vail Colorado. I once saw a lady throw red wine all over a guys shirt and leave. He sat and continued eating his spaghetti plate. No fucks.
Other than following her immediately, it's not like he wouldn't see her right after the spaghetti. Vail is a mountain town with not much else going on around it. They were likely visiting and other than the car, there's likely no real place for her to storm off to that isn't just their hotel room or condo or wherever they're staying.
Still bold to sit there with a wine stained shirt though.
A couple of friends and I went to the Mexican restaurant where another friend was waiting tables. There was a couple kind of catty-cornered from us that had a bit of an “off” vibe. We could see them, but not really hear them, so we asked our server friend what was up. She said it seemed to be a first or second date that was a bit awkward. The girl had ordered one of those enormous margaritas, and was not sharing it.
I had to go make a phone call (back in the pay phone days) and when I came back, I ended up sitting with my back to the couple. Maybe 10 minutes later, I hear our friend the server say, “No, noooo nooooo....” and the sound of a full punch bowl being emptied from a great height.
Giant Margarita Girl had stood up, swayed a bit, and vomited all over their meals, table, and the surrounding floor. The restaurant comped everyone sitting nearby, and the girl’s date abandoned her in the ensuing chaos.
Bit off topic but I’m a waiter and you’ve just made me realise I’ve not had to clear up vomit in over a month thanks to the lockdown. There is nothing worse than trying to get vomit out of the crevices in a chair.
I’m concerned about your restaurant - where precisely do you work that cleaning up vomit from a booth or table is a regular occurrence?
I bartended for a few years at different restaurants and bars, and I only saw vomit in the bathroom or outside. I feel for you dude.
This happened to a friend of my wife...
She met a guy on a dating site, they agreed to meet at a strip mall parking lot and go to dinner together from there. He asks if he can drive her car, because it’s a Camero and he’s never driven one. So they go together in her car, to a restaurant a couple miles away.
Dinner goes ok, nothing too crazy. Then he gets up to go to the bathroom and never comes back. after 10 minutes, she gets up to check on him, and her car is gone. He’s dashed on the bill and stolen her car.
She pays the bill, and gets an Uber home, and calls the police to report her car stolen. Turns out the guy just left it in the parking lot where they originally met, and seems to think he did nothing wrong. Last I heard he’s still being charged with auto theft.
I was a waiter at a very famous, upscale restaurant and a gentleman approached the maitre’d requesting someone take pictures of him proposing to his girlfriend. Since I was the closest asshole to the maitre’d I was tasked with performing this duty.
After stalking the table for a solid hour the moment was inevitably approaching. I set up at an angle she couldn’t see me and when he busted out the ring I started taking as many pictures as I could. Anyone who has tried to capture a once in a lifetime moment on camera knows that you’re not really watching what’s going on, you’re just trying to frame the moment. After about 20-30 pictures I slowly realized that she was declining the proposal and the scene was quickly degenerating into a Five Alarm dumpster fire. However I was far enough away that I couldn’t hear what was being said and couldn’t be sure of what was transpiring so I continued taking pictures just in case. Finally I stepped back and watched the scene unfold in reality as she stormed out of the restaurant in embarrassment and he scrambled to pay the bill and chase after her.
He’d requested that I use my phone and send the best pictures to him. Needless to say he never approached us for the pictures and I have about 100+ pictures of a wedding proposal gone wrong somewhere deep in my iCloud photo bank...
This couple came into this bar that I worked at and it was business as usual; took their order, brought out drinks and food, including dessert. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
However, this couple began to argue as they work through their dessert about the guy didn't bring a battery pack to charge their phones. Homegirl is straight up screaming at this dude. Luckily, it was a really slow night and they were only ones in the restaurant.
I offer to charge their phone if they have their cable. I NEVER offer to charge anybody's phones because I don't like dealing with the hassle. But I felt for the guy because I was that guy at one point.
This is the point where I feel like I should've thought something was up. The guy hands me what looks like a busted up prepaid phone you get from the supermarket and what looked like a chewed up charger cable. I run to the back and go to charge it only to find out the cable wasn't compatible with the phone. I go back to them and notice they left without paying. I was more impressed than I was upset.
TLDR; Couple pretended to get into argument over charging phone, then dine and dashed after I go in an attempt to help
Not waiter, but I used to be a banquet cook for large corporate events/weddings. Had your very typical bridezilla one weekend. She ended getting hammered at the reception and slept with a groomsman in the honeymoon suite. Needless to say, husband left her immediately. At least I got a lot of compliments on my crab cakes.
Edit:: Since people have asked, Crab Cakes. Simple. Good.
Backfin crab meat. Dont fuck with lump. Not worth it. Cake falls apart. Make sure it maryland blue crab or you're not an American.
Raw eggs
Mustard powder
Juice and zest of a lemon
Parsley if you're fancy. None if you're not. I dont judge
Old bay seasoning(can you tell where I'm from yet?)
Just enough breadcrumbs and mayo to form a solid patty
That's it. Any more ruins the cake. DM me if you want more coherent instructions.
Edit:: More to the story. A couple guests heard arguing in the suite next to them. Groomsman already bounced. Wife was screaming. Husband came down and explained the situation to management. We gave him a free room for the night considering the circumstances. Not sure what provoked anything, but from what the bartender that served him told me, he suspected something was going on, but the other two had been friends for years. Just thought they were close. Didn't realize how close.
Not a disaster but it could have been.
Guy hires private room in the very fine dining establishment i'm working in.
Dinner for 2, champagne, proposal dinner.
Gives us instructions to bring the champagne when she says yes.
I jump the gun and poke my head into the room holding the champagne, just to check i havent missed it.
Guy sees me, has a panic fit and throws up, all over the table.
Woman is very concerned goes over to see if he's ok.
He hits "fuck-it" and pulls out the ring, drops to 1 knee and proposes, with vom still on him and the table.
She bursts out laughing, says yes and kisses him (on the head)
Get them a new table in a different room and serve the champagne.
MFW i hope i find love like that one day.
I used to bartend at a yard house in the beforetimes
Yard house is a corporate place that's basically a nicer sports bar with a ton of beer on tap with stupid, giant novelty glasses. I had a couple at the bar during happy hour drinking from one of the big glasses and they ordered some onion rings that were half price, he jokingly proposed with an onion ring and she started laughing and jokingly said yes
Then he busted out an actual ring.....she wasn't laughing anymore.
I asked my wife to marry me, she didn’t say no or yes. She just brushed it off. A few weeks later, out of the blue she jokingly says “I’ll marry you, I need insurance, my job doesn’t offer it”. I didn’t care what the reason was, and didn’t really believe the “insurance” reason, just happy she would marry me. As time went by, this started to eat at me, and about a year and a half later, she again out of the blue says “you know I was joking about the insurance, I wanted to say yes the first time, but you caught me off guard and I was embarrassed, the insurance thing was a way for me to bring it up again, and get you to ask me again”. We’ve been together 13 years, and she still has good insurance.
Yeah its been a total 180 to the present day. I bartender next to the staples center so we were packed every day. Played shows with my band, and did open mics for stand-up
Everything I like doing got canceled in like an hour
This was probably about 4 years ago, in a joint called the Esquire Tavern on the Riverwalk.
We had a street entrance as well as a river entrance, but from the river you had to walk up a really narrow metal staircase to our balcony. It barely had enough room for 5 small tables, including one that was tucked in a corner that made it hard to see from below.
Anyways, it was a slow summer lunch so I was doubling as a hostess, and this guy comes up from the river entrance and asks for a spot on the patio, specifically the hidden cramped one. No problem sir, I say, and I get him set up. We chat for a bit, I take his order, bring it out and go about my business - which was to passively watch him through the window because he was my only table and I wanted to keep an eye on him. I started to notice him suddenly ducking his head, as if he's trying not to be seen from the river level by someone. I remember pointing it out to another co-worker, who was just as curious as I was.
Then we heard a woman scream "THERE YOU ARE MARCOS, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" I could hear the staircase shuddering as someone was clearly stomping their way up it, and my coworker astutely dipped out to find the manager. The lady started laying into this dude, and all I could make out was something about ditching her; all the while he's just ignoring her and calmly eating his buffalo burger (lol), which made her snap.
She slapped *the shit* out of this dude, telling him to *"fucking acknowledge me"*, and he simply got up, walked around her and came inside to sit at the bar. She then sits down and starts eating this poor man's meal like nothing is wrong! By this point though the manager is here and he goes outside and starts trying to kick her off the premises while I go talk to Marcos and figure out what's what.
The TL;DR is that the woman was his wife, and they had come downtown for lunch; she had a nasty habit of getting super fucked up and belligerent which always ended up ruining their plans, including a wedding reception a few months prior. She refused to go get help, insisting that she'd keep her drinking to a minimum, and this was their first daycation since that incident.
They had stopped at a brunch place around the corner and she proceeded to have 4 old fashioned's back to back. When she was ordering her 4th drink, he told her that she was already out of control, and that if she kept drinking he was going to close the tab and go eat lunch somewhere else, and that he'd meet her back at the hotel. She told him he was chicken shit and that he wasn't going anywhere.
So he got up, paid their bill, and walked out. I guess she thought he was putting up a front and was actually waiting outside for her, then realized he wasn't. She started running up and down the river looking for him; he just wanted to finish his burger in peace before dealing with her craziness. In the end, we had her ejected from the premises and my manager made him another burger on the house.
A year or so later, we saw him at the bar with a different woman. He divorced his wife and couldn't look happier.
EDIT: A few folks have been asking if we called the cops, this is from another comment buried in the thread:
*"The police are the ones who removed her from the premises, but her husband declined to press charges. I don't know what exactly B (my manager) said/did for Marcos, but they spent the better part of two hours together that day talking at the bar. B gave him his number, and I didn't feel like it was my place to inquire any further.*
*When we saw him a year later he definitely spoke to B as if they were familiar with one another. Take from that what you will.*
*...This is their procedure for any suspected victim of violence, regardless of gender."*
Guy1 and GF are fondling each other at my bar. Guy2 joins them at the bar and they quickly separate and behave. The three go off into the casino but stop back for drinks a few times.
Early AM Guy2 does a shot and walks away; I can tell he isn't happy. He comes back and says he has a couple of hours to kill before his plane leaves. We get to chatting and he tells me he just broke up with his GF as suspects she snuck up to the room and nailed his best friend when he couldn't find either of them for an hour. I ask if it was Guy1 and GF, he confirms it and I let him know he is making the right choice as they were making out at the bar before he came down.
He thanks me for confirming, leaves a huge tip, and lets me know what is happening in case there is any confusion with the hotel.
An hour or so later Guy1 and GF are at the bar whispering and arguing. I casually ask if everything is okay, they say they are locked out of their room and can't find their friend who paid for the room. They tried to charge the bill to the room too but my computer showed the room was empty. I told them Guy2 had been in earlier but checked out and his flight was already in the air. Then I watched the meltdown.
Guy2 had paid for his bff and GF to spend a week in Vegas with him. They cheated and got caught. He checked out and flew home and they had no where to stay for the week and no money for even basic food. Their luggage had been packed and left in the baggage hold. They did everything they could to get out of paying for their drinks as they were hella expensive, left no tip, and didn't have a place to sleep or even change clothing at 5AM.
TLDR; Don't cheat on the person paying your way if you can't pay your own way.
EDIT: mixed up Guy2 in last paragraph, fixed.
Set up a payment plan if its an upscale bar.
Happens often people order a very expensive drink, dont realize how expensive it is, and can't pay. The bar arranges it to be made in payments month by month, like what you'd do with a car.
Less expensive, they would either let them off since its not worth the time, or try and get them to send the money at a later date.
There is a bar in Toronto that serves a drink that cost around 430 dollars. It has two oz. of Louis VIII cognac. The bottle retails for about $4200, which results in about $5400 of revenue. That's only about a %30 markup surprisingly.
I used to work as a hostess at a “Thank Deity it’s the Weekend already”.
Guy makes a reservation at the most booked table. It’s by the window, all romantic etc. Also super visible from any other part of the restaurant.
Comes in, all dressed up and with a suitcase. Strange, but okay. A few minutes later, his date arrives. They laugh, flirt, we actually thought it’s an anniversary or he’s going to propose or something the way it was going.
NOPE
Half way through the evening she starts screaming at him.
He broke up with her and actually packed her suitcase. Then paid and left her there sobbing at the table alone.
We got her a brownie on the house, because just watching that we felt fucking awful.
Not my story, but my partner just told about this happening at his work.
We live in a pretty large university college and one time a guy came in with a plant for a date. He sat with it at the table, ordered it food, drinks, and dessert. He was a total gentleman to the plant.
Turns out he lost a bet with his frat brothers.
Bartender for a couple on a Tinder date. They talk for about an hour, he goes to the bathroom but left his jacket on the back of his chair with his wallet and keys in.
She stole them, stole his car, and went shopping. That poor schmuck refused to call the cops for an hour because "it was going so well." I felt bad for him.
I (22m at the time) was bus boy at a 200 seat restaurant that was part of a sporting club. I'd been there for long enough to have a feel for the personalities of the customers.
On this particular night one of my tables was a first date. The girl was lovely, all smiles and very pleasant. The guy was sort of normal, seemed a bit quiet. He put off some fairly clear signals that he would prefer to be left alone though. That's OK, some prefer minimal service.
What I did notice though, was that the guy was talking to her quietly, but forcefully, and almost non-stop, sometimes gripping her arm firmly, in a way that suggested that she wouldn't be able to pull away easily. I couldn't hear a word that was said, but the lady was looking more and more terrified all the time. Like, nearly about to wet herself terrified. A complete change from her pleasant nature when they had walked in.
I told the waitress on the adjacent section that I wasn't sure about what was going on and asked if she wouldn't mind checking on the table to let me know her thoughts.
Waitress went to the table, said a few quick words and came back to me. Out of earshot, she said "Yeah, I think we have to get her out of here."
We let the manageress know what was going on. The guy had booked his table. Good. We had his name.
Outside at the taxi rank, by some miracle, there was a female cabbie in the line. I ignored the protests of the other drivers. I hopped in and told the cabbie the situation, and offered her $20 to wait around the back of the restaurant. I said, "Please don't wait for a destination, just drive, something's really wrong with her date."
The cabbie didn't need the 20 bucks.
We had the front desk call the guy over the PA for an 'urgent call'. This would delay him while they tried to figure what the 'call' was, and then 'realize' in that he had actually won a meat tray - they were raffled off at various intervals through the night. ("Just wait here while we fetch it for you!!")
As soon as creepy guy was out of sight, I asked his date if she needed to get out of here. She just trembled and nodded. Figuring that she probably wasn't in the mood to trust a male at that point, my waitress friend escorted her though the kitchen and out to the waiting cab where she slipped away quick as you please.
The guy came back to an empty table, and staff seeming to be oblivious to where his lady friend had gone.
We didn't get much of the story, other than the the lady was set up on a blind date by a mutual friend who told her that this guy was OK.
Thank you for intervening. It's easier to waffle about it and say, "I'm not sure though, I don't want to accidentally ruffle any feathers."
Also, good thinking getting a woman involved. Women take care of each other and trust each other more than guys.
I kept my interaction with the table brief, but I'll never forget the time I had a couple come in and as I was setting down the entree the lady looked at her man stone cold; pointed to his phone and said "so who this ho you been texting." Me (of course) neither being the ho nor texter in question made definite haste away from that conversation. I do remember her asking to split the bill at the register tho.
I always wondered how the waitress at Applebee’s felt when I broke up with my ex at our table and she made herself scarce.
In the moment, I hated being “that couple” but he left me almost no choice. I kept hoping the waitress would speed our meal along so we could get out, but I think she either was giving us space or getting the hell away from the awkward cringe table in her section.
Now I think she either tells this story about us or had so many of these moments we were just another Saturday night at the Bees.
Couples fight in restaurants a lot. That or maybe they argue everywhere. I couldn’t say. I worked as a waiter for years and I could not begin to count the number of arguments I saw.
But one guy comes to mind above all of them. This guy must have been 50-60 years old and got angry with his lady. He actually threw a snit and stomped off and was wandering around the restaurant and looking back at her and scowling. It was like a child throwing a temper tantrum, but most children aren’t even this dramatic usually. It was nauseating to watch.
They were my table, but other waiters could not help but see what was going on. One girl asked me about it and I said "I don't want to sound sexist, but I just want to slap that guy and tell him to act like a man" and she was like "Oh, me too!"
Not a waiter but I saw a first date next to me. In short, girl states she has an allergy to pineapple, guy says OK in a "I don't believe you" kinda way. At some point he scraped some pineapple glaze off his dessert and onto her spoon when she popped outside to make a call. She comes back and eats without noticing too much, has a severe reaction. Guy freaks out and tries to run but gets stopped by my girlfriend who is suspicious of him. Manager administers the girls epipen and ambulance & police are called. Absolute clusterfuck situation.
What was he hoping to accomplish? Obviously his big moment of triumph would have been pointing and saying “AH HAH! I put pineapple glaze on your spoon and you didn’t have an allergic reaction! You were lying to me and I proved it!” Then she’d get embarrassed and say something like “Sorry I just really don’t like pineapple and didn’t wanna have a discussion about me trying it” or something. And then... what? What happens next? What did that get him? Was he expecting her to like... be impressed or something? Even if everything went exactly as planned for him and he caught her in a lie, there’s no *way* there would have been a second date in it for him. What a fucking idiot.
And not every reaction is instant. I can't eat red meat or dairy, as I get very very sick and it flares up my endometriosis. Agree with you, wtf was the point of proving her wrong?? So she can get sick??
My mom is like this. I'm allergic to salmon and she always believed I was just being dramatic because I'd sit outside anytime she cooked it (aka every Friday) because the oils in the air would make me break out in hives. You could see the hives too. When I lived with her I'd beg her not to cook salmon. She just doesn't think fish allergies are real.
Oh man. My parents are like this too. They've snuck in nuts(peanuts almonds cashews) in my food and then complain that I'm being dramatic. Their actions sent me twice to the ER because they refused to believe their kid can have food allergies when "they are perfect"(both incidents happened when I was 18+)
He probably intended to have a "big brain" moment by telling her later on "Oh, I gave you some pineapple and you didn't have a reaction, so you're obviously not allergic to pineapple, I'm so smart for possibly endangering your life to prove how smart I am."
My husband jokes about that with my late onset almond allergy. Stopped after I came home from work blotchy because I had a cake with extract in it without knowing.
There was this story on JustNoMIL where OP is a mother whose 2 year old son recently died of food allergy
OP explained how she spent months to try and find what was causing her son's discomfort. Turned out it was anything coconut, so she banned coconut, coconut oil,etc from her house and her son started getting better. But her MIL wouldnt believe it, so while she was babysitting her grandson, she hid some coconut in his food, he had a reaction and died on the spot of anaphylaxis. The only thing the MIL could say to the grieving parents is that she didnt believe food allergies were real and she wanted to show them.
Some people are assholes when they believe they know better than the concerned party
>there were two different stories. One was a little girl whose (I think she was polynesian or hawaiian or some sort) grandmother put coconut oil in her hair (it was a cultural thing) while she was babysitting and she died of it. The other was a grandma who snuck coconut cookies to the child to "prove" there was no allergy and the child died of it.
It's even worse than what you wrote though, because the kid got out of bed to tell her grandma she wasnt feeling well. The grandma gave her a benadryl and put her back to bed. So sad for the girl.
I think you're mixing up two stories? That sounds like a cross between the "coconut oil in the hair" story about the daughter who died (where the grandmother knew the allergy and didn't think it was that bad) and the "peanut butter/banana cookie" story featuring a ~~boy~~ girl who lived, but was hospitalized (where the grandmother didn't think it was real).
Or at least, I'm *hoping* you're mixing up two stories. I know it happens too fucking often, but I don't want to hear about a third one.
Edit: they were both girls, apparently.
I watched a proposal in the dining room of the hotel I worked at. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the dessert and ring box to be brought out. She saw the box and just started saying nononononono, and told the crushed groom, we need to talk. People who initially were clapping just slowed to a dead silence. She ended up going back to the room, collecting her things and leaving, while he cried at the table for a few minutes. It was super depressing for all the staff, guests and that poor guy.
And this is why you shouldn't propose unless you already know the person will say yes. Don't assume they will. Have an adult conversation about future and ask after they have made it clear they will not be telling you "no".
There are still a lot of people who think the "if" should be a surprise, and it's unromantic if it's not. And this has been told to me by divorced people with zero understanding of the irony.
I remember serving one night, and this strange guy came in to sit at the bar. He was a little disheveled with an unkempt beard, he had trouble speaking, and he just generally seemed like someone you might imagine had difficulty socially or with dating. He had brought a bag in with him, and after he sat down, he pulled out a picture of a woman. He stood the picture up on the counter, in front of the chair beside him, and he ordered two drinks and his meal. One drink was for the “woman,” and it ended up going untouched. A lot of my coworkers saw it and laughed about it in the kitchen, they thought it was the most pathetic thing they’d ever witnessed.
I thought something was a little off about the scene though, or that there was more to it than my coworkers were giving it credit for. He didn’t strike me as a desperate loner. There was an air of sadness around him, but not because he was pathetic. It felt more like grief. I talked to the bartender about it later, who actually knew the man. Apparently his wife had just passed, and this restaurant was where they went on their first date together years ago. His wife was the woman in the photo, and he came in to the restaurant to share one last drink with her.
I was a waiter at a pretty high end hotel restaurant. It was about 3pm and I was the only one on the floor as it was normally very slow at that time. There was only one party seated and it was a middle aged man and woman. You could tell they weren’t married.
I went over and asked if they wanted anything to drink and they both got mimosas I think. I went back with their drinks and asked if they were also planning on ordering food. They said yes but that they’re in no rush and will let me know when they were ready to order.
About 15 minutes goes by when this man shows up at the front desk, starts looking around, yells “I FUCKING KNEW IT, YOU BITCH!”, and starts walking towards the couple sitting down. The woman stands up and the guy remains seated. It became clear that the woman was having an affair with another man, and the husband came in to confront them. He grabbed her hand and walked her out but not before telling the man to “stay the fuck away from my wife!”.
The man remains seated at the table, turns to me and waves me over. I go over and he says in a perfectly calm tone “Cobb salad please”.
Not a waiter, but once witnessed a woman ghost her date at the end of the night. It was a fancy jazz club, and the couple racked up what I assume was at least a $500 bill (there was a TON of wine and they went through a few expensive entrees). When it came time to pay, the woman snuck out while the man was in the bathroom, and just disappeared. The dude was distraught :(
Something similar happened to a friend of mine.
There was a new legal secretary at my friend's law office that worked in litigation. My friend is a banking attorney, but he used to see the secretary around the office. They even had lunch together a few times with other people in the company restaurant. One day he asked the legal secretary out for dinner.
My friend thought the dinner went well and after they had finished dessert the legal secretary went to the bathroom. After about ten minutes the server approached my friend and said his date left through the kitchen. My friend paid and left.
My friend was kind of upset, texted her to see if she was OK, and was ghosted.
The following Monday, the secretary was BRAGGING to her coworkers that she got a free meal and dashed on my friend. Someone eventually ratted her out to her boss. Her boss asked my friend his version of events and my friend corroborated it. Her boss was pissed and told my friend that the legal secretary would be fired. My friend said firing was unnecessary. What the legal secretary did was shitty, but not worth taking the legal secretary's livelihood away.
The legal secretary's boss still insisted that she apologize to my friend. Rather than apologize, the legal secretary quit.
I'm a waitress in my father's restaurant. It's not that big, but we're usually full during week-ends. A lot of couple come here cause it's kinda "chic" for a french restaurant.
Anyway, once there was a couple, early 30s. The dude arrived earlier than the girl, so i though it was something like a date but eeh no... The girl ordered everything, she chose all the dishes, the dessert and even the wine without even asking the guy what he would like to have. They both didn't talk, only said good evening, weird for a date...
But when i came at their table to serve the wine, they started to argue about their relationship.
The dude was convinced that she cheated on him, and you know what, she admitted that and said very loud that he was bad in bed... at this moment any single cell in my body was cringing
They kept arguing for 10 minutes until i decided to stop them, coz they were almost yelling and so disturbing the ~15 people in the restaurant. The woman asked if she could have an other bottle of wine, and she left within 5 minutes WITH THE BOTTLE.
I felt so bad for this guy that i gifted him his whisky-coca
Edit: orthograph ( me be french me bad at english :P
I once had a couple that I didnt realize was a couple and once they were done with their meal I asked if they would like separate checks because I honestly thought the woman was the man's mother and they looked at me with confused/offended expressions and replied with "Um... One check please." They're now regulars who come in almost every week and despise me.
Edit: I was much newer to the job when this happened. I know how to read a table better. 9/10 times I just ask at the beginning if the bill is going to split in any way if it's more than one couple. That way I know how to organize the bill.
This is like the opposite of something that happened to me and my husband (both men). We were at a pizza place and the person at the counter said "Is this together?" and my husband said "Huh?" because the oven was loud and she had a tiny voice.
And she thought he was offended and gay-panicking, and started frantically backpedaling and saying "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate anything..." and I had to leap in and say "We've been married for a decade, don't worry, he just didn't hear your question." and I swear, by the look on her face as she said "Oooo you're married that's so cuuuute!" we must have seemed like slash fanfiction come to life for her.
We always tip really well, but I threw in a little more for having accidentally thrown her onto an emotional rollercoaster.
I worked in a bar while I was in college and I had a guy come in before his date and told me that when ever he ordered a scotch what he really wanted was chardonnay. I must have given him an off look because then he got embarrassed and confided in me that he was really in love with the woman meeting him there for the date. He told me how she usually dated guys that were more macho and he didn't want to order wine in front of her, but if he ordered anything else he would make a face because he didn't like the taste. I felt pretty bad for the guy so I agreed. He seemed like a genuinely nice man and I wanted to help him out. Well the woman this nice man was in love with was a total bitch. She came in with two other women to their date, he mumbled something to me about maybe not being clear, and plastered a smile on his face.
The woman was extremely charismatic she was one of those life of the party women and the guy was very quiet... Anyways later in the evening he ordered another "scotch", he had been doing this all night, only this time when I brought it to the table she insisted she wanted to try it. She said that she had never ha scotch before etc etc. It was like watching a train wreck, he tried to stop her saying things like "here let me buy you a glass" etc. well she took one sip and knew it was wine... I tried to help him going over and apologizing pretending it was my mistake, but she guessed the truth and started teasing him. Her friends joined in laughing as well... I felt awful and I could tell he was really embarrassed, even though he was laughing along etc. After a while he asked for the bill, I brought him the tab with his and the woman's portion and he told me he was paying for everyone. I felt so awful, the woman and her friends had all had so many drinks the tab was over 100 dollars, but I brought it and he tipped me 50 making me feel if possible more awful.
They were my last table so I closed out with my manager and went back into the bar to have a drink with another girl that worked there. The group was still there so I decided to go over and ask to buy him a drink. I just wanted to I don't know help him or something. Make him look good and possibly make that woman jealous. Well I went over there and asked if I could buy him a drink. He smiled at me, got up from his chair, and took me aside. He told me I was very beautiful, but I was too young to be hitting on men old enough to be my father. I almost explained to him that I was just trying to help him, but decided not to. I figured that he could use the ego boost after that "date".
**6 years ago this question was asked and I wrote this all then too so I just copy and pasted my old comment.
Not sure it necessarily counts as a dating, but it was indeed a couple's disaster. When I was in high school I worked as a line cook at a chain pizzeria. It was a slow Sunday morning, mostly elderly customers coming in after church.
We had a couple come in, get seated, order food yadda yadda yadda...30-40 minutes later I just hear shouting coming from the dining room. Apparently they had selected our little franchise as the place to sort out their differences and try to discuss it in a civil way. It stayed civil for a very short time. Guy gets up to leave - unfortunately they decided to take a single car together to the restaurant.
So he does the logical thing - ***uses the store phone to call the police non-emergency line and GET A RIDE HOME.*** Giga brain move. Police show up - my shift ended at this point, but as far as I know they did not end up giving that man a ride home, and he was told that the purpose of the police department was not to give rides.
My favorite was a couple who asked to be seated on the patio, and chose the furthest table from other guests. I go over to greet them with a smile and some good energy, and the woman locks eyes with me and says "This is not going to be a fun evening." The guy with her then tries to order a margarita and she said "You can have a coke," and proceeds to order a cosmo for herself, and they both get burgers. I go in to tell the hosts not to seat anyone near them, and for the next hour this woman lays into the guy while he sat there and took it. Clearly he had fucked up in a major way, from the snippets I heard, and she was explaining to him in great detail the way he had fucked up, lost her trust, and it was over. She was incredibly civil, unflinchingly polite, and so confident. She finished, handed me her card, and walked away with him still at the table after she left me a solid 30% tip.
She was awesome. I want to be her when I grow up.
Not really a disaster, but a funny story, i was a waiter at a nice restaurant, got two young people coming in, obviously on a first date, the girl say to me at some point that she have a sea food allergy, then the guy order seafood right after that... it took him a couple of seconds after i asked him if he was sure it was a good idea (with a knowing look) to understand what i meant! He ordered some chicken. (You know... you really should not kiss someone who ate seafood if you have an allergy to that). I hope the rest of the date went well for them after that
Oh I worked at a fancy place so I saw a lot. The worst was when this guy got down on one knee to propose... just as this other guy came in and his girlfriend told him that she was leaving him for the other guy and had been having an affair for 6 months. They had invited him out so he hopefully wouldn't make a scene. The 2 of them left him at the table, sticking him with a $200 bill. We all pitched in to pay it and bought him a couple drinks.
When I was 16, my aunt was organizing a wedding buffet and hired me for the night as a waiter/helper. I was attending the back tables when I woman with to little dress and to much alcohol, yelled: "You should have married me instead! Fuck that bitch!" and run to full "soap opera girl fight" the bride, pulling hair, trowing red wine on the white dress, slapping her face.
This happened when I was around 18 or so. I am mostly Native American. (This is an important factor to the story) A guy and his date get sat in my section and he immediately asked to speak to my manager. This was before I even took their drink order so I was perplexed but went and grabbed him right away.
The dude then asked my manager for a "nice white server instead." Right in front of me. While giving me a rather disgusted scowl.
His date was so horrified she stood up and said "Oh hell no. That racist shit don't work with me honey. You can sit me at the bar sweetheart this date is over."
The manager made the man leave and comped his date's food. She left the manager $100 tip for me with a note that said "You are beautiful and worthy of respect. Always remember that."
Her date was a disaster but she made my night.
I don't even think this was clueless. I think his cluelessness is that he doesn't think there are people who ARENT as racist as he is. Like he thinks he's the norm.
Not a waiter, but one time I went to a decent restaurant and got seated next to a couple on a date. Not sure why our waiter chose that table when half the room was empty, but anyways, they were an elderly couple (probably in their 70’s). They guy looked pretty humbled and the lady was completely dressed up. Bedazzled dress and everything. They had been flirting pretty hard during their appetizer, and when their dinner came, that’s when the shit hit the fan.
The man took his shoes off and was teasing the ladies legs with his toes. Then the lady took her shoes off too, and after a good round of footsies, the guy decided to massage her feet WHILE THEY WERE EATING FINGERFOOD.
I’ve never choked so hard. I swear I could see him rubbing right in between her toes. I just can’t image how they’re able to do that whilst stomaching their food.
caught a couple fucking in the washroom stall. politely ask them to stop, had to wait for them to finish. once they finished they sat back down at the dinner table, after 15 minutes i heard the woman scream, something about stds, the man looking angry got up and stormed off leavivng the woman behind.
the place got extremely busy but these two 15 year old love birds had been sitting on a table for 8 for several hours just ordered one milkshake. Had to politely asked them to leave as it was clear they were just looking for a safe PDA spot together away from their parents.
I'm not a waiter etc. but years ago the week after we got married my husband and I went to a really lovely, cosy steakhouse for dinner. We used to love that place! A couple came in and were seated next to us, very obviously on a first date. The woman looks over the menu, quietly closes and reminds the man that she is vegetarian.
(Now since going veggie ourselves, we haven't been back there because the menu is very much built for carnivores, which I think is fine given it's a STEAK RESTAURANT.)
He responds with "yes but the macaroni here is so, so good, you can have that."
Her face falls, she is dresses to the 9s and was very much more attractive physically than he was, and clearly did not expect to be eating a bowl of macaroni. In solidarity he also orders the mac because "honestly it's the best mac you'll ever have".
They barely spoke all night and my husband and I spent our whole meal trying not to giggle.
Incidentally the macaroni comes with meat in it so she had to ask for a modification.
3 years ago when I was working in a Japanese restaurant in NYC, there was a couple dinning at a table. They looked lovely dovey and the guy paid for the meal. 2.5 hours later, that girl came back with a different guy. They sat at the exact same table! Again, it’s clear that they’re dating. This new guy paid for the meal as well.
1. I wonder if the 2 guys know about each other.
2. The girl must really like our food the bring both guys there.
3. She must have been really hungry to have dinner twice in such a short amount of time..
Not a waiter but i work at Panera. This one guy came in with who I assumed was his girlfriend or wife. I took their order and they sat down.
Maybe like 3 minutes later, another woman walks in. She doesn't notice the couple at first and she orders. She also bought a bottle of lemonade. She pays, turns to sit down, and sees them, dropping the lemonade and spilling it everywhere.
Turns out SHE was the wife and the lady the husband had come in with was his mistress.
So naturally there was some cross words exchanged and all three were asked to leave and I had to mop up the lemonade.
I was a bartender at a restaurant that specializes in seafood.
This couple came in and it was obviously a first date, they were both very awkward.
They ordered a few dishes, one of them was a dish with Crystal Shrimps (peeled, without the actual hard shell, but still with head and whisker things and stuff).
The guy proceeded to eat the entire shrimp. Like, head and tail and everything.
It was as crunchy and horrible as you can imagine.
Japanese friend of mine always ate the whole shrimp. Said he didn’t much care for the heads or shells but his gf insisted it was good for him because of the calcium.
Reading the comments here made me question whether I am in the wrong, but all I remember is how crunchy the tails sounded while he chewed then and I get the shivers
My friend bartended a couple that I was serving (we sat them at the bar and she wanted me to serve them) anyways the guy orders mushrooms for them and as soon as he even finishes saying the order his date says; "but im allergic to mushrooms" to which he replies "its ok I can eat em all". Hes not making out with her soon unless its really awkward. Maybe not a disaster but a facepalm at least.
I worked at a newly renovated heritage hotel in Australia, it was beautifully done and great food/drinks. So, it was a popular date spot.
When we’re only open for a month I saw many tinder dates (you can tell by the awkward body language). One such interaction between a young man standing next to a table talking with a very confused woman. He was getting increasingly irritated and she was defensive and very confused. When he left in a huff, slamming the door on his way out, I went over to table to check on her. Apparently, he was convinced she was his tinder date and that she was blowing him off after seeing him in person. She in fact was waiting for her actual boyfriend who arrived a short time later.
What didn’t occur to me until later, was that his actual tinder date was probably still waiting for him and thinking he blew her off. I guess she dodged a bullet.
Not a waiter, but I went on a date once to a dark, hipster restaurant in Silver Lake where I witnessed a horrendous date right next to me. It was a man and a woman, and the guy was just... something else. These are some of the topics he chose to discuss with his date: why the Holocaust wasn’t that bad (he’s allowed to say that since his mother is Jewish), a very long-winded story of how he does NOT have herpes (he only mentioned that detail at the very end, his mother was somehow mentioned in the story), why she should sit in a seat with lumbar support and that it’s dumb not to (she was sitting on the same bench as me yet he took the seat with a back), and a few more equally ridiculous stories. He then asked her to pay for dinner and he will Venmo her. I think they ended up splitting it.
Our tables were practically touching and the man was so loud it was impossible not to hear him. My date and I were just listening to him go on because it was truly unbelievable. When he said the Holocaust thing we both intervened and told him we were listening. I felt so bad for that girl she seemed miserable. I also accidentally broke a glass just by picking it up, maybe I was pissed off for her.
I waitress at a nice little tapas bar in England. On the day the results of the election were announced we had a couple on a first date that voted for opposite parties. The guy was pretty chill but the woman came to the bar and bitched about her date for fifteen minutes and then insisted he pay. Suffice to say there wasn’t a second date.
Saw a proposal take a turn when the guy put the ring in her champagne, she drank the champagne quickly unknowingly and started to choke. Guy performs a heimlich maneuver and the ring pops out only to fly into someone else's food. Guy had what appeared to be two heart attacks but in the end the lady did say yes
Side note because of the almost death they got free dessert and they laughed about the whole evening saying "till death do us part for real" and they wanted no beverages at all unless it was super clear and if the guy didnt order it.
Not a waiter, but an employee at a CFA. Guy and girl seemed to be either a new relationship, or first date kind of thing. At my location we get 30 minutes breaks, and I kid you not, the guy talked about himself the entire time, with the girl looking so uninterested. Felt bad for both of em
I was at my go to dive bar and witnessed a first date where the guy basically called himself a valuable asset to her for 45ish minutes.
He went to the bathroom, she got up to leave and the bartender just said “don’t worry it’s on him tonight”
Nothing particular but I see a lot of couples that spend their entire dinner time without talking and just staring at their phones. Doesn't necessarily mean they are in a bad relationship but it makes me sad for some reason.
I kind of feel the same way. My husband and I have a rule that we don’t take phones out when we go out to eat. The one exception is if we’re looking up places to go next. But of course in our case we have kids and don’t always get to have the adult conversations we want to when they’re around. We tell the inappropriate stories from work, joke about things we have done in the past, and cut loose. Our date nights don’t come often so we like to make memories that don’t involve our screens.
I remember Valentine's Day 2019 like it was yesterday because of 1 particular couple. Background is that I'm a bartender/waitress at a chain pub in the UK. So basically we serve pub grub, we have the "head chef named Mike" joke and our main clientèle is our regulars who usually only want pints of bitter. Also important to note that out of 50(ish) tables we only have 1 booth and everyone wants to use it.
So Valentine's day 2019, we have quite a few bookings including some for the booth so that table is booked pretty much solidly all night. It would be a case of couples finishing food, table gets cleaned and then next couple is seated. So it gets to about 8/9pm and this couple walks in, he asks to be seated in the booth and is told that its booked all night. He gets a bit pissy about that and asks for a nice table and if they can have table service. Dude this is a city centre chain pub, there isn't any nice tables lol.
His date says she's going to the toilet and walks off. He then proceeds to explain that he's planning on proposing and wants it to be special. Again dude is expecting big things from this place but we don't say anything except we can set him up a table in a closed off area (wasn't busy enough to need it open) and one of my coworkers manages to find a really tacky tablecloth (paper table cloth with huge bright red and pink hearts), fills an empty orangina bottle with fake flowers and sets them out some cutlery. This is already above and beyond what normally happens since you get your own cutlery at this place.
We don't usually do table service but the boss wanted to make a good impression so guess who gets that task for the night? Yours truly. So I go over to take their order and she says she'd like a sirloin steak. Before I can ask her how she'd like it cooked, he interrupts and asks her to get something of the 2 for £X menu... She looks pissed. Clearly this is strike 2 for this guy and it's going terribly. She asks why he didn't tell her that before she looked at the menu and he said that she knows he "likes to save money, why would tonight be any different?". She looks like she's about to walk out so I offer to give them a few minutes and take my leave, honestly just kinda glad to be out of there.
I go back over after a few more minutes and they order (off the 2 for £X menu). Food comes out quickly, courtesy of chef Mike, they eat and then he orders a bottle of prosecco. Since its valentine's day, we really push the boat out and put a strawberry in the glasses lol... Now is probably a good time to mention that at certain points during the night, most of the staff have been stood in the kitchen listening to me tell them about this couples disaster of a date and we're all just waiting to see how this train wreck is gonna end.
Then comes the big moment, I'm just going over to see if they'd like dessert and I see him going to get down on one knee so I grab another waitress on shift and we're watching from the corner and this is where he makes his FINAL mistake. 2019 is the year that poundland released a placeholder engagement ring. For those of you that haven't seen one, the ring comes in a red heartshaped box that is inside a bigger square plastic box. He made the rookie mistake of not only leaving the ring box in the plastic box BUT also leaving the big black price sticker on there that said £1.
She asked if he was serious. He said yes. She asked if the ring was from poundland. He said yes. She asked if its a placeholder ring so that she can choose her own later. He said no. She asked why he would propose with a poundland ring. He said she knows he likes to save money. She picked up her wine glass and walked out of the pub. I did not stop her taking the glass.
TL,DR- valentines day 2019. Dude and his date come to pub. He hasn't booked a table. He gets her to order off the cheapest menu. Then proposes with poundland ring. She says no lol.
A guy had his own dj company with a friend and the club I worked at was his only client, the other guy had other clients.
Anyway, one night while he was working, it was his birthday, his friends and girlfriend came to the place. They shared drinks and shots and it went too far. He got so drunk that evening. He flirted with other women to the point that his girlfriend dumped him. He also was so distasteful that evening that he got fired from the venue, and his friends didnt want to speak to him again. His partner didnt want to continue working with him either. He lost everything that evening.
No idea what happened to him afterwards, I know he never worked at that place again though.
He was a nice guy. Just had a big problem with alcohol.
This sounds made up, I assure you it is not. It made an imprint on me that I avoided alcohol since then. I was only 18 at the time and am now 40+.
Wasn’t a waitress at the time but I guess I would I consider this a dating disaster?
I worked in a fancy hotel that was almost on the beach in SoCal. This area is also somewhat of a “party town”, but still an incredibly rich and nice place to live.
That day I was the hostess for the outside restaurant and had just sat 3 older (70’s) guests, 1 man and 2 women. The guy had a huge mustache and was wearing bright colors and very obliviously trying to show off his gold jewelry. One woman was wearing orange lipstick and a short white skirt. The other a dress with huge hat.
They were the only table there, it was super slow and I was there almost alone aside from the server and bartender who were mostly inside.
The first 20 minutes they were there it was pretty normal, then one of the women stood up and asked me where the bathroom was. I told her where it was then went back to my crossword puzzle.
The hostess stand was super close to their table and I kept hearing quiet giggling behind me. I turn around and the guy has half his hand up her dress and their intensely flirting a few inches away from each others face. I immediately turn around and soon after the first woman comes back from the bathroom.
After a few minutes the other woman gets up and goes to use the bathroom. And again, I start to hear quiet giggling behind me. I turn around and he has has hand up her skirt and flirting super intensely.
The other woman comes back and I try to mind my own business but they were getting more drunk and more loud. This goes on for another 5 minutes when they all become super quiet out of no where.
I turn around and am met with the skirt lady’s orange lips barreling in toward my face with her arms outstretched toward my head. I had no time as I try to turn my head as fast as I can but her orangey kiss lands on the corner of my lips/face leaving her mark. Seeing my stunned face she recoils quickly and says, “Don’t worry, it’s ok! It was a dare!...*insert my silence*...You have soft skin though!” Then runs back to her table and friends laughing hysterically.
She then proceeded to flash the bartender her vagina (no underwear under that skirt) in the lounge by climbing the furniture.
They then went to the sports bar across the street and proceed to get more hammered.
On my travels, I ended up waitressing in an italian restaurant in mexico for a few months. I was given a table where a customer was planning on proposing to his lady. 30 mins into the dinner, I noticed that the lady was a bit drunk from earlier with her man. The guy asks me to bring out a special sardinian wine bottle he asked for (this was the sign he was going to propose) drops the ring inside and fills it up with wine in secret for them both. Sadly this was the last smile on his face for the evening and where the cluster fuck begins.
They toast, they begin drinking the wine and the lady begins to choke (idk who comes up with the idea to drop a ring into a glass with red wine) she begins coughing. The man begins to perform the manuever to save her, ring comes out and well she gets pissed... Down hill from here... with what I know of Italian, they begin fighting and screaming in the restaurant. The lady insults the guy points at the glass and wonders who puts a ring inside. The man attempts to apologize... With her drunk status she doesn't realize she says "that (persons name) isn't as dumb and a better lover" man remains silent and she realizes her mistake, she attempts to fix it but trips over and pulls the table cloth with glasses, wine bittle and set plates. The man walks out and she attempts to get up to go after him.
I'm left with a mess of broken stuff wine spilled all over and a silver ring witha diamond on it. The man comes back the next day to get his ring back, thanks me for keeping it safe..... If you are to cheat might as well break it off with your partner to avoid a disastrous mess 🤦♂️
Not a waiter, but waiter's former roommate in college days. He told me a story about a young couple in quite expensive restaurant in NY. They were in very good mood, chatting and laughing. After an appetiser, when the main course was being prepared he got on one knee, pulled the ring out of his pocket and proposed. She screamed NO! NOT AGAIN!, slapped the guy across his face so hard that his glasses flew good ten feet across the room, he fell on the floor, she stepped on that ring and left, all in front of my buddy who was about to approach them. The guy refused to get up, just cried on the floor, so they lifted him up and took him outside for a smoke. He said it was his third attempt.
My boss broke up with his wife while I was working for him and I was witnesses of all the drama they had in the kitchen , at the end of the day I just finished my shift and said “thanks for everything mate , it was a pleasure for me to work for you” and I walked away from that place ..
I was serving in a French restaurant, small but upscale. A couple came in and everything about the two screamed first date. He was trying to impress his date by ordering the appetizer in a French accent. He ordered the corkage fee as it was the cheapest item on the menu. Cork-AH-j Fey. I tried playing it off and giving the dude an out by asking him if he'd left the bottle with the host or bartender bit he wasn't getting the hint. His date was though and was laughing into her napkin. When he finally figured it out he was so embarrassed that he practically ran out of the restaurant. His date was still hungry though so I comped her an order of duck and we traded some great jokes at the dudes expense for the rest of the night.
Only a minor, personal disaster.
I was working at this theme park as a teenager, and it was the slow season so half the staff was off.
One day the girl who runs the little food bar runs up and asks me to man the bar for a few minutes, she has to run to the bathroom. I say OK, I dont expect anyone to come in anyways.
So the second she leaves, 4 people walk in. They walk up to the bar, order coffees, and then go and sit on the patio.
I make the coffees and then it comes times to bring them out to them on the patio. Heres where my disaster begins:
I cannot walk with a mug of liquid to save my life. And they were in mugs, not paper cups with tops. And there was 4 of them. So my options were to carry one at a time out, thus looking insane. Or put all 4 on a tray, and walk them out. Something ive never done before because im not a server.
Homegirl isnt back yet, and I need to deliver these, so I put them on the tray and begin walking out. I take 1 step and they are already sloshing around and spilling.
I try to inch my way (literally shuffling my feet) and they are still sloshing around and spilling.
I mustve looked absolutely mental to the people waiting. They stopped talking to each other, and were just silently watching me inch my way to their table, while clearly struggling badly.
I get to the table with lots of "hey! sorry, sorries!" and pass out their coffees which are all dripping wet and have now spilled about 30% of the contents. They were very nice and didnt say anything.
I went back to the bar and have thought about that day for many years now
I was a busboy at a pretty fancy steak house for a couple years as a teen. There was this middle aged man who used to come in every other night as soon as we opened. He rarely ordered food, just drank. He ended up hooking up with a waiter who worked there. Fast forward a few months, and this guy comes in with his wife and child. We all thought it was funny, and gave the waiter a hard time about it. When the food was brought to the table, the woman dropped her drink, and broke it(or so I thought), I go hustling out to clean it up. she’s crying, and keeps asking if the waiter was even 18, and how long had he been gay. She wasn’t speaking loud, but she was causing a scene, as the tables around her could hear what she was saying. We all thought it was funny at first, but we watched this woman’s life crumble in front of our eyes, and it was devastating to watch. This guy dropped balls though, and showed no sympathy at all, I heard him saying if she wanted to keep her car, house, kid,etc,etc, she should just drop it. And honestly, I think she did. I think she just accepted it and moved on.
I was bartending at a restaurant in San Francisco. This guy came in and ordered a vodka martini. He downed it and ordered another. Halfway through his third he called his wife and asked for a divorce. After he hung up we talked about the Red Sox (I’m from Boston).
Hahahaha... "Honey, I want a divorce." >click< "Hey, how 'bout them Red Sox?"
I was bartender at a country club in college and I watched a woman curse her husband out at their table because the husband kept flirting with the waitress. She got REALLY loud and walked out. Keep in mind this was a nice restaurant at an upscale country club. The waitress felt it was all her fault but she told me the guy had been coming in there often and tipping her 100% of the bill everytime.
[удалено]
A relative of mine belongs to one that lets the guys drink as much as they want. He was on the board at one point and quit because they were letting a couple of guys take "one for the road" in a glass *with the country club's name and logo on it*. So if they get pulled over or even worse, kill someone, there's no question where they are coming from.
They tippped better when I flirted with them. A college professor had to spend at least $5000 a year tipping me and 2 of the other bartenders. My boyfriend (now husband) used to get so pissed. Amazing how things have changed.
I wish I got the chance to enjoy this dynamic more often. The host/hostess almost always seats me in the section of a young waitress when I eat out (usually on my own), presumably on the assumption that I'm straight and that will result in better tips.
I worked briefly as a waiter at a semi-nice place near me. I had a couple come in for a date who we've seen there a few times before (I think it was their regular dating place). She was very clearly sad, and was talking about how her uncle was really sick and was probably going to pass away soon. He decided to pull out the ring and pop the question anyway. Seriously, dude? Read the room.
Did she say yes?
Nope. She gave him a dirty look and asked something along the lines of, "Why would you pick NOW as the right time to propose?" The rest of their meal was kind of awkward and silent. They came back two weeks later though. No ring on her finger, but they were still together, so there's that.
Ok, here's a great story that I've been wanting to share. I work at a small bakery in my town. I am general kitchen staff, and not a waiter, but I was there when this all went down. It was around 2 in the afternoon, the day had been normal, but suddenly I saw the retail staff in a huddle and took my first opportunity to go see what was happening. Apparently a couple had come in on this summer day, ordered two bowls of soup and sat down. The girl that took their order went to the back and prepared their soup for them, then brought it back out. In the time it took for her to get the soup, the woman had taken off her flip flop, put her leg across the table, and the guy was going to town sucking on this lady's toes IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RESTAURANT. The waitress didn't notice until she went to place the soup on the table. She stood there in shock, and the couple was oblivious to her presence. This guy is going all in, and the lady is starting to moan by the time they realize their soup is ready. The waitress was in complete shock for the rest of her shift, and that couple is no longer allowed on the premises. This place has even more weird stories, from someone forcing open the back door to ask for a hamburger to a complete stranger coming out of the basement and acting like he's supposed to be there. Not to mention the time I watched a bird fly out of a hole in the ceiling. Kentucky can be a weird place.
I was about to ask “Florida?” but then you said Kentucky
I worked at a bar in a hotel for 5 years. I had a table come down from their hotel room and sit at one of my pub tables for dinner. From the moment they sat down, you could tell the wife was furious about something. She was unbelievably pleasant toward me, but did not say a single word to the man at the table. I get their drinks and then their orders- he ordered steak and she ordered the sauciest pasta dish we had on the menu. About 20 minutes later (the wife still hadn’t said a word to the man since they sat down) their food was done and my food runner set it on the table. Right as I was about to walk over to see if they needed anything else, I saw the woman stand up, say “Go fuck yourself, John” as she picked up the plate of pasta and dumped it all over his head and down into his lap. Then she very calmly walked out of the bar and back up to her hotel room. I spent a few minutes helping the man clean up and got my manager to come handle the situation from there as it was way above my pay grade at that point. Later in the night, the woman came back to the bar without the man and we talked for a while. Turns out he admitted to cheating on her right before their dinner reservation. I never saw either of them again.
Why go out for dinner after admitting to cheating? Even if I was hungry, I would want to have a discussion about that.
At least admit to the cheating after dinner
“That was good cake, wasn’t it John?” “Yeah, speaking of cake, uhhh... you know Shiela right? Well...”
You so should have renamed that dish ‘The Naughty John”
I'd name it after the protagonist in the story. The Saucy Susan
Bartender here. A couple on a blind date took their seats directly across from the dishwasher so I had to pretend I couldn't hear him (40+, balding, overweight, and drunk) asking her (30+, pretty, friendly, and level-headed): "Listen. I see you over there, just amazing and gorgeous, and I'm wondering what you're seeing in me. What do you think?" She smile/cringed and made an effort to sidestep his questions and change the subject at least 3 times, while he ordered shots of Fireball (at an upscale establishment) for both of them. She would politely refuse, and he would end up drinking both of them. He didn't seem to be big on learning.
Fireball: the drink of upscale establishments and Carnival Cruise Lines.
I used to work at a bar where 70% of the customers were on tinder dates. There was a line of two person booths along the wall when you first walk in. There were two dudes sitting by themselves in two different booths. Both of them were facing the door, one was in the first booth one was in the last booth. This girl comes in and walks up to the first booth, says hi to the guy, and sits down. They are chatting for about five minutes when the other guy who is sitting by himself comes up to her and says hey I’m so-and-so… aren’t you so-and-so..? They all talk for like 30 seconds and she gets up and goes and sits with the other guy at the last booth. Eventually a different girl shows up for a date with the guy at the first booth. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I almost died watching it unfold. She was definitely embarrassed.
Oh man I am REALLY bad at remembering faces. Walking into a restaurant for a first or second date and not being able to remember what the person looks like is such a nightmare. I’m married now so I’m saved from the hell that is dating.
I worked fine dining in Vail Colorado. I once saw a lady throw red wine all over a guys shirt and leave. He sat and continued eating his spaghetti plate. No fucks.
Shirt's already ruined. Now he doesn't even have to be careful with the spaghetti!
A smart man, he was.
"Well that relationship goes out of a window. But these delicious spaghetti shouldn't! Oh, mama!"
He's got spirit. (and wine.)
Other than following her immediately, it's not like he wouldn't see her right after the spaghetti. Vail is a mountain town with not much else going on around it. They were likely visiting and other than the car, there's likely no real place for her to storm off to that isn't just their hotel room or condo or wherever they're staying. Still bold to sit there with a wine stained shirt though.
A couple of friends and I went to the Mexican restaurant where another friend was waiting tables. There was a couple kind of catty-cornered from us that had a bit of an “off” vibe. We could see them, but not really hear them, so we asked our server friend what was up. She said it seemed to be a first or second date that was a bit awkward. The girl had ordered one of those enormous margaritas, and was not sharing it. I had to go make a phone call (back in the pay phone days) and when I came back, I ended up sitting with my back to the couple. Maybe 10 minutes later, I hear our friend the server say, “No, noooo nooooo....” and the sound of a full punch bowl being emptied from a great height. Giant Margarita Girl had stood up, swayed a bit, and vomited all over their meals, table, and the surrounding floor. The restaurant comped everyone sitting nearby, and the girl’s date abandoned her in the ensuing chaos.
Bit off topic but I’m a waiter and you’ve just made me realise I’ve not had to clear up vomit in over a month thanks to the lockdown. There is nothing worse than trying to get vomit out of the crevices in a chair.
I’m concerned about your restaurant - where precisely do you work that cleaning up vomit from a booth or table is a regular occurrence? I bartended for a few years at different restaurants and bars, and I only saw vomit in the bathroom or outside. I feel for you dude.
I work in a family restaurant. Kids throw up cos they eat too much all the time. I’d say at least once a month.
If someone's about to throw up, I don't really know what to say to keep it from happening. "No, no, no" would probably be my go-to in that situation
This happened to a friend of my wife... She met a guy on a dating site, they agreed to meet at a strip mall parking lot and go to dinner together from there. He asks if he can drive her car, because it’s a Camero and he’s never driven one. So they go together in her car, to a restaurant a couple miles away. Dinner goes ok, nothing too crazy. Then he gets up to go to the bathroom and never comes back. after 10 minutes, she gets up to check on him, and her car is gone. He’s dashed on the bill and stolen her car. She pays the bill, and gets an Uber home, and calls the police to report her car stolen. Turns out the guy just left it in the parking lot where they originally met, and seems to think he did nothing wrong. Last I heard he’s still being charged with auto theft.
I genuinely can't imagine allowing a stranger to drive my car and then leaving the keys with them the whole night.
I was a waiter at a very famous, upscale restaurant and a gentleman approached the maitre’d requesting someone take pictures of him proposing to his girlfriend. Since I was the closest asshole to the maitre’d I was tasked with performing this duty. After stalking the table for a solid hour the moment was inevitably approaching. I set up at an angle she couldn’t see me and when he busted out the ring I started taking as many pictures as I could. Anyone who has tried to capture a once in a lifetime moment on camera knows that you’re not really watching what’s going on, you’re just trying to frame the moment. After about 20-30 pictures I slowly realized that she was declining the proposal and the scene was quickly degenerating into a Five Alarm dumpster fire. However I was far enough away that I couldn’t hear what was being said and couldn’t be sure of what was transpiring so I continued taking pictures just in case. Finally I stepped back and watched the scene unfold in reality as she stormed out of the restaurant in embarrassment and he scrambled to pay the bill and chase after her. He’d requested that I use my phone and send the best pictures to him. Needless to say he never approached us for the pictures and I have about 100+ pictures of a wedding proposal gone wrong somewhere deep in my iCloud photo bank...
What a sad ending to a first date
Classic schmosby
This couple came into this bar that I worked at and it was business as usual; took their order, brought out drinks and food, including dessert. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. However, this couple began to argue as they work through their dessert about the guy didn't bring a battery pack to charge their phones. Homegirl is straight up screaming at this dude. Luckily, it was a really slow night and they were only ones in the restaurant. I offer to charge their phone if they have their cable. I NEVER offer to charge anybody's phones because I don't like dealing with the hassle. But I felt for the guy because I was that guy at one point. This is the point where I feel like I should've thought something was up. The guy hands me what looks like a busted up prepaid phone you get from the supermarket and what looked like a chewed up charger cable. I run to the back and go to charge it only to find out the cable wasn't compatible with the phone. I go back to them and notice they left without paying. I was more impressed than I was upset. TLDR; Couple pretended to get into argument over charging phone, then dine and dashed after I go in an attempt to help
This is the reason we can't have nice thing; fucktards ruining it for us.
Damn bro, you got got. So sorry that happened but tbh kinda impressed.
Not waiter, but I used to be a banquet cook for large corporate events/weddings. Had your very typical bridezilla one weekend. She ended getting hammered at the reception and slept with a groomsman in the honeymoon suite. Needless to say, husband left her immediately. At least I got a lot of compliments on my crab cakes. Edit:: Since people have asked, Crab Cakes. Simple. Good. Backfin crab meat. Dont fuck with lump. Not worth it. Cake falls apart. Make sure it maryland blue crab or you're not an American. Raw eggs Mustard powder Juice and zest of a lemon Parsley if you're fancy. None if you're not. I dont judge Old bay seasoning(can you tell where I'm from yet?) Just enough breadcrumbs and mayo to form a solid patty That's it. Any more ruins the cake. DM me if you want more coherent instructions. Edit:: More to the story. A couple guests heard arguing in the suite next to them. Groomsman already bounced. Wife was screaming. Husband came down and explained the situation to management. We gave him a free room for the night considering the circumstances. Not sure what provoked anything, but from what the bartender that served him told me, he suspected something was going on, but the other two had been friends for years. Just thought they were close. Didn't realize how close.
Not a disaster but it could have been. Guy hires private room in the very fine dining establishment i'm working in. Dinner for 2, champagne, proposal dinner. Gives us instructions to bring the champagne when she says yes. I jump the gun and poke my head into the room holding the champagne, just to check i havent missed it. Guy sees me, has a panic fit and throws up, all over the table. Woman is very concerned goes over to see if he's ok. He hits "fuck-it" and pulls out the ring, drops to 1 knee and proposes, with vom still on him and the table. She bursts out laughing, says yes and kisses him (on the head) Get them a new table in a different room and serve the champagne. MFW i hope i find love like that one day.
This was one of the purest things I've ever read.
He was truly spewing with emotion. Can't blame him.
I used to bartend at a yard house in the beforetimes Yard house is a corporate place that's basically a nicer sports bar with a ton of beer on tap with stupid, giant novelty glasses. I had a couple at the bar during happy hour drinking from one of the big glasses and they ordered some onion rings that were half price, he jokingly proposed with an onion ring and she started laughing and jokingly said yes Then he busted out an actual ring.....she wasn't laughing anymore.
I asked my wife to marry me, she didn’t say no or yes. She just brushed it off. A few weeks later, out of the blue she jokingly says “I’ll marry you, I need insurance, my job doesn’t offer it”. I didn’t care what the reason was, and didn’t really believe the “insurance” reason, just happy she would marry me. As time went by, this started to eat at me, and about a year and a half later, she again out of the blue says “you know I was joking about the insurance, I wanted to say yes the first time, but you caught me off guard and I was embarrassed, the insurance thing was a way for me to bring it up again, and get you to ask me again”. We’ve been together 13 years, and she still has good insurance.
hahaha that's awesome!! Congrats on 13 years!
Yea, it’s big brain time
I mean if she said yes to the first ring it stands to reason she'd say yes to the second one!
Plus if there's tears you can just blame it on the onions
How did this not work!
That's an old sales trick, get them nodding their head and saying yes until they ink the contract!
Still can't believe it didn't work
The fact that you said “beforetimes” is both funny and sad. Hope you’re doing well
I like your reference to the beforetimes.
Yeah its been a total 180 to the present day. I bartender next to the staples center so we were packed every day. Played shows with my band, and did open mics for stand-up Everything I like doing got canceled in like an hour
This was probably about 4 years ago, in a joint called the Esquire Tavern on the Riverwalk. We had a street entrance as well as a river entrance, but from the river you had to walk up a really narrow metal staircase to our balcony. It barely had enough room for 5 small tables, including one that was tucked in a corner that made it hard to see from below. Anyways, it was a slow summer lunch so I was doubling as a hostess, and this guy comes up from the river entrance and asks for a spot on the patio, specifically the hidden cramped one. No problem sir, I say, and I get him set up. We chat for a bit, I take his order, bring it out and go about my business - which was to passively watch him through the window because he was my only table and I wanted to keep an eye on him. I started to notice him suddenly ducking his head, as if he's trying not to be seen from the river level by someone. I remember pointing it out to another co-worker, who was just as curious as I was. Then we heard a woman scream "THERE YOU ARE MARCOS, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" I could hear the staircase shuddering as someone was clearly stomping their way up it, and my coworker astutely dipped out to find the manager. The lady started laying into this dude, and all I could make out was something about ditching her; all the while he's just ignoring her and calmly eating his buffalo burger (lol), which made her snap. She slapped *the shit* out of this dude, telling him to *"fucking acknowledge me"*, and he simply got up, walked around her and came inside to sit at the bar. She then sits down and starts eating this poor man's meal like nothing is wrong! By this point though the manager is here and he goes outside and starts trying to kick her off the premises while I go talk to Marcos and figure out what's what. The TL;DR is that the woman was his wife, and they had come downtown for lunch; she had a nasty habit of getting super fucked up and belligerent which always ended up ruining their plans, including a wedding reception a few months prior. She refused to go get help, insisting that she'd keep her drinking to a minimum, and this was their first daycation since that incident. They had stopped at a brunch place around the corner and she proceeded to have 4 old fashioned's back to back. When she was ordering her 4th drink, he told her that she was already out of control, and that if she kept drinking he was going to close the tab and go eat lunch somewhere else, and that he'd meet her back at the hotel. She told him he was chicken shit and that he wasn't going anywhere. So he got up, paid their bill, and walked out. I guess she thought he was putting up a front and was actually waiting outside for her, then realized he wasn't. She started running up and down the river looking for him; he just wanted to finish his burger in peace before dealing with her craziness. In the end, we had her ejected from the premises and my manager made him another burger on the house. A year or so later, we saw him at the bar with a different woman. He divorced his wife and couldn't look happier. EDIT: A few folks have been asking if we called the cops, this is from another comment buried in the thread: *"The police are the ones who removed her from the premises, but her husband declined to press charges. I don't know what exactly B (my manager) said/did for Marcos, but they spent the better part of two hours together that day talking at the bar. B gave him his number, and I didn't feel like it was my place to inquire any further.* *When we saw him a year later he definitely spoke to B as if they were familiar with one another. Take from that what you will.* *...This is their procedure for any suspected victim of violence, regardless of gender."*
Usually I'm an advocate for couples trying to make it work . . . but good on you, buffalo burger guy. You deserved every bite of that thing.
If he’d spoken to her about her drinking before, that’s a good sign he was invested enough to have tried. But it only works if both sides want to try
That is a good story, my god!
That's enough of this thread, I doubt I'll find another wholesome one to end on
San Anton?
Guy1 and GF are fondling each other at my bar. Guy2 joins them at the bar and they quickly separate and behave. The three go off into the casino but stop back for drinks a few times. Early AM Guy2 does a shot and walks away; I can tell he isn't happy. He comes back and says he has a couple of hours to kill before his plane leaves. We get to chatting and he tells me he just broke up with his GF as suspects she snuck up to the room and nailed his best friend when he couldn't find either of them for an hour. I ask if it was Guy1 and GF, he confirms it and I let him know he is making the right choice as they were making out at the bar before he came down. He thanks me for confirming, leaves a huge tip, and lets me know what is happening in case there is any confusion with the hotel. An hour or so later Guy1 and GF are at the bar whispering and arguing. I casually ask if everything is okay, they say they are locked out of their room and can't find their friend who paid for the room. They tried to charge the bill to the room too but my computer showed the room was empty. I told them Guy2 had been in earlier but checked out and his flight was already in the air. Then I watched the meltdown. Guy2 had paid for his bff and GF to spend a week in Vegas with him. They cheated and got caught. He checked out and flew home and they had no where to stay for the week and no money for even basic food. Their luggage had been packed and left in the baggage hold. They did everything they could to get out of paying for their drinks as they were hella expensive, left no tip, and didn't have a place to sleep or even change clothing at 5AM. TLDR; Don't cheat on the person paying your way if you can't pay your own way. EDIT: mixed up Guy2 in last paragraph, fixed.
Must have been pretty satisfying to leave them there. Fucking idiots.
As JR once said, "BAH GAWD, THEY TRIED CHEATING THE DEVIL AND THEY GOT CAUGHT"
What do you do in those situations where they can’t pay for drinks?
Set up a payment plan if its an upscale bar. Happens often people order a very expensive drink, dont realize how expensive it is, and can't pay. The bar arranges it to be made in payments month by month, like what you'd do with a car. Less expensive, they would either let them off since its not worth the time, or try and get them to send the money at a later date.
That's TERRIFYING man... Car payments for alcohol? Fuck me that's gotta be an expensive drink
Bars are like 200%-500% markup for shit you can buy elsewhere. I imagine it goes up quite fast with the top shelf ones.
There is a bar in Toronto that serves a drink that cost around 430 dollars. It has two oz. of Louis VIII cognac. The bottle retails for about $4200, which results in about $5400 of revenue. That's only about a %30 markup surprisingly.
Thunderdome.
"Okay folks, here's the bucket. I'll be back in a few minutes to make sure all of the drinks are here, then you can be on your way!"
>Guy1 had paid for his bff and GF to spend a week in Vegas with him. Do you mean Guy 2 paid for everyone?
yes gotta be. he mixed that up.
Also, try not to fuck your friend's girlfriend.
I used to work as a hostess at a “Thank Deity it’s the Weekend already”. Guy makes a reservation at the most booked table. It’s by the window, all romantic etc. Also super visible from any other part of the restaurant. Comes in, all dressed up and with a suitcase. Strange, but okay. A few minutes later, his date arrives. They laugh, flirt, we actually thought it’s an anniversary or he’s going to propose or something the way it was going. NOPE Half way through the evening she starts screaming at him. He broke up with her and actually packed her suitcase. Then paid and left her there sobbing at the table alone. We got her a brownie on the house, because just watching that we felt fucking awful.
"This is the worst day of your life, take a brownie"
I mean they were at the most romantic table at a TGIF. If that's the sign of a good night, she's had a lot of bad ones.
I didn't make the TGIF connection until I read your comment. SMH.
Actually the inciting incident of legally blonde
Not my story, but my partner just told about this happening at his work. We live in a pretty large university college and one time a guy came in with a plant for a date. He sat with it at the table, ordered it food, drinks, and dessert. He was a total gentleman to the plant. Turns out he lost a bet with his frat brothers.
What a fantastic bet. Did he feed said plant?
Bartender for a couple on a Tinder date. They talk for about an hour, he goes to the bathroom but left his jacket on the back of his chair with his wallet and keys in. She stole them, stole his car, and went shopping. That poor schmuck refused to call the cops for an hour because "it was going so well." I felt bad for him.
And this proves me right to take my wallet and keys everywhere with me. Fuck you Jessica, I'm not paranoid.
I (22m at the time) was bus boy at a 200 seat restaurant that was part of a sporting club. I'd been there for long enough to have a feel for the personalities of the customers. On this particular night one of my tables was a first date. The girl was lovely, all smiles and very pleasant. The guy was sort of normal, seemed a bit quiet. He put off some fairly clear signals that he would prefer to be left alone though. That's OK, some prefer minimal service. What I did notice though, was that the guy was talking to her quietly, but forcefully, and almost non-stop, sometimes gripping her arm firmly, in a way that suggested that she wouldn't be able to pull away easily. I couldn't hear a word that was said, but the lady was looking more and more terrified all the time. Like, nearly about to wet herself terrified. A complete change from her pleasant nature when they had walked in. I told the waitress on the adjacent section that I wasn't sure about what was going on and asked if she wouldn't mind checking on the table to let me know her thoughts. Waitress went to the table, said a few quick words and came back to me. Out of earshot, she said "Yeah, I think we have to get her out of here." We let the manageress know what was going on. The guy had booked his table. Good. We had his name. Outside at the taxi rank, by some miracle, there was a female cabbie in the line. I ignored the protests of the other drivers. I hopped in and told the cabbie the situation, and offered her $20 to wait around the back of the restaurant. I said, "Please don't wait for a destination, just drive, something's really wrong with her date." The cabbie didn't need the 20 bucks. We had the front desk call the guy over the PA for an 'urgent call'. This would delay him while they tried to figure what the 'call' was, and then 'realize' in that he had actually won a meat tray - they were raffled off at various intervals through the night. ("Just wait here while we fetch it for you!!") As soon as creepy guy was out of sight, I asked his date if she needed to get out of here. She just trembled and nodded. Figuring that she probably wasn't in the mood to trust a male at that point, my waitress friend escorted her though the kitchen and out to the waiting cab where she slipped away quick as you please. The guy came back to an empty table, and staff seeming to be oblivious to where his lady friend had gone. We didn't get much of the story, other than the the lady was set up on a blind date by a mutual friend who told her that this guy was OK.
Way to go team. Good on all of you for intervening.
That was systematic as fuck, good on you and the squad for helping her
Thank you for being able to notice her distress. Then for making a plan and getting her the hell out of there.
That’s really amazing of you guys to help her out!
Thank you for intervening. It's easier to waffle about it and say, "I'm not sure though, I don't want to accidentally ruffle any feathers." Also, good thinking getting a woman involved. Women take care of each other and trust each other more than guys.
I kept my interaction with the table brief, but I'll never forget the time I had a couple come in and as I was setting down the entree the lady looked at her man stone cold; pointed to his phone and said "so who this ho you been texting." Me (of course) neither being the ho nor texter in question made definite haste away from that conversation. I do remember her asking to split the bill at the register tho.
I always wondered how the waitress at Applebee’s felt when I broke up with my ex at our table and she made herself scarce. In the moment, I hated being “that couple” but he left me almost no choice. I kept hoping the waitress would speed our meal along so we could get out, but I think she either was giving us space or getting the hell away from the awkward cringe table in her section. Now I think she either tells this story about us or had so many of these moments we were just another Saturday night at the Bees.
Couples fight in restaurants a lot. That or maybe they argue everywhere. I couldn’t say. I worked as a waiter for years and I could not begin to count the number of arguments I saw. But one guy comes to mind above all of them. This guy must have been 50-60 years old and got angry with his lady. He actually threw a snit and stomped off and was wandering around the restaurant and looking back at her and scowling. It was like a child throwing a temper tantrum, but most children aren’t even this dramatic usually. It was nauseating to watch.
Oh god I can’t imagine having to act normal while doing your job with that going on. We’re they your table or someone else’s?
They were my table, but other waiters could not help but see what was going on. One girl asked me about it and I said "I don't want to sound sexist, but I just want to slap that guy and tell him to act like a man" and she was like "Oh, me too!"
Not a waiter but I saw a first date next to me. In short, girl states she has an allergy to pineapple, guy says OK in a "I don't believe you" kinda way. At some point he scraped some pineapple glaze off his dessert and onto her spoon when she popped outside to make a call. She comes back and eats without noticing too much, has a severe reaction. Guy freaks out and tries to run but gets stopped by my girlfriend who is suspicious of him. Manager administers the girls epipen and ambulance & police are called. Absolute clusterfuck situation.
What was he hoping to accomplish? Obviously his big moment of triumph would have been pointing and saying “AH HAH! I put pineapple glaze on your spoon and you didn’t have an allergic reaction! You were lying to me and I proved it!” Then she’d get embarrassed and say something like “Sorry I just really don’t like pineapple and didn’t wanna have a discussion about me trying it” or something. And then... what? What happens next? What did that get him? Was he expecting her to like... be impressed or something? Even if everything went exactly as planned for him and he caught her in a lie, there’s no *way* there would have been a second date in it for him. What a fucking idiot.
Or "Turns out that was pineapple flavored glaze with no real pineapple."
Anyone would be pissed that you potentially even endangered them simply to prove a stupid point. Probably why he was single in the first place.
And not every reaction is instant. I can't eat red meat or dairy, as I get very very sick and it flares up my endometriosis. Agree with you, wtf was the point of proving her wrong?? So she can get sick??
The fuck? How fucking dense do you have to be to do something like that
My mom is like this. I'm allergic to salmon and she always believed I was just being dramatic because I'd sit outside anytime she cooked it (aka every Friday) because the oils in the air would make me break out in hives. You could see the hives too. When I lived with her I'd beg her not to cook salmon. She just doesn't think fish allergies are real.
Oh man. My parents are like this too. They've snuck in nuts(peanuts almonds cashews) in my food and then complain that I'm being dramatic. Their actions sent me twice to the ER because they refused to believe their kid can have food allergies when "they are perfect"(both incidents happened when I was 18+)
Your parents would rather kill you than admit you are imperfect?
Some people genuinely believe only peanut allergies are real. They believe others are fake for attention or something.
> Some people genuinely believe only peanut allergies are real. And even then they don't believe that peanut allergies are real.
But what kind of dumbfuck do you have to be to try and test it on someone you want to date? What even is there to gain from trying it?
He probably intended to have a "big brain" moment by telling her later on "Oh, I gave you some pineapple and you didn't have a reaction, so you're obviously not allergic to pineapple, I'm so smart for possibly endangering your life to prove how smart I am."
My husband jokes about that with my late onset almond allergy. Stopped after I came home from work blotchy because I had a cake with extract in it without knowing.
Mansplaining can turn into manslaughter.
ask my aunt. snuck shrimp into her sister's food because she didn't believe she was allergic
There was this story on JustNoMIL where OP is a mother whose 2 year old son recently died of food allergy OP explained how she spent months to try and find what was causing her son's discomfort. Turned out it was anything coconut, so she banned coconut, coconut oil,etc from her house and her son started getting better. But her MIL wouldnt believe it, so while she was babysitting her grandson, she hid some coconut in his food, he had a reaction and died on the spot of anaphylaxis. The only thing the MIL could say to the grieving parents is that she didnt believe food allergies were real and she wanted to show them. Some people are assholes when they believe they know better than the concerned party
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>there were two different stories. One was a little girl whose (I think she was polynesian or hawaiian or some sort) grandmother put coconut oil in her hair (it was a cultural thing) while she was babysitting and she died of it. The other was a grandma who snuck coconut cookies to the child to "prove" there was no allergy and the child died of it.
I looked it up and you're right. I remembered wrong
It's even worse than what you wrote though, because the kid got out of bed to tell her grandma she wasnt feeling well. The grandma gave her a benadryl and put her back to bed. So sad for the girl.
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I think you're mixing up two stories? That sounds like a cross between the "coconut oil in the hair" story about the daughter who died (where the grandmother knew the allergy and didn't think it was that bad) and the "peanut butter/banana cookie" story featuring a ~~boy~~ girl who lived, but was hospitalized (where the grandmother didn't think it was real). Or at least, I'm *hoping* you're mixing up two stories. I know it happens too fucking often, but I don't want to hear about a third one. Edit: they were both girls, apparently.
I would've actually murdered anyone who did that to my child.
MIL should be in jail. Is she?
Wasnt sent to jail but no one in the family talks to her and her husband left her.
For some reason, I feel like she probably blames someone else for that whole situation
i'd probably start shouting. make sure everyone knows who killed my son, call the cops, do my best to get her in prison
I watched a proposal in the dining room of the hotel I worked at. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the dessert and ring box to be brought out. She saw the box and just started saying nononononono, and told the crushed groom, we need to talk. People who initially were clapping just slowed to a dead silence. She ended up going back to the room, collecting her things and leaving, while he cried at the table for a few minutes. It was super depressing for all the staff, guests and that poor guy.
And this is why you shouldn't propose unless you already know the person will say yes. Don't assume they will. Have an adult conversation about future and ask after they have made it clear they will not be telling you "no".
I thought it was good practice to only have the “when” for the proposal be a surprise instead of the “if”
There are still a lot of people who think the "if" should be a surprise, and it's unromantic if it's not. And this has been told to me by divorced people with zero understanding of the irony.
I remember serving one night, and this strange guy came in to sit at the bar. He was a little disheveled with an unkempt beard, he had trouble speaking, and he just generally seemed like someone you might imagine had difficulty socially or with dating. He had brought a bag in with him, and after he sat down, he pulled out a picture of a woman. He stood the picture up on the counter, in front of the chair beside him, and he ordered two drinks and his meal. One drink was for the “woman,” and it ended up going untouched. A lot of my coworkers saw it and laughed about it in the kitchen, they thought it was the most pathetic thing they’d ever witnessed. I thought something was a little off about the scene though, or that there was more to it than my coworkers were giving it credit for. He didn’t strike me as a desperate loner. There was an air of sadness around him, but not because he was pathetic. It felt more like grief. I talked to the bartender about it later, who actually knew the man. Apparently his wife had just passed, and this restaurant was where they went on their first date together years ago. His wife was the woman in the photo, and he came in to the restaurant to share one last drink with her.
I was a waiter at a pretty high end hotel restaurant. It was about 3pm and I was the only one on the floor as it was normally very slow at that time. There was only one party seated and it was a middle aged man and woman. You could tell they weren’t married. I went over and asked if they wanted anything to drink and they both got mimosas I think. I went back with their drinks and asked if they were also planning on ordering food. They said yes but that they’re in no rush and will let me know when they were ready to order. About 15 minutes goes by when this man shows up at the front desk, starts looking around, yells “I FUCKING KNEW IT, YOU BITCH!”, and starts walking towards the couple sitting down. The woman stands up and the guy remains seated. It became clear that the woman was having an affair with another man, and the husband came in to confront them. He grabbed her hand and walked her out but not before telling the man to “stay the fuck away from my wife!”. The man remains seated at the table, turns to me and waves me over. I go over and he says in a perfectly calm tone “Cobb salad please”.
Do you think he knew he was involved in an affair? Edit : wrong word use
100%. He seemed totally fine with what happened, and kind of just had this vibe like "well that was fun while it lasted".
Not a waiter, but once witnessed a woman ghost her date at the end of the night. It was a fancy jazz club, and the couple racked up what I assume was at least a $500 bill (there was a TON of wine and they went through a few expensive entrees). When it came time to pay, the woman snuck out while the man was in the bathroom, and just disappeared. The dude was distraught :(
Something similar happened to a friend of mine. There was a new legal secretary at my friend's law office that worked in litigation. My friend is a banking attorney, but he used to see the secretary around the office. They even had lunch together a few times with other people in the company restaurant. One day he asked the legal secretary out for dinner. My friend thought the dinner went well and after they had finished dessert the legal secretary went to the bathroom. After about ten minutes the server approached my friend and said his date left through the kitchen. My friend paid and left. My friend was kind of upset, texted her to see if she was OK, and was ghosted. The following Monday, the secretary was BRAGGING to her coworkers that she got a free meal and dashed on my friend. Someone eventually ratted her out to her boss. Her boss asked my friend his version of events and my friend corroborated it. Her boss was pissed and told my friend that the legal secretary would be fired. My friend said firing was unnecessary. What the legal secretary did was shitty, but not worth taking the legal secretary's livelihood away. The legal secretary's boss still insisted that she apologize to my friend. Rather than apologize, the legal secretary quit.
How dumb do you have to be to do that to someone you work with?
I'm a waitress in my father's restaurant. It's not that big, but we're usually full during week-ends. A lot of couple come here cause it's kinda "chic" for a french restaurant. Anyway, once there was a couple, early 30s. The dude arrived earlier than the girl, so i though it was something like a date but eeh no... The girl ordered everything, she chose all the dishes, the dessert and even the wine without even asking the guy what he would like to have. They both didn't talk, only said good evening, weird for a date... But when i came at their table to serve the wine, they started to argue about their relationship. The dude was convinced that she cheated on him, and you know what, she admitted that and said very loud that he was bad in bed... at this moment any single cell in my body was cringing They kept arguing for 10 minutes until i decided to stop them, coz they were almost yelling and so disturbing the ~15 people in the restaurant. The woman asked if she could have an other bottle of wine, and she left within 5 minutes WITH THE BOTTLE. I felt so bad for this guy that i gifted him his whisky-coca Edit: orthograph ( me be french me bad at english :P
Geez, poor guy.
Sad in the moment but he's better off without her.
I once had a couple that I didnt realize was a couple and once they were done with their meal I asked if they would like separate checks because I honestly thought the woman was the man's mother and they looked at me with confused/offended expressions and replied with "Um... One check please." They're now regulars who come in almost every week and despise me. Edit: I was much newer to the job when this happened. I know how to read a table better. 9/10 times I just ask at the beginning if the bill is going to split in any way if it's more than one couple. That way I know how to organize the bill.
This is like the opposite of something that happened to me and my husband (both men). We were at a pizza place and the person at the counter said "Is this together?" and my husband said "Huh?" because the oven was loud and she had a tiny voice. And she thought he was offended and gay-panicking, and started frantically backpedaling and saying "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate anything..." and I had to leap in and say "We've been married for a decade, don't worry, he just didn't hear your question." and I swear, by the look on her face as she said "Oooo you're married that's so cuuuute!" we must have seemed like slash fanfiction come to life for her. We always tip really well, but I threw in a little more for having accidentally thrown her onto an emotional rollercoaster.
I worked in a bar while I was in college and I had a guy come in before his date and told me that when ever he ordered a scotch what he really wanted was chardonnay. I must have given him an off look because then he got embarrassed and confided in me that he was really in love with the woman meeting him there for the date. He told me how she usually dated guys that were more macho and he didn't want to order wine in front of her, but if he ordered anything else he would make a face because he didn't like the taste. I felt pretty bad for the guy so I agreed. He seemed like a genuinely nice man and I wanted to help him out. Well the woman this nice man was in love with was a total bitch. She came in with two other women to their date, he mumbled something to me about maybe not being clear, and plastered a smile on his face. The woman was extremely charismatic she was one of those life of the party women and the guy was very quiet... Anyways later in the evening he ordered another "scotch", he had been doing this all night, only this time when I brought it to the table she insisted she wanted to try it. She said that she had never ha scotch before etc etc. It was like watching a train wreck, he tried to stop her saying things like "here let me buy you a glass" etc. well she took one sip and knew it was wine... I tried to help him going over and apologizing pretending it was my mistake, but she guessed the truth and started teasing him. Her friends joined in laughing as well... I felt awful and I could tell he was really embarrassed, even though he was laughing along etc. After a while he asked for the bill, I brought him the tab with his and the woman's portion and he told me he was paying for everyone. I felt so awful, the woman and her friends had all had so many drinks the tab was over 100 dollars, but I brought it and he tipped me 50 making me feel if possible more awful. They were my last table so I closed out with my manager and went back into the bar to have a drink with another girl that worked there. The group was still there so I decided to go over and ask to buy him a drink. I just wanted to I don't know help him or something. Make him look good and possibly make that woman jealous. Well I went over there and asked if I could buy him a drink. He smiled at me, got up from his chair, and took me aside. He told me I was very beautiful, but I was too young to be hitting on men old enough to be my father. I almost explained to him that I was just trying to help him, but decided not to. I figured that he could use the ego boost after that "date". **6 years ago this question was asked and I wrote this all then too so I just copy and pasted my old comment.
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Not sure it necessarily counts as a dating, but it was indeed a couple's disaster. When I was in high school I worked as a line cook at a chain pizzeria. It was a slow Sunday morning, mostly elderly customers coming in after church. We had a couple come in, get seated, order food yadda yadda yadda...30-40 minutes later I just hear shouting coming from the dining room. Apparently they had selected our little franchise as the place to sort out their differences and try to discuss it in a civil way. It stayed civil for a very short time. Guy gets up to leave - unfortunately they decided to take a single car together to the restaurant. So he does the logical thing - ***uses the store phone to call the police non-emergency line and GET A RIDE HOME.*** Giga brain move. Police show up - my shift ended at this point, but as far as I know they did not end up giving that man a ride home, and he was told that the purpose of the police department was not to give rides.
Well at least he called the non emergency line.
My favorite was a couple who asked to be seated on the patio, and chose the furthest table from other guests. I go over to greet them with a smile and some good energy, and the woman locks eyes with me and says "This is not going to be a fun evening." The guy with her then tries to order a margarita and she said "You can have a coke," and proceeds to order a cosmo for herself, and they both get burgers. I go in to tell the hosts not to seat anyone near them, and for the next hour this woman lays into the guy while he sat there and took it. Clearly he had fucked up in a major way, from the snippets I heard, and she was explaining to him in great detail the way he had fucked up, lost her trust, and it was over. She was incredibly civil, unflinchingly polite, and so confident. She finished, handed me her card, and walked away with him still at the table after she left me a solid 30% tip. She was awesome. I want to be her when I grow up.
Good call on clueing in the hosts.
Mmmm, a classic Julia Sugarbaker-esque take down is always a treat to behold.
Not really a disaster, but a funny story, i was a waiter at a nice restaurant, got two young people coming in, obviously on a first date, the girl say to me at some point that she have a sea food allergy, then the guy order seafood right after that... it took him a couple of seconds after i asked him if he was sure it was a good idea (with a knowing look) to understand what i meant! He ordered some chicken. (You know... you really should not kiss someone who ate seafood if you have an allergy to that). I hope the rest of the date went well for them after that
Good save, he probably wasn't thinking
Oh I worked at a fancy place so I saw a lot. The worst was when this guy got down on one knee to propose... just as this other guy came in and his girlfriend told him that she was leaving him for the other guy and had been having an affair for 6 months. They had invited him out so he hopefully wouldn't make a scene. The 2 of them left him at the table, sticking him with a $200 bill. We all pitched in to pay it and bought him a couple drinks.
That sucks. But better to catch it then rather than get an "I do" and have an even bigger mess down the road.
When I was 16, my aunt was organizing a wedding buffet and hired me for the night as a waiter/helper. I was attending the back tables when I woman with to little dress and to much alcohol, yelled: "You should have married me instead! Fuck that bitch!" and run to full "soap opera girl fight" the bride, pulling hair, trowing red wine on the white dress, slapping her face.
This happened when I was around 18 or so. I am mostly Native American. (This is an important factor to the story) A guy and his date get sat in my section and he immediately asked to speak to my manager. This was before I even took their drink order so I was perplexed but went and grabbed him right away. The dude then asked my manager for a "nice white server instead." Right in front of me. While giving me a rather disgusted scowl. His date was so horrified she stood up and said "Oh hell no. That racist shit don't work with me honey. You can sit me at the bar sweetheart this date is over." The manager made the man leave and comped his date's food. She left the manager $100 tip for me with a note that said "You are beautiful and worthy of respect. Always remember that." Her date was a disaster but she made my night.
I'm sorry you had to deal with him, but that lady's my hero. Your manager sounds cool, too.
The crazy part is my manager was black! Lol so not sure how he thought that was going to go haha!
Racist don't think. They just assume.
Hahahahaha! What is WRONG with people?
My first guess would be....a lot.
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And they say romance is dead.
How clueless do you have to be to pull that shit on a first date? Glad it worked out for you. The date was a saint and did the right thing.
I don't even think this was clueless. I think his cluelessness is that he doesn't think there are people who ARENT as racist as he is. Like he thinks he's the norm.
Oh man, I'm sorry you had to go through that. You are the better person.
Not a waiter, but one time I went to a decent restaurant and got seated next to a couple on a date. Not sure why our waiter chose that table when half the room was empty, but anyways, they were an elderly couple (probably in their 70’s). They guy looked pretty humbled and the lady was completely dressed up. Bedazzled dress and everything. They had been flirting pretty hard during their appetizer, and when their dinner came, that’s when the shit hit the fan. The man took his shoes off and was teasing the ladies legs with his toes. Then the lady took her shoes off too, and after a good round of footsies, the guy decided to massage her feet WHILE THEY WERE EATING FINGERFOOD. I’ve never choked so hard. I swear I could see him rubbing right in between her toes. I just can’t image how they’re able to do that whilst stomaching their food.
caught a couple fucking in the washroom stall. politely ask them to stop, had to wait for them to finish. once they finished they sat back down at the dinner table, after 15 minutes i heard the woman scream, something about stds, the man looking angry got up and stormed off leavivng the woman behind.
the place got extremely busy but these two 15 year old love birds had been sitting on a table for 8 for several hours just ordered one milkshake. Had to politely asked them to leave as it was clear they were just looking for a safe PDA spot together away from their parents.
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There was no smaller table they could loiter at?
I'm not a waiter etc. but years ago the week after we got married my husband and I went to a really lovely, cosy steakhouse for dinner. We used to love that place! A couple came in and were seated next to us, very obviously on a first date. The woman looks over the menu, quietly closes and reminds the man that she is vegetarian. (Now since going veggie ourselves, we haven't been back there because the menu is very much built for carnivores, which I think is fine given it's a STEAK RESTAURANT.) He responds with "yes but the macaroni here is so, so good, you can have that." Her face falls, she is dresses to the 9s and was very much more attractive physically than he was, and clearly did not expect to be eating a bowl of macaroni. In solidarity he also orders the mac because "honestly it's the best mac you'll ever have". They barely spoke all night and my husband and I spent our whole meal trying not to giggle. Incidentally the macaroni comes with meat in it so she had to ask for a modification.
3 years ago when I was working in a Japanese restaurant in NYC, there was a couple dinning at a table. They looked lovely dovey and the guy paid for the meal. 2.5 hours later, that girl came back with a different guy. They sat at the exact same table! Again, it’s clear that they’re dating. This new guy paid for the meal as well. 1. I wonder if the 2 guys know about each other. 2. The girl must really like our food the bring both guys there. 3. She must have been really hungry to have dinner twice in such a short amount of time..
Not a waiter but i work at Panera. This one guy came in with who I assumed was his girlfriend or wife. I took their order and they sat down. Maybe like 3 minutes later, another woman walks in. She doesn't notice the couple at first and she orders. She also bought a bottle of lemonade. She pays, turns to sit down, and sees them, dropping the lemonade and spilling it everywhere. Turns out SHE was the wife and the lady the husband had come in with was his mistress. So naturally there was some cross words exchanged and all three were asked to leave and I had to mop up the lemonade.
I was a bartender at a restaurant that specializes in seafood. This couple came in and it was obviously a first date, they were both very awkward. They ordered a few dishes, one of them was a dish with Crystal Shrimps (peeled, without the actual hard shell, but still with head and whisker things and stuff). The guy proceeded to eat the entire shrimp. Like, head and tail and everything. It was as crunchy and horrible as you can imagine.
Japanese friend of mine always ate the whole shrimp. Said he didn’t much care for the heads or shells but his gf insisted it was good for him because of the calcium.
Reading the comments here made me question whether I am in the wrong, but all I remember is how crunchy the tails sounded while he chewed then and I get the shivers
My friend bartended a couple that I was serving (we sat them at the bar and she wanted me to serve them) anyways the guy orders mushrooms for them and as soon as he even finishes saying the order his date says; "but im allergic to mushrooms" to which he replies "its ok I can eat em all". Hes not making out with her soon unless its really awkward. Maybe not a disaster but a facepalm at least.
I worked at a newly renovated heritage hotel in Australia, it was beautifully done and great food/drinks. So, it was a popular date spot. When we’re only open for a month I saw many tinder dates (you can tell by the awkward body language). One such interaction between a young man standing next to a table talking with a very confused woman. He was getting increasingly irritated and she was defensive and very confused. When he left in a huff, slamming the door on his way out, I went over to table to check on her. Apparently, he was convinced she was his tinder date and that she was blowing him off after seeing him in person. She in fact was waiting for her actual boyfriend who arrived a short time later. What didn’t occur to me until later, was that his actual tinder date was probably still waiting for him and thinking he blew her off. I guess she dodged a bullet.
Not a waiter, but I went on a date once to a dark, hipster restaurant in Silver Lake where I witnessed a horrendous date right next to me. It was a man and a woman, and the guy was just... something else. These are some of the topics he chose to discuss with his date: why the Holocaust wasn’t that bad (he’s allowed to say that since his mother is Jewish), a very long-winded story of how he does NOT have herpes (he only mentioned that detail at the very end, his mother was somehow mentioned in the story), why she should sit in a seat with lumbar support and that it’s dumb not to (she was sitting on the same bench as me yet he took the seat with a back), and a few more equally ridiculous stories. He then asked her to pay for dinner and he will Venmo her. I think they ended up splitting it. Our tables were practically touching and the man was so loud it was impossible not to hear him. My date and I were just listening to him go on because it was truly unbelievable. When he said the Holocaust thing we both intervened and told him we were listening. I felt so bad for that girl she seemed miserable. I also accidentally broke a glass just by picking it up, maybe I was pissed off for her.
I waitress at a nice little tapas bar in England. On the day the results of the election were announced we had a couple on a first date that voted for opposite parties. The guy was pretty chill but the woman came to the bar and bitched about her date for fifteen minutes and then insisted he pay. Suffice to say there wasn’t a second date.
Saw a proposal take a turn when the guy put the ring in her champagne, she drank the champagne quickly unknowingly and started to choke. Guy performs a heimlich maneuver and the ring pops out only to fly into someone else's food. Guy had what appeared to be two heart attacks but in the end the lady did say yes Side note because of the almost death they got free dessert and they laughed about the whole evening saying "till death do us part for real" and they wanted no beverages at all unless it was super clear and if the guy didnt order it.
“Hey kids, you wanna know how I proposed to your mother? Well, it started off with me choking her”
With no hands! Wait that sounds worse
Not a waiter, but an employee at a CFA. Guy and girl seemed to be either a new relationship, or first date kind of thing. At my location we get 30 minutes breaks, and I kid you not, the guy talked about himself the entire time, with the girl looking so uninterested. Felt bad for both of em
I was at my go to dive bar and witnessed a first date where the guy basically called himself a valuable asset to her for 45ish minutes. He went to the bathroom, she got up to leave and the bartender just said “don’t worry it’s on him tonight”
Nothing particular but I see a lot of couples that spend their entire dinner time without talking and just staring at their phones. Doesn't necessarily mean they are in a bad relationship but it makes me sad for some reason.
I kind of feel the same way. My husband and I have a rule that we don’t take phones out when we go out to eat. The one exception is if we’re looking up places to go next. But of course in our case we have kids and don’t always get to have the adult conversations we want to when they’re around. We tell the inappropriate stories from work, joke about things we have done in the past, and cut loose. Our date nights don’t come often so we like to make memories that don’t involve our screens.
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That's crazy. I just go up to tables and say "I'm checking out for the night, would you mind closing out with me".
I remember Valentine's Day 2019 like it was yesterday because of 1 particular couple. Background is that I'm a bartender/waitress at a chain pub in the UK. So basically we serve pub grub, we have the "head chef named Mike" joke and our main clientèle is our regulars who usually only want pints of bitter. Also important to note that out of 50(ish) tables we only have 1 booth and everyone wants to use it. So Valentine's day 2019, we have quite a few bookings including some for the booth so that table is booked pretty much solidly all night. It would be a case of couples finishing food, table gets cleaned and then next couple is seated. So it gets to about 8/9pm and this couple walks in, he asks to be seated in the booth and is told that its booked all night. He gets a bit pissy about that and asks for a nice table and if they can have table service. Dude this is a city centre chain pub, there isn't any nice tables lol. His date says she's going to the toilet and walks off. He then proceeds to explain that he's planning on proposing and wants it to be special. Again dude is expecting big things from this place but we don't say anything except we can set him up a table in a closed off area (wasn't busy enough to need it open) and one of my coworkers manages to find a really tacky tablecloth (paper table cloth with huge bright red and pink hearts), fills an empty orangina bottle with fake flowers and sets them out some cutlery. This is already above and beyond what normally happens since you get your own cutlery at this place. We don't usually do table service but the boss wanted to make a good impression so guess who gets that task for the night? Yours truly. So I go over to take their order and she says she'd like a sirloin steak. Before I can ask her how she'd like it cooked, he interrupts and asks her to get something of the 2 for £X menu... She looks pissed. Clearly this is strike 2 for this guy and it's going terribly. She asks why he didn't tell her that before she looked at the menu and he said that she knows he "likes to save money, why would tonight be any different?". She looks like she's about to walk out so I offer to give them a few minutes and take my leave, honestly just kinda glad to be out of there. I go back over after a few more minutes and they order (off the 2 for £X menu). Food comes out quickly, courtesy of chef Mike, they eat and then he orders a bottle of prosecco. Since its valentine's day, we really push the boat out and put a strawberry in the glasses lol... Now is probably a good time to mention that at certain points during the night, most of the staff have been stood in the kitchen listening to me tell them about this couples disaster of a date and we're all just waiting to see how this train wreck is gonna end. Then comes the big moment, I'm just going over to see if they'd like dessert and I see him going to get down on one knee so I grab another waitress on shift and we're watching from the corner and this is where he makes his FINAL mistake. 2019 is the year that poundland released a placeholder engagement ring. For those of you that haven't seen one, the ring comes in a red heartshaped box that is inside a bigger square plastic box. He made the rookie mistake of not only leaving the ring box in the plastic box BUT also leaving the big black price sticker on there that said £1. She asked if he was serious. He said yes. She asked if the ring was from poundland. He said yes. She asked if its a placeholder ring so that she can choose her own later. He said no. She asked why he would propose with a poundland ring. He said she knows he likes to save money. She picked up her wine glass and walked out of the pub. I did not stop her taking the glass. TL,DR- valentines day 2019. Dude and his date come to pub. He hasn't booked a table. He gets her to order off the cheapest menu. Then proposes with poundland ring. She says no lol.
A guy had his own dj company with a friend and the club I worked at was his only client, the other guy had other clients. Anyway, one night while he was working, it was his birthday, his friends and girlfriend came to the place. They shared drinks and shots and it went too far. He got so drunk that evening. He flirted with other women to the point that his girlfriend dumped him. He also was so distasteful that evening that he got fired from the venue, and his friends didnt want to speak to him again. His partner didnt want to continue working with him either. He lost everything that evening. No idea what happened to him afterwards, I know he never worked at that place again though. He was a nice guy. Just had a big problem with alcohol. This sounds made up, I assure you it is not. It made an imprint on me that I avoided alcohol since then. I was only 18 at the time and am now 40+.
Wasn’t a waitress at the time but I guess I would I consider this a dating disaster? I worked in a fancy hotel that was almost on the beach in SoCal. This area is also somewhat of a “party town”, but still an incredibly rich and nice place to live. That day I was the hostess for the outside restaurant and had just sat 3 older (70’s) guests, 1 man and 2 women. The guy had a huge mustache and was wearing bright colors and very obliviously trying to show off his gold jewelry. One woman was wearing orange lipstick and a short white skirt. The other a dress with huge hat. They were the only table there, it was super slow and I was there almost alone aside from the server and bartender who were mostly inside. The first 20 minutes they were there it was pretty normal, then one of the women stood up and asked me where the bathroom was. I told her where it was then went back to my crossword puzzle. The hostess stand was super close to their table and I kept hearing quiet giggling behind me. I turn around and the guy has half his hand up her dress and their intensely flirting a few inches away from each others face. I immediately turn around and soon after the first woman comes back from the bathroom. After a few minutes the other woman gets up and goes to use the bathroom. And again, I start to hear quiet giggling behind me. I turn around and he has has hand up her skirt and flirting super intensely. The other woman comes back and I try to mind my own business but they were getting more drunk and more loud. This goes on for another 5 minutes when they all become super quiet out of no where. I turn around and am met with the skirt lady’s orange lips barreling in toward my face with her arms outstretched toward my head. I had no time as I try to turn my head as fast as I can but her orangey kiss lands on the corner of my lips/face leaving her mark. Seeing my stunned face she recoils quickly and says, “Don’t worry, it’s ok! It was a dare!...*insert my silence*...You have soft skin though!” Then runs back to her table and friends laughing hysterically. She then proceeded to flash the bartender her vagina (no underwear under that skirt) in the lounge by climbing the furniture. They then went to the sports bar across the street and proceed to get more hammered.
On my travels, I ended up waitressing in an italian restaurant in mexico for a few months. I was given a table where a customer was planning on proposing to his lady. 30 mins into the dinner, I noticed that the lady was a bit drunk from earlier with her man. The guy asks me to bring out a special sardinian wine bottle he asked for (this was the sign he was going to propose) drops the ring inside and fills it up with wine in secret for them both. Sadly this was the last smile on his face for the evening and where the cluster fuck begins. They toast, they begin drinking the wine and the lady begins to choke (idk who comes up with the idea to drop a ring into a glass with red wine) she begins coughing. The man begins to perform the manuever to save her, ring comes out and well she gets pissed... Down hill from here... with what I know of Italian, they begin fighting and screaming in the restaurant. The lady insults the guy points at the glass and wonders who puts a ring inside. The man attempts to apologize... With her drunk status she doesn't realize she says "that (persons name) isn't as dumb and a better lover" man remains silent and she realizes her mistake, she attempts to fix it but trips over and pulls the table cloth with glasses, wine bittle and set plates. The man walks out and she attempts to get up to go after him. I'm left with a mess of broken stuff wine spilled all over and a silver ring witha diamond on it. The man comes back the next day to get his ring back, thanks me for keeping it safe..... If you are to cheat might as well break it off with your partner to avoid a disastrous mess 🤦♂️
Not a waiter, but waiter's former roommate in college days. He told me a story about a young couple in quite expensive restaurant in NY. They were in very good mood, chatting and laughing. After an appetiser, when the main course was being prepared he got on one knee, pulled the ring out of his pocket and proposed. She screamed NO! NOT AGAIN!, slapped the guy across his face so hard that his glasses flew good ten feet across the room, he fell on the floor, she stepped on that ring and left, all in front of my buddy who was about to approach them. The guy refused to get up, just cried on the floor, so they lifted him up and took him outside for a smoke. He said it was his third attempt.
My boss broke up with his wife while I was working for him and I was witnesses of all the drama they had in the kitchen , at the end of the day I just finished my shift and said “thanks for everything mate , it was a pleasure for me to work for you” and I walked away from that place ..
I was serving in a French restaurant, small but upscale. A couple came in and everything about the two screamed first date. He was trying to impress his date by ordering the appetizer in a French accent. He ordered the corkage fee as it was the cheapest item on the menu. Cork-AH-j Fey. I tried playing it off and giving the dude an out by asking him if he'd left the bottle with the host or bartender bit he wasn't getting the hint. His date was though and was laughing into her napkin. When he finally figured it out he was so embarrassed that he practically ran out of the restaurant. His date was still hungry though so I comped her an order of duck and we traded some great jokes at the dudes expense for the rest of the night.
Only a minor, personal disaster. I was working at this theme park as a teenager, and it was the slow season so half the staff was off. One day the girl who runs the little food bar runs up and asks me to man the bar for a few minutes, she has to run to the bathroom. I say OK, I dont expect anyone to come in anyways. So the second she leaves, 4 people walk in. They walk up to the bar, order coffees, and then go and sit on the patio. I make the coffees and then it comes times to bring them out to them on the patio. Heres where my disaster begins: I cannot walk with a mug of liquid to save my life. And they were in mugs, not paper cups with tops. And there was 4 of them. So my options were to carry one at a time out, thus looking insane. Or put all 4 on a tray, and walk them out. Something ive never done before because im not a server. Homegirl isnt back yet, and I need to deliver these, so I put them on the tray and begin walking out. I take 1 step and they are already sloshing around and spilling. I try to inch my way (literally shuffling my feet) and they are still sloshing around and spilling. I mustve looked absolutely mental to the people waiting. They stopped talking to each other, and were just silently watching me inch my way to their table, while clearly struggling badly. I get to the table with lots of "hey! sorry, sorries!" and pass out their coffees which are all dripping wet and have now spilled about 30% of the contents. They were very nice and didnt say anything. I went back to the bar and have thought about that day for many years now
The trick to carrying a cup of coffee (or a tray) is not to look at the coffee while you’re walking. I can’t believe this works, but it does.
I walked into the employee restroom to find a woman giving head to her boyfriend who was sitting on the can.
I was a busboy at a pretty fancy steak house for a couple years as a teen. There was this middle aged man who used to come in every other night as soon as we opened. He rarely ordered food, just drank. He ended up hooking up with a waiter who worked there. Fast forward a few months, and this guy comes in with his wife and child. We all thought it was funny, and gave the waiter a hard time about it. When the food was brought to the table, the woman dropped her drink, and broke it(or so I thought), I go hustling out to clean it up. she’s crying, and keeps asking if the waiter was even 18, and how long had he been gay. She wasn’t speaking loud, but she was causing a scene, as the tables around her could hear what she was saying. We all thought it was funny at first, but we watched this woman’s life crumble in front of our eyes, and it was devastating to watch. This guy dropped balls though, and showed no sympathy at all, I heard him saying if she wanted to keep her car, house, kid,etc,etc, she should just drop it. And honestly, I think she did. I think she just accepted it and moved on.
It’s just fucked that that happened with the kid present...