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Cut Your Favorite Eatery Some Slack

JustGeorge

Not As Much Fun As I Look
Staff member
Premium Member
My husband is a chef. Things have been a mess in the last year(due to the pandemic). At first, everyone was laid off due to the shut downs. And then things started opening, and things started to return to normal. And then everyone and their brothers charged head first out of the house and back into the restaurants. And then the labor shortages started. Some restaurants started shutting down early, or closing certain days, and all the customers started crashing into whatever restaurant was open. The restaurant my husband works at is one that hasn't cut hours. Suddenly, the old staff roster wasn't enough to deal with the wave of customers, which my husband has never in his life seen. Restaurant workers spend all year dreading Mother's Day because of how bad it gets; he says every weekend is like Mother's Day now. And hiring new staff is hard; there are few applicants right now, and a lot of the hirees quit when they realize they have to work nights and weekends(hello, folks, its a restaurant).

Packed in like sardines in a can, the customers seem to forget that it is a priveldge to eat in a restaurant. They're ruder than before, come in bigger groups than before, are louder than before, and seem to be more entitled. Really, that's what it all comes down to, is entitlement. Many seem to forget that their chefs and servers are human beings, who have things to do and don't want to sit hours waiting on you to order(my husband missed his lunch break yesterday and got stuck doing an 11 hour shift because a huge party came in and refused to order until they'd been sitting there for over an hour).

There's always been problem customers, but the dam seemed to break after Covid.
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
My husband is a chef. Things have been a mess in the last year(due to the pandemic). At first, everyone was laid off due to the shut downs. And then things started opening, and things started to return to normal. And then everyone and their brothers charged head first out of the house and back into the restaurants. And then the labor shortages started. Some restaurants started shutting down early, or closing certain days, and all the customers started crashing into whatever restaurant was open. The restaurant my husband works at is one that hasn't cut hours. Suddenly, the old staff roster wasn't enough to deal with the wave of customers, which my husband has never in his life seen. Restaurant workers spend all year dreading Mother's Day because of how bad it gets; he says every weekend is like Mother's Day now. And hiring new staff is hard; there are few applicants right now, and a lot of the hirees quit when they realize they have to work nights and weekends(hello, folks, its a restaurant).

Packed in like sardines in a can, the customers seem to forget that it is a priveldge to eat in a restaurant. They're ruder than before, come in bigger groups than before, are louder than before, and seem to be more entitled. Really, that's what it all comes down to, is entitlement. Many seem to forget that their chefs and servers are human beings, who have things to do and don't want to sit hours waiting on you to order(my husband missed his lunch break yesterday and got stuck doing an 11 hour shift because a huge party came in and refused to order until they'd been sitting there for over an hour).

There's always been problem customers, but the dam seemed to break after Covid.

I served shortly after high school (this was before aphonia). I hated it a lot. Some customers are sweet and mean the world, but so many are disgruntled, entitled brats. And don't get me started on people going out to people making $2.13 an hour and not leaving a tip, or leaving $2. I know it's the system's fault that servers get paid absolute horse ****, but while things are the way they are, people need to be prepared to tip to support the people serving them.

My checks said "This is not a check" because there wasn't anything left after reporting and taxes. If people didn't tip I could potentially spend more money driving to and from work than I would make if it was a really slow time.
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
The one service industry that I appreciated how they operated in terms of tips is when I danced when I started college. You could tell people to **** off if they weren't tipping, and sometimes I feel like that's how other tipped services should be.
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
Also pet peeve -- people that don't read the posted hours. Yes I get it, the posted hours says the restaurant is open for another 30 minutes. But that's for people to finish their already started meals, it literally makes everyone involved have to stay later than needed to take care of that one party that walks in 20 minutes before close because it's "technically" still open.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
My husband is a chef. Things have been a mess in the last year(due to the pandemic). At first, everyone was laid off due to the shut downs. And then things started opening, and things started to return to normal. And then everyone and their brothers charged head first out of the house and back into the restaurants. And then the labor shortages started. Some restaurants started shutting down early, or closing certain days, and all the customers started crashing into whatever restaurant was open. The restaurant my husband works at is one that hasn't cut hours. Suddenly, the old staff roster wasn't enough to deal with the wave of customers, which my husband has never in his life seen. Restaurant workers spend all year dreading Mother's Day because of how bad it gets; he says every weekend is like Mother's Day now. And hiring new staff is hard; there are few applicants right now, and a lot of the hirees quit when they realize they have to work nights and weekends(hello, folks, its a restaurant).

Packed in like sardines in a can, the customers seem to forget that it is a priveldge to eat in a restaurant. They're ruder than before, come in bigger groups than before, are louder than before, and seem to be more entitled. Really, that's what it all comes down to, is entitlement. Many seem to forget that their chefs and servers are human beings, who have things to do and don't want to sit hours waiting on you to order(my husband missed his lunch break yesterday and got stuck doing an 11 hour shift because a huge party came in and refused to order until they'd been sitting there for over an hour).

There's always been problem customers, but the dam seemed to break after Covid.
At the Brookville PA eatery, they made a mistake with
my order...giving me fries instead of broccoli. The waiter
(or waitress, in oldspeak) offered to take it back. I said
no, I'm good. (I knew they were in difficult times.)

I'm so virtuous, eh.
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
At the Brookville PA eatery, they made a mistake with
my order...giving me fries instead of broccoli. The waiter
(or waitress, in oldspeak) offered to take it back. I said
no, I'm good. (I knew they were in difficult times.)

I'm so virtuous, eh.

Though it would still be respectful to get what you want, too :)

But I get it, sometimes it's not a big enough deal. You're good people Revoltingest.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Though it would still be respectful to get what you want, too :)

But I get it, sometimes it's not a big enough deal. You're good people Revoltingest.
It was good enuf.
Dining companion wanted his fries fried another couple minutes.
But this is really important to him. We tipped well.
 

JustGeorge

Not As Much Fun As I Look
Staff member
Premium Member
Also pet peeve -- people that don't read the posted hours. Yes I get it, the posted hours says the restaurant is open for another 30 minutes. But that's for people to finish their already started meals, it literally makes everyone involved have to stay later than needed to take care of that one party that walks in 20 minutes before close because it's "technically" still open.

My husband didn't drive for a long time. I'd come up at closing time to pick him up(with the kids in the back seat), and sometimes you'd get some turd that would literally walk in minutes before shut down... I always felt like screaming out my car window at them.

I served shortly after high school (this was before aphonia). I hated it a lot. Some customers are sweet and mean the world, but so many are disgruntled, entitled brats. And don't get me started on people going out to people making $2.13 an hour and not leaving a tip, or leaving $2. I know it's the system's fault that servers get paid absolute horse ****, but while things are the way they are, people need to be prepared to tip to support the people serving them.

Some don't realize their cooks can be tipped, too. On rare occasion, he's gotten tipped.

You can also request a chef. My husband has some customers who will leave if he's not on the clock(it drives the owners nuts). But, there is a large range of talent in most kitchens, and if one is at a restaurant and find their meal is exceptional, its not a bad idea to get the chef's name for next time.

What's really tickled my husband is when a customer insists on meeting him. He'll come out and chat... and then they ask him details about how the food tastes and how he knows how to do what, and he admits he's winging it. He's a vegetarian, and can eat almost nothing he cooks. He has no idea how any of it tastes. (The restaurant is diner style, and specializes in chicken and steaks.)
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
My husband didn't drive for a long time. I'd come up at closing time to pick him up(with the kids in the back seat), and sometimes you'd get some turd that would literally walk in minutes before shut down... I always felt like screaming out my car window at them.



Some don't realize their cooks can be tipped, too. On rare occasion, he's gotten tipped.

You can also request a chef. My husband has some customers who will leave if he's not on the clock(it drives the owners nuts). But, there is a large range of talent in most kitchens, and if one is at a restaurant and find their meal is exceptional, its not a bad idea to get the chef's name for next time.

What's really tickled my husband is when a customer insists on meeting him. He'll come out and chat... and then they ask him details about how the food tastes and how he knows how to do what, and he admits he's winging it. He's a vegetarian, and can eat almost nothing he cooks. He has no idea how any of it tastes. (The restaurant is diner style, and specializes in chicken and steaks.)

I love it!

Of the two restaurants I worked at (both chains, one a steakhouse and the other... I don't know, like an Applebees-like place), I loved the cooks so much. In the steakhouse, they were Mexican immigrants and were just the funniest guys. They'd tease us servers and teach us dirty Spanish and stuff. But they really knew their way with cooking; I would very often order food before going home and never got tired of our own restaurant's stuff.

The other place -- what do you call the style, bland Americana? -- much different culture with the cooks, they were much more tame; but still very good at their jobs. I have a lot of respect for cooks from these experiences. I'd never considered singling out one that made something I really liked, I may do that.

The closest thing I've done to this is at a sushi restaurant around here where a friend told me about an "off the menu" thing where we could give the server x amount of money and the cook would make just whatever they felt like for that amount, and then we'd tip the cook and the server.
 

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
Also pet peeve -- people that don't read the posted hours. Yes I get it, the posted hours says the restaurant is open for another 30 minutes. But that's for people to finish their already started meals, it literally makes everyone involved have to stay later than needed to take care of that one party that walks in 20 minutes before close because it's "technically" still open.
A solution might be to post a "Last Seating" time, but it appears that would take the entire industry to make such a change...
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
There's also this mentality that I think hurts the industry that "the customer is always right." The customer is not always right. There are plenty of times where customers have legitimate complaints and deserve to have items replaced or discounts or meals comped to maintain customer loyalty. But there are a lot of people that are just entitled ******** that will complain about anything completely unreasonably, some of them doing so specifically fishing for getting meal comps. It hurts everybody because these people have no loyalty anyway, it hurts the staff, their neediness detracts from the service other, more reasonable customers could be getting, etc.
 

JustGeorge

Not As Much Fun As I Look
Staff member
Premium Member
I love it!

Of the two restaurants I worked at (both chains, one a steakhouse and the other... I don't know, like an Applebees-like place), I loved the cooks so much. In the steakhouse, they were Mexican immigrants and were just the funniest guys. They'd tease us servers and teach us dirty Spanish and stuff. But they really knew their way with cooking; I would very often order food before going home and never got tired of our own restaurant's stuff.

The other place -- what do you call the style, bland Americana? -- much different culture with the cooks, they were much more tame; but still very good at their jobs. I have a lot of respect for cooks from these experiences. I'd never considered singling out one that made something I really liked, I may do that.

The closest thing I've done to this is at a sushi restaurant around here where a friend told me about an "off the menu" thing where we could give the server x amount of money and the cook would make just whatever they felt like for that amount, and then we'd tip the cook and the server.

When my husband started this place, it was all Mexican immigrants. Slowly, they left, except one, who adopted my husband to some extent. He's now pretty fluent in Spanish and an honorary Mexican(the title given to him by this man and his family). Then the man left and started his own restaurant, and badly wanted to take my husband with, but he couldn't pay him what he needed to make. It was such a sad scene... it was like this:

(the song part)

Since then, my husband has enjoyed the work he does, but tends not to get along with most of the staff. To be fair, the hiring processes haven't been good up until this point... it was always hiring friends and family of the owners, who all had substance abuse problems and mental disorders, and its a wonder the place never burned down. Honestly, I don't know how he puts up with it, but he likes the work, and he's built himself somewhat of a name there, and he likes that, too.
 

JustGeorge

Not As Much Fun As I Look
Staff member
Premium Member
There's also this mentality that I think hurts the industry that "the customer is always right." The customer is not always right. There are plenty of times where customers have legitimate complaints and deserve to have items replaced or discounts or meals comped to maintain customer loyalty. But there are a lot of people that are just entitled ******** that will complain about anything completely unreasonably, some of them doing so specifically fishing for getting meal comps. It hurts everybody because these people have no loyalty anyway, it hurts the staff, their neediness detracts from the service other, more reasonable customers could be getting, etc.

My husband did have to come out of the kitchen and explain to a customer that the way she ordered her food was simply impossible to cook. It couldn't be done. She had sent it back the first time, he did something different, she sent it back again, and then he came out... She wasn't pleased, but it was literally impossible(wish I could remember what it was).
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
My husband did have to come out of the kitchen and explain to a customer that the way she ordered her food was simply impossible to cook. It couldn't be done. She had sent it back the first time, he did something different, she sent it back again, and then he came out... She wasn't pleased, but it was literally impossible(wish I could remember what it was).

I recall a woman that ordered a steak well done. She sent it back because it wasn't done well enough. Sent it back again. That time I went into the kitchen and watched them put it in the absolute hottest part of the grill and smushed it down with bricks (I don't know what to call them. Flat pieces of metal with handles on top, meant specifically for smushing stuff into the grill). This thing was a hockey puck. Still wasn't well done enough for her. Big shrug haha ^.^
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
In addition to everything else that others have mentioned in this thread, one thing that I sometimes find so arrogant and thoughtless is when people refuse to even look the waiter/waitress in the eyes and thank them or at least wear a smile when their order is being served. It's such a small gesture that goes a long way toward making some servers' days better, and I know this from a few people I've talked to who have worked in the service industry.
 

Martin

Spam, wonderful spam (bloody vikings!)
In Brookville PA, I chatted up the owner of a restaurant
about rude customers. Many have been intolerant about
slow service due to the ongoing staff shortage. Apparently
it's a widespread problem.
'Unbearable': Restaurant customers are being nightmares lately

I rarely eat out these days (sheer luxury!) but I have seen how obnoxious some customers can be. Is it a class thing, regarding the staff who serve them literally like servants?
I make a point of being friendly to supermarket staff, I know they get quite a lot of abuse too. What is wrong with people??
 
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