I sincerely hope I wasn't sucky.

[Antisocial_Worker]

...Although I fear I might have been.

Today, I picked my dad up from dialysis and took him to lunch. There's a Mexican restaurant not far from the dialysis place that my dad and my mom both love to death. What with all their recent health problems though, neither of them has gotten to eat there in months and I figured taking my dad there would be a nice treat. The people there know us because we used to eat there all the time, and they're always very nice to us.

With that in mind, I was trying to be nice to them. While we were eating, I saw a couple of roaches making for the door. Now, considering that I'm a Southerner, that the restaurant is in an old building, and warm weather is on the way, roaches literally come with the territory. In the South in the spring and summer, in old buildings, you're just going to have roaches.

However, the town where my parents live is an extremely uppity retirement town, and I know that if some fancy retiree were to see a roach in that restaurant, they'd hit the roof. And with that in mind, that's why I summoned the manager over as she was passing by and told her about them. I didn't ask for discounts or freebies or anything, but still when I told her about it, I felt really awkward.

She had a look on her face that made me feel like I'd done the wrong thing, although I certainly didn't mean to. I really hope I did the right thing.

Thoughts?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Roaches really should not be accepted anyplace that serves food, old building and favorable climate or not.

I say you did right.

[hotelslave]

I don't see any thing wrong with doing this.

[raudf]

You did nothing wrong! I'd just be grateful that you found them heading towards the door and not in your food!

The manager might have been afraid you'd call the health department on them, since having roaches near food is kind of frowned upon.

[Flying Grype]

I think you did the right thing. If the owner didn't know, she's got a chance to fix it. You didn't do something that would shut down the place and put good people out of business. You gave them a chance. And you didn't ignore it and let the problem continue. If it keeps happening and they don't try to fix it, that's when to take it to the health department.

[dalesys]

...She had a look on her face that made me feel like I'd done the wrong thing, although I certainly didn't mean to. I really hope I did the right thing.

Her expression was more likely an accident, being unprepared for that topic.


Alternatively, she may have been thinking "Oh sheep! He's seen the Masters!" (ref: Callahan's Bar ficton: Mickey Finn)

[Pixilated]

You did nothing wrong! I'd just be grateful that you found them heading towards the door and not in your food!

The manager might have been afraid you'd call the health department on them, since having roaches near food is kind of frowned upon.

I had a similar experience in a restaurant in Toronto. The roach was VERY close to the food buffet (i.e. ON it). Owner was disinterested. So was the health department ...

You did the right thing. It doesn't sound as though you were threatening or nasty. The owner can now deal with it ... or wait until some customer leaps to his/her feet and screams "RRRRROOOOOAAAACHES!! EEEEWWWWWW!!!!" in front of a packed restaurant.

[Kristev]

You did nothing wrong. Roaches have no place in a restaraunt.

[Little Retail Rabbit]

I did something similar once. A friend of mine and I went to a big pub that also serves some food...its one of the very old, grand city houses, converted of course, and so it wasn't a massive suprise, for me, to see an adorable mouse sprint across the room and disappear in a teeny hole in the skirting. So I told them discreetly about it. Turns out they were aware, but its a listed building and theres only so much you can do about mice in listed buildings. Old houses come with mice, so they have set up humane traps all over, but from time to time, you're gonna miss them. I made it clear though that I wasnt saying it to be mean- I know full well sometimes mice just get in (especially in these old houses) and I'm not scared of them, but other people don't take them well.

[PepperElf]

the only "suck" was the fact that there were roaches visible in the first place.


you pay for your food.
you HAVE a right to eat it without roaches chilling out with you

[Sparky]

Once I was having lunch (alone, on my lunch break) in a restaurant. I was having a salad, which was served with the dressing on the side, dressing in a little ceramic cup.

As I was eating, I saw a roach on my table. Ick. But, like Gazebo, I figured "Eh. Old bulding. Roaches happen." I sat my empty dressing cup on top of it.

When the waitress came by, I tried to notify her discreetly by speaking softly so other diners wouldn't notice.

Me: There's a roach under there.

Her: What?

Me: There was a roach on the table, it's under the cup there.

Her: What?

I finally managed to convey to her that there was a bug under my dressing cup, so what does she do? She picks it up. And the roach starts scurring around while she's trying to hit it with the cup, and squeeling: Oh! Oh! Oh!

Let's just say quiet discretion was not maintained.

In retrospect, I shoulda... Well, I'm not quite sure what I should have done.

[Seraph]

All I can think of now is that Kitchen Nightmares episode about the Indian restaurant. :<