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Yet another story from my waitressing days. Not nearly as entertaining as steak sauce man, but just as memorable (to me, anyways). Not really sucky, kind of sad actually, but with sucky behavior.
It was later at night and only 2 of us left on the restaurant side, plus the bartender on the bar side. In walks a very nice looking couple with an elderly man (EM for our story). From what I overheard while approaching the table he was her father and they were visiting him for the weekend (although I'm guessing by 'visiting' they meant signing him out of his 'home').
I go over to take their drink orders and the EM asks about what kind of Rye we have. I mention Canadian Club and that's what he says he wants. I ask if he wants it mixed, or straight up. He seems to not be able to grasp what I am asking, so his daughter explains it to him (takes about 3 minutes). He says he wants it with diet coke and no ice. I double check all their drink orders and then am off to punch them into the computer. I pick them up at the bar and deliver them, and all is well - or so I thought.
They had wanted another minute to look over the menu (daughter had to tell EM what was in every single item). As I come back, I am 10 feet from the table when EM stands up and starts shouting at me.
EM: What the f#@k is this s*#t??!? Are you trying to bloody poison me?!! Etc. Etc. Etc.
Meanwhile, daughter is trying to calm him down while her husband explains to me that it seems while he asked for CC with diet, no ice he ACTUALLY meant scotch on the rocks with no mix. Wow. Wonder why I messed that one up. Daughter is extremely apologetic and I take away the offending drink and let them know I'll be right back with his scotch.
At this point, my manager is waiting near the bar for me to find out what was going on. I explained it all and said I was fine...that there was obviously something wrong with the EM and I could handle it. I take the new drink back to the table and my manager tells me to let him know if I need any help.
My co-worker is delivering their food as I return with the drink (2 other tables only and they had their food, meal were taking only 5 minutes to come out). The EM glares at me while I deliver his drink and his poor daughter looks like she is about to cry. I ask if they need anything else and they say no, so I head back to start some of my closing duties. I get about 15 feet away when I hear a crash. I look back and EM has smashed his glass on the floor a few feet away from the table (I think he was trying to throw it at me, but was about 13 feet short of his mark). He starts screaming again about poison and how incompetent I was at making a simple drink. The husband leads him outside to cool him off. I start cleaning up the mess (he spilled half of it on the table) and the daughter asks for everything to go while sobbing. She again apologizes over and over again. I tell her not to worry about it. I understood completely. I had a friend whose grandmother had dementia and acted the same way. She left me a nice tip, all the while saying how sorry she was and crying harder and harder. I got the feeling he does this at restaurants quite a bit. Very sad, but made for an interesting story.
It was later at night and only 2 of us left on the restaurant side, plus the bartender on the bar side. In walks a very nice looking couple with an elderly man (EM for our story). From what I overheard while approaching the table he was her father and they were visiting him for the weekend (although I'm guessing by 'visiting' they meant signing him out of his 'home').
I go over to take their drink orders and the EM asks about what kind of Rye we have. I mention Canadian Club and that's what he says he wants. I ask if he wants it mixed, or straight up. He seems to not be able to grasp what I am asking, so his daughter explains it to him (takes about 3 minutes). He says he wants it with diet coke and no ice. I double check all their drink orders and then am off to punch them into the computer. I pick them up at the bar and deliver them, and all is well - or so I thought.
They had wanted another minute to look over the menu (daughter had to tell EM what was in every single item). As I come back, I am 10 feet from the table when EM stands up and starts shouting at me.
EM: What the f#@k is this s*#t??!? Are you trying to bloody poison me?!! Etc. Etc. Etc.
Meanwhile, daughter is trying to calm him down while her husband explains to me that it seems while he asked for CC with diet, no ice he ACTUALLY meant scotch on the rocks with no mix. Wow. Wonder why I messed that one up. Daughter is extremely apologetic and I take away the offending drink and let them know I'll be right back with his scotch.
At this point, my manager is waiting near the bar for me to find out what was going on. I explained it all and said I was fine...that there was obviously something wrong with the EM and I could handle it. I take the new drink back to the table and my manager tells me to let him know if I need any help.
My co-worker is delivering their food as I return with the drink (2 other tables only and they had their food, meal were taking only 5 minutes to come out). The EM glares at me while I deliver his drink and his poor daughter looks like she is about to cry. I ask if they need anything else and they say no, so I head back to start some of my closing duties. I get about 15 feet away when I hear a crash. I look back and EM has smashed his glass on the floor a few feet away from the table (I think he was trying to throw it at me, but was about 13 feet short of his mark). He starts screaming again about poison and how incompetent I was at making a simple drink. The husband leads him outside to cool him off. I start cleaning up the mess (he spilled half of it on the table) and the daughter asks for everything to go while sobbing. She again apologizes over and over again. I tell her not to worry about it. I understood completely. I had a friend whose grandmother had dementia and acted the same way. She left me a nice tip, all the while saying how sorry she was and crying harder and harder. I got the feeling he does this at restaurants quite a bit. Very sad, but made for an interesting story.
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