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Perhaps I was an SC. If so, well then too damn bad.
Last Friday night my wife wanted to try a new restaurant that opened in an historic district or our city. She loves new places, and I love that district’s architecture, so we hired a sitter for the kids and went to try it.
Turns out it is a new, trendy type of place, so I geared myself for something like sushi with radishes. Neither I nor my wife look anything coming close to “hip” (and did not fit in with the style of clothing other patrons were wearing even though we were dressed nicely), but our waiter approached us with a look that I could only take to mean he was not looking forward to serving us. I asked a lot of questions about what was on the menu and how it was prepared. Truthfully, I did not recognize many of the listed elements of some of the offerings and wanted to know what I was ordering before it was delivered. The waiter sighed, rolled his eyes a few times and spoke very condescendingly to me. I did not respond to his attitude only because I wanted to have a pleasant dinner with my wife - though she picked up on the waiter’s attitude as well.
The waiter delivered our drinks and our food. He then went over to some other tables and chatted with the more “hip” people sitting at them. He never once came back to ask us how our dinners were or whether we needed drink refills. Finally, he walked up to us, put the check down on the table and picked up our plates while saying he would be our cashier. I put down cash and when he saw it, he asked if I wanted change. (Showing a very rude assumption in my opinion that he was getting a tip.) Of course I told him I did want change. He sighed again and said he would be back. The bill was just under sixty dollars and I left six $1 bills on the table for his tip. In my opinion, he did not deserve even that much, but I have been a waiter and know how little they actually are paid by the restaurant.
As we were about to walk out the door, the waiter came up to us with the six bills in his hand and in a loud, very snotty voice told me I had left some change on the table. I turned, smiled, quickly snapped the bills from his hand, thanked him, pocketed the bills and told him how impressed I was with his honesty. My wife leaned over to me and half whispered that he was telling me his tip was not enough. I turned to her and with a lot of bravado said that that could not be true as the waiter had to have known that he was rude to us, ignored us, gave us terrible service and was not deserving of even a ten percent tip. I then said that this must be his way of returning the tip without coming right out and admitting how poorly he behaved. I next said that I thought I really should let the manager know of how honest this waiter was about his performance. The waiter’s dumbfounded look was priceless. I simply opened the door for my wife and we left.
She still is mortified that I did that. I think I pointed out my feelings rather well.
Last Friday night my wife wanted to try a new restaurant that opened in an historic district or our city. She loves new places, and I love that district’s architecture, so we hired a sitter for the kids and went to try it.
Turns out it is a new, trendy type of place, so I geared myself for something like sushi with radishes. Neither I nor my wife look anything coming close to “hip” (and did not fit in with the style of clothing other patrons were wearing even though we were dressed nicely), but our waiter approached us with a look that I could only take to mean he was not looking forward to serving us. I asked a lot of questions about what was on the menu and how it was prepared. Truthfully, I did not recognize many of the listed elements of some of the offerings and wanted to know what I was ordering before it was delivered. The waiter sighed, rolled his eyes a few times and spoke very condescendingly to me. I did not respond to his attitude only because I wanted to have a pleasant dinner with my wife - though she picked up on the waiter’s attitude as well.
The waiter delivered our drinks and our food. He then went over to some other tables and chatted with the more “hip” people sitting at them. He never once came back to ask us how our dinners were or whether we needed drink refills. Finally, he walked up to us, put the check down on the table and picked up our plates while saying he would be our cashier. I put down cash and when he saw it, he asked if I wanted change. (Showing a very rude assumption in my opinion that he was getting a tip.) Of course I told him I did want change. He sighed again and said he would be back. The bill was just under sixty dollars and I left six $1 bills on the table for his tip. In my opinion, he did not deserve even that much, but I have been a waiter and know how little they actually are paid by the restaurant.
As we were about to walk out the door, the waiter came up to us with the six bills in his hand and in a loud, very snotty voice told me I had left some change on the table. I turned, smiled, quickly snapped the bills from his hand, thanked him, pocketed the bills and told him how impressed I was with his honesty. My wife leaned over to me and half whispered that he was telling me his tip was not enough. I turned to her and with a lot of bravado said that that could not be true as the waiter had to have known that he was rude to us, ignored us, gave us terrible service and was not deserving of even a ten percent tip. I then said that this must be his way of returning the tip without coming right out and admitting how poorly he behaved. I next said that I thought I really should let the manager know of how honest this waiter was about his performance. The waiter’s dumbfounded look was priceless. I simply opened the door for my wife and we left.
She still is mortified that I did that. I think I pointed out my feelings rather well.
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