Thursday, December 3, 2009

You're joining the Marines? Get out of here!

No, really. Get. out. of. here.

Last Saturday night, I was closing. We were rotating tables between three people, and unfortunately for me I was up when a herd of 18-22 year old people came in. They said they had eight; I got them settled and got their drinks--one at a time, of course, because nobody could decide they wanted "just water" at the same time, naturally.

Thirty minutes later, they still hadn't ordered. I kept going by them, kept stopping and asking if they were ready, kept getting blown off. I finally got frustrated and just sat down at started eating my dinner. Then four people came in, and before I could get to the door they had joined the stalling punks. And then three more joined them. And then some left, and some different ones showed up. I ended up bringing waters, waters, more waters, and maybe three other drinks to around 16 revolving people. Three people ordered appetizers. One person ordered a martini. She left somewhere in there, leaving seven dollars on the table--luckily that was enough to cover her martini, since she hadn't bothered to ask me for a ticket.

Turns out that one of the girls was shipping out to the Marines in a few days, and her friends and family thought they'd be sneaky and party at my restaurant--without ordering anything. Bastards.

6 comments:

Dragonfly said...

As a woman about to marry a Marine, I can tell you that the good news is that she will learn some manners, and it will probably be taught the hard way... hopefully she can spread them along to her friends and family.

Anonymous said...

The nerve of some people!! I see it all the time as I'm a waitress myself.:/

Steven Nicolle said...

What a waste of time and energy.

LW said...

That's terrible.
I have had this happen to me before. It's awkward to serve tables like this. I have also had people leave money for something without asking for a bill. Annoying!

Waitersfriend said...

even more annoying when you are fully booked and you ring your bookings before service to confirm numbers and that big table of 20 turns into a 23 when you have already set it all up and have no spare tables in the restaurant!

purplegirl said...

@Elyse, I hope you're right about that. The girl herself wasn't too rude--I've actually seen her before, we have the same name--but still, to let her family act like that? Grr.

@Anonymous: Welcome! Aren't those kinds of tables just awesome?

@WE, it SO was. I'm just glad they didn't keep me there late or anything!

@LW, it always amazes me that people think it's okay to just throw a random amount of money on the table. Especially with cocktails they didn't bother to ask the price of!

@Waitersfriend: Hi there, nice to "meet" you! I've had that crap happen to. I used to work at a family-owned place that ran a very popular buffet on Easter, and people would make reservations and show up with twice that number. Inconsiderate bastards!