No throwing things at the table! Or at people for that matter...

This particular incident happened quite recently to a couple of my co-workers. It wasn’t a particularly busy night but it occurred during our restaurants happy hour which always manages to get pretty hectic. From 3- 7pm the bar area of the restaurant is guaranteed to be packed. Guests are so desperate to take advantage of the ridiculously cheap prices that are only offered during happy hour, that they are willing to sit at dirty tables, share tables with complete strangers, stand, I’ve even seen people sit outside on the patio during rainy weather. You get my point.

A group of about 5 women were lucky enough to have found a vacant table in the bar to accommodate their entire party, and on top of that, one of our best bartenders was working a cocktail shift that night and was their waiter. As the waiter approached the table he asked how all of the ladies were doing that evening and they completely snubbed him, which he was honestly used to, so just proceeded to take their order. At this point the ladies were just shouting things out at him as well as continuing to talk amongst themselves. In order to ensure accuracy and timeliness, a waiter needs to take control of a table, which is exactly what the waiter did in this case, but when he interrupted the chaos, one of the women got somewhat offensive.

Her demeanor was rude and arrogant when she said “either I’m going too fast or you just ain’t getting it.” Either way, she was implying something degrading. From that point on things just got worse. The whole table was demanding and mistreating the restaurant employees. They even began to behave inappropriately loud and disturbing to all of the other guests. I have to admit that the way these women were acting was nothing any restaurant server has never witnessed before, but what happened next, had us all gasping in disbelief.

The restaurant that we work in offers complimentary chips and salsa to all guest while dining in. This particular table of women kept the bar busser busy with their constant requests for refills of free chip baskets and salsa bowls. In one of her many dreadful trips to the table of ungrateful and greedy women, she once again discovered that they were in need of yet more free chips and salsa. She collected the empty basket and salsa dish and told the women at the table that she would be right back with more chips and salsa. As the busser smiled politely and turned to walk away she felt something hit her in the back.

The busser immediately turned back around, knowing that whatever it was that hit her in the back came from that horrid table of glutton women. She came to find out that it was a dirty balled up napkin that hit her! The busser then approached the table to confront them and one of the women tried to apologize by saying “I’m sorry, I was trying to make it in the thing.” Now, by “thing”, we assume she was referring to the chip basket. As obvious as it might seem, I just have to put this out there… A chip basket is not the same as a basket-ball hoop! Even my 4-year old son knows not to throw things at the table and even more importantly, he knows not to disrespect anyone, especially on that low of a level.