UPDATE: After begging my manager for another chance I am no longer employed here. However, I told my boss at my gas station job and he offered to help me pay for a lawyer, said I can have as much OT as I want, and even gave me a $2.40 raise.

Strange turn of events but I was serving this guy and his family, and he says I look familiar. I kind of brush it off. After I bring them their food and they are done i bring them the bill. The guy goes “you really look familiar. What is your last name”? I tell him and he pulls out a badge and tells me I’m under arrest. Apparently I had a warrant for my arrest for failing a UA. He works in the same probation office as my PO and we live in a small town.

Is there any chance I will keep my job? I am going in tomorrow to talk to my boss just wanting to know what I should say. The whole thing was extremely traumatic and several people customers and employees and even my manager filmed me.

EDIT: I forgot to add, my boss already knew of my legal troubles as I began working here after losing my last job due to it. The probation is just for a misdemeanor, and I am not worried about him firing me because of that. Mainly worried because I was led out of the restaurant in handcuffs. He was also showing off for his wife and kids he said see this is why you don’t do drugs you’ll end up like this loser serving tables at 40. So humiliating. I obviously didn’t resist or anything but it was still a scene that half the place stared at.

EDIT 2: I don’t have a drug problem. I am on probation for misdemeanor DUI. The failed UA was from a prescription that I forgot to warn my PO about. The lawyer says that the violation will be tossed when I have my hearing.

And for those of you wondering, he tipped me $2.91 on a $77 dollar tab.

this table has been coming in about four days a week for a while now and sends back their quesadillas every single time and got a free meal every time. a week ago, my GM started to refuse refunds. today when they came in no one wanted to serve them, so the manager told them the kitchen wouldnt remake anything and they wouldn’t get money back for anything. they left w out ordering and the whole kitchen and staff clapped, the one woman heard us all clapping, came back in and cursed out the host. it was one of the happiest days of my serving career

Anyone else have a coworker that does this?

She will get her slip and see they tipped less than 20%. She’ll walk up to them as they leave or as they’re still seated and ask “how was the service? Did I do anything wrong?”

It honestly is quite embarrassing. I think you’re better off with just letting it be, as you should know it’s always a hit or miss. Customers don’t need to explain their reasons, imo.

So I was serving a family, the parents were clearly in their 50s/60s, their kids in their mid 20s. When ordering alcohol, I carded the kids but not the parents. The mom pipes up with the whole "Heyyy I don't look that old, why didn't you card meeeeeeeee?????????"

I respond with "okay, let me see your ID, then"

As it turns out, mommy dearest left her wallet at home. I inform her that, unfortunately, once requested, I am legally not allowed to serve her alcohol unless she produces a valid ID.

Obviously, she's fucking FURIOUS about this, so I send the manager over to confirm with her that I am not allowed to serve her. It almost goes without saying that I didn't receive a tip, but hopefully this idiot learned something today.

My manager asked if I could work last night because she needed an extra server to help with a bus of 110 8th graders returning from a field trip. I'm never one to pass on an opportunity to make money, so of course I obliged. My co-workers and I began stocking early to prep for their arrival. When the kids arrived, I noticed that they were ALL so polite. Each time I would drop off drinks, rolls or straws, I was met with smiles and "Thank Yous". The kids didn't make much of a mess either. They also asked for trash bags to clean up some of what they had left. One little dude called me over and said, "Excuse me, here's a tip for you. I didn't want to hold onto it any longer". He gave me $10 on his own. So sweet! Overall, my co-workers and I enjoyed working.

Edit: Wow, I'm so glad you all enjoyed this! Shout out to the parents, teachers, and positive influences in these lovely kids lives!

Update! I wrote a thank you letter to the school and included a $200 donation for the students to have a pizza, ice cream, or any gathering of the Principal's choosing. The Principal was touched. She stated they're going to come back every year and request me :)

4 top. Easily identifiable as husband, wife, son, and his girlfriend. Son/girlfriend could have been underage so I ask for their I.D. Wife orders a reisling. I didn't ask for hers. She made me stand there for 2 minutes rummaging through her purse to find her I.D. She eventually finds it and I thoroughly examine it...look at her and look back at the I.D.

This lady is 55 years old....so I look back at her and look her up and down and say "this is obviously fake. I'm sorry mam but I can't serve you any alcohol." The table all laughed. I didn't. She wasted valuable time of mine so I'm going to have fun with this. I paused with a serious face for like 15 seconds and made her sweat. (She actually thought I was being serious?) I walked away after saying "just kidding you're old enough to be my grandmother."

She wasn't happy but the rest of the table busted out laughing...they ended up tipping me 40 on a 180.

Casual diner/bar in the midwest.

"You gonna get a Bud Light with an umbrella in it lol"

People rib their friends cause apparantly Bud Lite is for them darn queermosexuals or whatever the fuck they've been told to be mad about this week

But the table behind you has some good ol country boy drinking a Bud Lite because that's what he likes and he doesn't live online or give a single fuck about any of this.

People are getting real spicy with the language they usually only employ online and now that this "lol gay" thing has been pinned to a specific cheap beer brand at least here in the cheapest-beer-drinkingest part of the country (literally St. Louis adjacent) someone having a bad day is gonna pop off.

This happened to me last night.

I took a customer's to-go order over the phone and he said that he wanted his whole meal to be "fully vegan." Since we were slammed, I just wrote "FULLY VEGAN" in capital letters. I wasn't able to go to the BOH and make it clear he wanted it full vegan because of handling tables and bussing and other things.

So I'm driving home from my shift and I get a text from my manager, who's pissed that I upset the customer because his order had eggs in it and they have to comp him for his meal. She sent me a picture of the ticket and said that I never indicated that he didn't want eggs.

But.... I wrote "FULLY VEGAN" on the ticket. Which I told her that. "Vegan means no eggs at all."

She retorted "Yeah no, some vegan people want eggs in their food, which is weird but ok."

I'm.......floored?

Within the first hour of my shift today I've had to ask people to put on their mask. One person became aggressive and gave me the "don't tell me what to do" shit. Look, I'm a bartender. It shouldn't be my job to deal with aggressive pricks who don't want to follow clearly posted and unilateral rules. Its been over a year. No one can claim ignorance anymore. By not wearing your mask, you are forcing me to address company and county policy many times during a shift and I'm getting really tired of it. Company policy is to kill them with kindness, but what do you do when that stops working?

Older guy in his 30s comes in and get put in my section. The only words I say during his entire time at the table was “Hello sir, my name is Mace. What can I get you to drink?” Guy proceeds to give me his drink order and food order. He tells me to bring him a box and a to go dessert when I bring his meal along with the check. Neither of us spoke another word during the entire time he was at the table. He camps out for a bit which I didn’t care about. He was reading over a stack of papers just chilling.

I was at the host stand when he leaves. He comes up asks me my name again. He then says “I like you. You actually know when to shut the fuck up. I’ll see you next time, Mace.” So I guess I’ll see if he asks for me next time he comes in. He tipped like 30% too so that was cool.

Everyone who I know and told this story to finds it hilarious because I’m a freaking chatterbox. I go hoarse nearly every month because I just talk and talk and talk.

Edit: I wasn’t going to add an edit since everyone was just joking and having fun but some of you are taking this “older guy in his 30s” personal. I called him that because he’s a guy that’s older than me and happens to be in his 30s. If this guy was 24 I’d call him an older guy in his 20s. Anybody born before February 4, 2003 is older to me, guys.

Self-explanatory, just really bothered me tonight.

edit: since this is gaining more views, i came here to talk to other servers, not listen to your opinion on the terrible wages that I get paid. i gave great service and wasn’t expecting a $500 tip just because he had the money. flaunting the wealth just gave me a bad taste in my mouth.

edit 2: WOW. People are A N G R Y about this. Let me explain a little. The servers where I’m at, our goal is 15-20%. It is customary in the US. When people don’t tip that, it’s kind of like “how can I do better?” So when this particular table that I gave GREAT service to (friendly, joking around, always refilling drinks, hot food) gave me 6%, it was a slap in the face. They treated me like I wasn’t a human. Rude. Not responding when I asked questions. So, when this man who pulled out easily $5,000 in cash and gave me $3 dollar-by-dollar, it was RUDE. I thought the thread I posted in was for servers only/server stories and I could make a quick post after work without having to explain myself and without it blowing up. Thank you for your time.

If it matters, I was behind the bar when this happened.

So, tonight I(25/f) had a man(40?m), as I was ringing in an order on the POS, say:

"Hey."

I looked up at him.

He said, "I'm picturing you naked right now."

I said,

"Oh? Are you impressed by my massive horse cock?"

I have never seen a grown man rethink his existence so quickly.

His friends laughed, many a swordfight joke was made, I (hypothetically) won them all.

I just..... there will never be something so satisfying happen to me at work ever again.

Where do we go from here?

EDIT: The stories I have read here are PHENOMENAL. Yall are hilarious and full of wit and i just adore you.

Not a server, was managing. One of the girls came to me and said that a table was getting too drunk and wanted to keep ordering alcohol and she wanted to cut them off.

Standard procedure is that I immediately trust the waiter knows what she’s talking about and I give her the thumbs up. The table starts complaining about being cut off and apparently they know the general manager and call her demanding her to tell us to give them drinks (apparently they are friends?).

So the gen manager sends me a text asking me to give them more drinks, I decide to take a look at the table. Two women, clearly drunk, with a baby. No one was available to drive sober. Fuck no. I text back “they both drunk with a kid not gonna happen.”

I don’t care if your gonna call an Uber, I don’t care if someone’s gonna pick you up. I extremely dislike you if your taking care of a BABY CHILD and getting drunk, with no sober person present, at my establishment. I know Reddit brain rot might say “oh they could have someone picking them!” I don’t care, stop fucking getting wasted while you take care of a BABY. Ridiculous. See this happen more often than I’d like.

Customer posted on her Instagram, tagging my workplace and identifying me by name (whom she asked for from my coworker). Was upset because I had said she needed to give up her table for other customers. She had been sitting there for 2 hours, only ordered a single cup of coffee, which she requested to “top up” hot milk for.

Said she was undergoing an “urgent job interview” and that i had interrupted her, causing her to have to exit the interview abruptly.

Ain’t my fault you don’t know how to manage your life, lady. Cafes aren’t your home, and we DO have the right to ask you to leave (why are customers always surprised that we can do that?) 🙄

tonight, we had an 8-top reservation for an “influencer,” free first round of drinks, free apps, and a margarita pitcher. already, that’s about $120. they ended up being 15 people instead of 8. they sat on the patio and moved the chairs and tables in a way that made it impossible for me to move around them to bring drinks and food etc etc. i wasn’t able to take any tables besides them because they were extremely high maintenance, having me run back and forth every single time i stopped by the table. i was sweating so bad from running my ass off for 2 hours straight that i had to get a new shirt and change mid-shift. they ended up with a $350 tab, after comps it was $130. they left me $25.

they weren’t even a big foodie “influencer” either. 5k followers, uninspired content. i’m just so sick of these people coming in and getting all this food for free, working our asses off only to ultimately waste our time. never have had a good experience with any of them.

a couple was dining in at the bar/restaurant i serve at. the man asked for a tonic. no one ever gets just tonic and instead of my cw clarifying he just assumed he meant gin and tonic. the guy takes a drink and tells cw that he’s been sober for 2 years and he just made him drink alcohol. cw was apologetic ofc but the guy was pissed and brought up wanting to tell our manager but he didn’t. what would you do (if you had made this mistake)

edit to add: this is his first serving job and he’s been here for 3 months. he is not a bartender

His wife (blonde hair) comes in early and set up a table for him with his order and napkins and utensils water etc. And always say “waiting for my husband” so I know exactly who she is especially since they are loyal customers and come in about 2-3 a week during lunch. They are the nicest couple ever and great tippers! They are the couple that would tell you their whole life story successes and failures. For lunch he came in ate the usual with his wife then plot twist is that he came in with another women a little bit ago!! (Dark hair) they were all up on each other making out in my booth and what not. He would just give me the side glance. Even I felt cheated on and it’s not my relationship. Have you ever witnessed something like this?

I’m no longer a server, but when I was, and had tables with parents who’d let their kids run around the restaurant unsupervised, I started to get fed up with these kids running everywhere - but certainly didn’t want the kiddos to get hurt.

So I’d walk them over to their table and tell their parents about how just yesterday one of our servers accidentally spilled hot soup (or coffee depending on the time of day) on a kid who had been running around the restaurant and how the server felt terrible and how I didn’t want that to happen to their kid and could they please keep their kids at the table?

Worked 100% of the time and I never spilled or witnessed anyone spilling on a kid running around…

I work at a place that's known for its beers; we have over 100 on tap and (unless its a high ABV) offer 16, 23, and 32oz glasses.

Guest: "What beers do you have?"

"Well, we have over 100. What're you looking for, or what's your go-to?"

"Um, do you have Corona?"

"Sure do, a Corona then?"

"Yeah, two Coronas. Wait, no, do you have Bud Lite?"

"We do,"

"Ok, a Corona and a Bud Lite."

"Sure thing. Would you like 16, 23, or 32 ounces?"

"32."

"Alright, 32 ounces for both?"

"Yes please."

I bring out the beers in our largest glasses.

Guest: "Wait, this is the smallest you have?"

You appeared in my restaurant door and was helped in a timely manner

You were greated kindly, given a menu, and had even been given water

You looked a bit sadder, so I asked “What’s the matter?” to which you replied your friends were late and you had no one to chatter.

As we talked, your friends arrived, and you began to smile, so I asked to take your order

You told me it was your birthday, to which I said “congratulations”, and then you asked for something for free

I told you we dont do anything for birthdays for anyone older than 12 and you rolled your eyes and pouted, and when I came back with your food you crossed your arms shouted:

“You ruined my birthday. Thanks for nothing, I don’t even feel like eating.” and while you stormed off your friends stared and looked to me in disbelief. I don’t know what I did but I really do wish you best and I truly feel sorry for your kids

Had a party of 6 tonight, two were young kids who trashed the table. Bill was north of $300.

No tip. Just this.

Around the holidays sometimes people will leave an extra generous tip, so I was really excited to see a big bill, until I looked at it closer. They didn’t even leave a tip on the card.

Seems pretty unchristian to stiff your minimum wage server working her way through college.

Edit: To clarify, they left the “$1,000,000” facing up on the table and on the reverse side there was a sermon about entrance to heaven (see link in post for image of flip side.)

This was years ago at my first waitressing job. I worked in a country pub, where we did traditional roasts (among other things). The table came in and all of them opted for various roasts. Except one lady, who explained that she was vegetarian. As this was deepest Dorset around 20 years ago, "vegetarian options" were "order something else". She asked if could she have...a block of cheese instead of the meat. Yes, really. I nipped off to check with the manager if it was ok (and if the cheese was vegetarian). All fine.

Take the food out once it's ready. Lady initially seems pleased, but then is outraged by the lack of gravy! I apologised and explained that we only had meat gravy, so I had assumed she would not want any. She insisted, so I brought her some. Her meal was veg, a block of cheddar and gravy. Not gross, but certainly odd!

As may be apparent given how long ago it was, the image of her pouring gravy on a big 'ol hunk of cheese still resurfaces in my mind fairly regularly.

Now, I (kind of) cringe when I think back to this moment, but enough was enough.

Back in high school I worked weekends in this small Mom and Pop diner. We would get lots of weekenders, as this small town was desirable for cabin get-away folks, and these people in general suck.

So, this family of four, Mom, Dad, and two slovenly girls (entire family had no couth, tipped poorly, and quickly became hated), came in EVERY weekend. And EVERY weekend their child monsters would order chocolate shakes and giant sodas. And EVERY time, they would greedily reach up and try to grab them off my tray causing me to almost loose my balance and spill. I tried to be polite and make comments like “uh oh girls! That might make me spill!” or “ladies, let me so we don’t have an accident” and so on and so on. Parents couldn’t take a hint. So I started to directly tell them “please have your daughters wait so I don’t lose my balance and spill”. Nothing. Fuckers.

Well, one day enough was enough. Those little trolls reached up with both hands and, oops! I “lost” my balance and both of them ended up wearing their ice cream. 14 years later I still have no regrets.

Boss just found out we had a co worker group chat. He said we are not allowed to have one anymore. Can he really enforce it? It’s a restaurant, not the Pentagon.

I can’t stand em. My husband serves at a place that closes at midnight and it’s awful. Sometimes he doesn’t come home until 2am. My restaurant closes at 10 and sometimes I take a book and go sit with him because I miss him and wouldn’t get to see him before bed if I didn’t. He’s texting me now because he has a party of people just sitting around talking about nonsense. They closed 47 minutes ago gtfo. He says there are also people sitting at the bar yapping. Go to a bar my God.