I got to watch someone get banned!

[Ellf]

Okay, so a little background before I go into detail.

My favorite restaurant in town has a deal on Thursday where you get 49 cent wings. So that's when and why I go. it's an awesome deal and they have some of the best wings in town.

The party behind me has about six people in it, five of which ordered wings when they got there. The sixth person ordered a burger about ten minutes later.

Well, the people who ordered wings got their food out first. The guy didn't complain then. When his food was brought out a bit later, (I'll note, 1/4 lb burger takes some time to cook), he decided he didn't want it. Fully cooked food that he wanted to send back to the kitchen because he ordered it late and was expecting it to be out at the same time as everything else.

Manager tries to reason with him... and he ends up throwing the food at the manager.

It's at this point, the manager decides to throw him out. "Get out! Get out!" I'll note that she's now got ketchup and burger stuff on her pants and there's food on the floor, but the rest of his party starts moaning and groaning because their friend's getting thrown out.

The owner comes over to see what happened. The people at the table tell a completely different story than what actually happened when they talk to her. Making it out to be the manager's fault. Of course, guy who threw the food ended up getting banned, and I think one of them tried to pull the race card too.

Now this party apparently has a history that I didn't know about.

One week, they decided to make their own lemonade using the free lemons and splenda that the restaurant provides. They ended up using 30 or so lemons and the manager was like "okay, I'm charging you for a lemonade" they proceeded to bitch and complain then. Another time they brought in drinks from McDonalds. Into another restaurant. Big nono.

Honestly, it's my opinion that the entire group should have been banned because they were egging the guy on. But whatever.

I ended up giving the waitress who dealt with them a tip on top of the tip to my waitress. Because that shit isn't right.

[dragon_wings]

Damn. What complete assholes. for tipping their waitress.

[Teskeria]

That was good of you. You know they probably stiffed her.
I once left my own waitress a 5% tip. She basically showed up, took the order, delivered the check -spent a lot of time at the table with the college guys. Another waitress noticing we were ignored, refilled our drinks, delivered our food, ect. while covering all her own tables. So I walked over, asked for the manager, handed him the remaining 15% and said "Can you see that 'name' gets this? Our assigned waitress ignored us all night, and 'name actually is the one who earned a tip" Manager agreed with a very thoughtful look on his face.

[HappyFun Ball]

Ah, Ghetto Lemonade, I always cringed when someone ordered water with lots of lemon.

Dont ya love it when someone gets what's coming to them?

[Ironclad Alibi]

Ah, Ghetto Lemonade, I always cringed when someone ordered water with lots of lemon.

My wife's cousin, who was considerable older and in her late 70s, used to make her own lemonade in restaurants. She wouldn't order extra lemons, just use what came normally. Several times I tried to order lemonade for her, but it was never available.

[tropicsgoddess]

Props for giving a generous tip to the waitress and the management for banning that jerkoff! I agree with manager's decision to charge them for their ghetto lemonade but I would've kicked them out after seeing the kids come in with Mickey D's drinks to be honest. If it's not just about the money or sending the wrong image to other customers but also isn't it a health code violation for patrons to bring in food or drinks from outside restaurants to the restaurant?

[jnd4rusty]

Props for giving a generous tip to the waitress and the management for banning that jerkoff! I agree with manager's decision to charge them for their ghetto lemonade but I would've kicked them out after seeing the kids come in with Mickey D's drinks to be honest. If it's not just about the money or sending the wrong image to other customers but also isn't it a health code violation for patrons to bring in food or drinks from outside restaurants to the restaurant?

As far as I know it would not be a health code violation to have another restaurants drink or food in the establishment. It would probably be a different story if the cooks were buying a McDonalds burger and serving it too the customers as their own, then there is no quality control. If a customer is bringing it in for their own consumption then there is no violation, at least none that I have ever heard of in all my years of food safety training. We have people bring in food from the restaurant next door and we don't say anything because it is usually families who have a member who likes something else and as long as they choose to sit in our dining room and spend their money with us it is okay. Now if they brought in food from our direct competitors (we are a west mex restaurant and our direct competitor is the "bell") then I would say something but that has never happened.

[sevendaysky]

The person who said that their grandmother would make lemonade -- that's acceptable in my opinion if lemonade is not an item that the restaurant serves, or if the lemonade they DO serve is somehow not suitable. My parents are diabetic, so they will bring their own splenda and ask the restaurant if they can have a couple of lemon wedges with their meal, and make lemonade that way, instead of buying the lemonade there that's made from mix and has HCFS and stuff in it. They do this at the one sort of a local family diner. Nobody gives them grief for it, but that's probably because they're semi regulars, in at least twice a month for breakfast or dinner, and they only do the lemonade thing once in a blue moon, otherwise ordering coffee.

I took the food handlers' course twice. There wasn't anything specific about bringing food/drink into another restaurant except that said food/drink could not cross into the food prep areas to prevent cross-contamination and so forth.

[Ellf]

The bringing of drinks from other places when the restaurant sells their own drinks was the problem.

Also for the ghetto lemonade, the using of 30+ lemons and 20 packets of splenda. That wasn't for a diabetic as they drink regular soda. They were just trying to get free lemonade.

Bringing in food that the restaurant sells better versions of is ridiculous... and would seem to be a violation of policy.

[Kristev]

Kudos to you for giving the waitress a good tip.

I remember one of the very first times (not the very first time, mind you) that I went to my favorite restaraunt. The waitress assigned to my section didn't do anything more than talk with a handsome gent. I'd sat there watching her for a good fifteen minutes not doing anything. I started to go up to the counter to ask for what I needed, such as drink refills. Some of the other patrons in my section began to complain among each other.

Some of the other waitresses noticed this, and a couple of them stopped by through our section to check on us and bev the tables every so often.

After a while, though, two of these waitresses went to the one that was supposed to be doing our section but wasn't. These two pulled her aside and talked to her for a few good minutes. I didn't hear what they said, but she suddenly began to pay more attention to her section of the restaraunt.

Luckily, she didn't last too long at that job.

[Ellf]

Okay, bit of an update. Turns out they were students at this... dance studio. Or something... it's in the same complex. And now all students from that place are banned from the restaurant. Not just the guy who threw the food.

[Shalom]

And now all students from that place are banned from the restaurant. Not just the guy who threw the food.

Which tells me that they're getting more grief than business from the students there; these particular jerks must not have been the only ones causing problems. Or if not, that bunch of six just became the most unpopular students in the school...

And about that ghetto lemonade... One of the high schools I went to had a collection of Bennett Cerf's anthologies. I read an article in one that had been reprinted from around 1938 regarding restaurants during the Depression. Seems it wasn't all that uncommon for down-on-their-luck patrons to come in and order a glass of hot water, and then take the free ketchup, squirt it in their cup, and make ghetto tomato soup.

(Regarding prohibiting outside food, I always assumed this was universal, because every kosher restaurant (the only type I eat in) does this. How are they supposed to know whether what someone's bringing in is kosher?)