02. To all the Rude Guests

Isn’t it funny how some people treat service industry employees? I mean, it’s not inherently funny, but it’s so bad that if you’ve worked in the service industry before, you’ll laugh at these instances…with time.

I’ve worked every job in the foodservice industry and come across different types of people. Pleasant and unpleasant.

The big baller who treats you like a pest. The kind of saying “Hi, it’s your pleasure to meet me.” The big baller who is really a cheapskate and will argue with you about prices, as if you made them up arbitrarily in your head. And my favorite, the big baller who doesn’t even acknowledge your presence and chucks his card at you to close his bill out.

“It’s my pleasure, big-baller.”

You encounter the person who really shouldn’t be eating out because of their many dietary restrictions.

“No, sir, we don’t have a gluten-free-keto beer that is also paleo-friendly.” The person that expects you to know what they want.

“I’m sorry you said medium-well, even though you meant well-done. How stupid of me.”

But I won’t lie, I have to thank rude guests because they make good customers that much better. People that have really become fond of me, and I of them. Guests that became like family, a temporary solace where I could let my guard down and smile and actually mean it. I wish I could’ve given them everything “on the house” these people somehow got it. If, at the end of the day, none of what I learned working in the service industry sticks, at least I learned how to make a margarita…I think.