“We ready ta go, CHECK PLEASE!”
Hell, bad tips, bitchery, entitlement junkies, ghetto, great people 26 Comments »I’ve never in the nearly two years that I’ve worked for “the Restaurant that Cannot be Named” had a more horrible night than I had this past Sunday. I was stiffed, I was maimed, I was harassed, I was yelled at, I was stiffed, I was stiffed, I was stiffed. I was so pissed off at one point that I was ready to walk out the door and not look back but I stayed…
The first of the night went great. I had awesome tables, was making great tips, made a couple of new friends who came back to see me tonight. It was after 8 o’clock that I started having problems.
First problem table came in the form of three really ghetto black guys that reeked of weed. From the time I went to the table, they had attitude problems with me. I didn’t even have a chance to introduce myself or anything before the first one, LemonJelo with the nappy braids sticking out of his head like the snakes of Medusa, looks at me and says, “You da waidah? Brang three Hen and Coke ovah,” and tries to wave me away. “No problem, sir, I just need to see three ID’s.” You’d have thought I just blew up their cars for the looks they gave me.
“Why you gotta see dem fo?” OranJello asked. “Because I have to see an ID from anyone who is drinking alcohol or I’m not allowed to serve them.” One by one, the three pulled out their state issued ID cards out. Only one of them turned out to be 21. “I’m sorry guys, I can’t serve the two of you,” I said, handing them back their cards, “Can I bring you a coke or something?”
“You can brang dey Hennessey like I ask.” LemonJello said, starting to get pissed off. “I can’t serve them any alcohol because they’re not 21 and I don’t want to get fired.”
“Jus brang da damn dranks, dude, we ain’ gon’ tell nobody!” The third guy, Cheeto said. “Sir, I’m not going to serve you, there’s no point in continuing to ask. I’ll gladly bring you something non-alcoholic, but nothing from the bar.”
“Man, fuck you, we ain’ gotta take dis bullshit, we drank heah all da time! Dis jus cuz we black.”
“Sir, this has nothing to do with your being black, this has to do with me wanting to keep my job and not serve someone who’s underage. If you continue to talk to me like that, you’ll be escorted out of here. Now, do you want something to drink or not?” They got up and left.
The next two tables weren’t hateful or anything, they were just cheap bastards. I had to clean up three spills from one womans little groin spawn who couldn’t have been more than 2 years old and who shouldn’t have been sitting without a booster seat to begin with. Her mother decided to let her drink from a regular cup, claiming “My baby don’t need no kiddie cup, she a big girl now.” I tried to prove otherwise by bringing a kids cup anyway, only to have her set it aside and let the brat try to drink out of her cup. Three times she spilled it, and her lazy mother refused to even try to clean it up. She just waved me over. They left me nothing.
The next table of the night had to be the worst one of all, and while they were there a couple of regulars that I love came in. They were black, and yes, the race matters and you’ll see why after I tell you about this table.
It started out a woman and her two kids. I’ll name then LaSqueeshia (mother), ShaMarion (son), and Qualatisha (daughter). The son and daughter were real names, I didn’t find out the mothers real name. Anyway, they sat down at one of my tables and started waving me over while I was taking an order from another group. I tried to ignore them so I could answer questions for my table, and LaSqueeshia started yelling quite loudly “Can we get a servah ovah heah? We been waitin fa 10 minutes already.” They hadn’t even been sitting for 2 minutes, much less 10. I finished my order and put it in, then grabbed some bev-naps and went to my new table.
“Sorry for the wait, everyone, how are you tonight?” I asked as cheerfully as I possibly could.
“We done ate dinnah, we jus came ta have some dessert.” LaSqueeshia said. “What all ya’ll got?” I picked up the menu and opened it to the dessert page, and pointed out a couple of the good ones. “Do dat cake get some ice cream?” she asked, pointing at a chocolatey delight. “No ma’am, but you can get some ice cream with it for 75 cents extra and believe me, it goes great with that cake.”
“Why we gotta pay exkra if it tase good wit it?” one of the kids asked. “Because the ice cream doesn’t come with it, so you have to pay for it if you want it.”
They ended up ordering a big dessert that they could share, two waters and a sprite. They stayed for an hour, with momma on the phone most of the time. More of the family showed up, including two ugly women with the wrong weave in. After about 45 minutes of my checking on them and them not answering me, I went and printed their check out and drop it off. Since they hadn’t asked for it, I stopped by the table behind theirs to see if everything was okay, it was a party of 6 from out of town and I was chatting with them, just having a good time with them trying to get a tip. For the record, this also was a table of black people. As we were talking, one of the bitches from the dessert table turns around and looks at me, and yells “We ready ta go, CHECK PLEASE!” I looked up and held up my hand in an ‘I’ll be there in just a second’ gesture. I stayed with the table for a couple of minutes longer and told them I’d be right back.
I walked the few steps to LaSqueeshia’s table. “Hey there, ladies, how was everything tonight?” None of them bothered to answer me. “Are we all done with this?” I asked, pointing to the dessert. The woman who’d yelled at me waved it away and kept yapping on the phone. I took the plate and told them I’d be back to take care of the check whenever they were ready, and went back to what I was doing. My regulars were sitting across from them and the 6 top was still sitting on the table behind theirs. I went by to chat with my regulars, who’ve been my regulars for close to a year now, and was talking to them for a few minutes.
While I’m talking to them, I suddenly hear the same hateful voice that yelled for the check, “We ready ta pay, why you ain’ comin ovah heah!” I told my guests that I’d be back in a second and went back to my bitches. “All ready to go, ladies?”
“You bettah brang us back every penny of da change,” she replied. “No problem at all, ma’am, just give me a moment to cash this out.” I walked away. The check was 11 and some change. I wasn’t hateful toward these women at all, I answered their questions happily and they were just hateful the whole time. So in the end, I made sure they got exact change. 6 of it was in dollar bills, the rest in quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. “Ladies, be careful with the book theres a bit of coin change loose inside.” I said with a minor smile on my face, and walked off to my regulars again.
I sat talking to them for a little while. Their names are Deborah and Leonard, they’re an awesome middle aged couple with two kids, one in high school and one about to start college. They have a bit of ghetto to them but they tip, they’re nice, and I have had fun with them since the first time they came in. Being that I’d only had problems with black tables that night, I asked them honestly, “Am I doing something different with my black guests and not realizing it? Why is it these people are treating me so bad tonight?” I honestly don’t believe that I treat black guests any different than white, mexican or any other race of guests, and neither did Deborah and Leonard.
Deborah replied, “I didn’t notice anything different from how you served your other tables, why do you ask?” I told her about the other tables, and how I’d been stiffed 6 times already through the night and it was all from black guests. She was shocked, and I asked again, “I just really need to know if I’m doing something to deserve it or make them think I don’t want to be serving them!” They assured me that there was nothing wrong with my service, but I still wasn’t reassured.
The guests that I had to serve Sunday night were most assuredly reenforcing the stereotype of blacks in restaurants and it really pissed me off that I was the one having to deal with it! I don’t consider myself a racist by any means, but after Sunday night I was seriously close to losing both my temper and my beliefs. Sunday night is the reason that servers in the majority don’t want to serve black guests. I haven’t let it change me though; I still welcome any and all guests in the hopes of getting a tip from them and that will never change, but after getting stiffed so many times in one night from one racial group only, and being told by guests of that same group that I did nothing wrong in my service, I at one point threw down my swipe card, yelled that I was going on break and I didn’t care who watched my section and I stormed out the back door to smoke and calm down.
Oh, and the party of 6 from out of town that I had so much fun with left me nearly 40 bucks on a 130 dollar bill, didn’t know anything about any of the other guests that had stiffed me during the night, were black and awesome. I treated them the exact same as the other 6 tables. Was it just something different about the people in general?
Maybe I just need a vacation…by the way, if you consider me a racist because of this post, I hate it. I am only telling about my night, and hopefully showing you that although some black guests do perpetuate the stereotype, they’re still not all bad no matter how many bad seeds you have to deal with in one night. I still made a hundred bucks Sunday night, despite my stress. I can however see why most servers feel the way they do about black guests because it’s painfully obvious that even if you do nothing wrong, the majority of them still don’t tip.
Ribeye
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