Honestly this could be anywhere in Iowa with enough employable (no meth use or early stage meth use) people to operate a bar/restaurant. But Derek is in NE Iowa so I'm going to throw shade and an insist this sounds like the behavior of think-they're-well-to-do people from Elk Run.
Derek got ****ed so hard by his waiter (in front of his wife, kid, and regular customers) that he couldn’t even put the tip in when it was all over.
They had you seated at a table and told you it was 40 minute wait? That don't make no sense. Everywhere I've been that's short-staffed, they take sections off the rotation and you wait to be seated. Once you're seated, you should have the full attention of your waiter.
Yes, there always that side of the table, people can be insufferable. But once enough is enough, it's time to speak up. Waiting as long as the OP did for his meal is pretty ridiculous; especially while watching others around you being served knowing you were well ahead of them.
My favorite part about brunch mimosas is that your non-alcoholic friends will seem them as a reasonable excuse to start morning/day drinking and you can run to the bathroom and get a couple pulls from the pocket flask while you're waiting for your food.
I think it depends on who you're dealing with. If it's the server, you're probably right. If it's the manager or the owner, there's more of a care factor involved. Also, there's a rule of thumb, if your food comes out late, but hot, that's on the kitchen. If it comes out late and cold, that's on the server. Sometimes the kitchen gets backed up. Sometimes they are short staffed. Sometimes you just have a really bad server, in worst cases you get an a$$hole that really shouldn't be in that industry.
COVID decimated the service industry. People that were good at it didn't want to go back. Restaurants are hiring anyone to fill shifts.
Went to a restaurant last month and was told it could be up to 40 minutes to get a fried chicken sandwich. Said ever since they were on DDD they've been slammed with door dashes.
When I worked pizza delivery long ago that's when we took the phone off the hook
Oh for sure. And the staff runs the show because you can't find replacements. My parents friends own a restaurant up north that they open during the summers and they didn't go this year. Too many times the year prior workers would just not show up. No calls, texts, or anything. That lead to upset staff and patrons. Wasn't worth it to them anymore. Can't imagine having a restaurant being your only source of income as an owner and being forced to deal with that daily.
I don't understand why it doesn't make sense? They were understaffed and let everyone know at the hostess table what the wait time would be. It was up to you whether to be seated or not. I would personally rather be seated while I wait than stand around waiting for a table to open up when they have a section blocked.
I still can't figure out if these type of comments are real. Do people really not have a morning cocktail on Sunday with breakfast? What the hell is going on!?!?
All tipping should go away. Just charge more and don’t expect me to tip. Please.
NC Iowa, brah. I can be to Mason City in 10ish min. I couldn't even tell you where Elk Run is, but guessing it's NE Iowa somewhere.
My (no pics) wife and daughter went to high end restaurant a couple of weeks ago. My wife ordered a steak medium and it came back blue. She sent it back (which she never does) and it was returned the exact same way. They comped desert (which they probably would have done anyway because it was my daughter's birthday).
I can assure you it takes the OP more than a couple of morning cocktails to get “shit faced.”
He didn't get paid then and I don't feel the slightest bit bad about that. I tip 20% minimum on all checks, even with terrible service. This was beyond that. He acted like a POS and tried to turn it on us. Again, fvck him.
That’s becoming the norm in general. For jobs at all levels. Workers have been treated like crap for too long and now they’re returning the favor.
Well, I guess it comes down to the difference between gratuity and tip. In the sense of "tip" that is the recognition for a service well done whereas gratuity is a required charge added to the bill that must be paid. I've seen instances where an 18% gratuity is automatically applied, then a space for an additional tip is offered.
When did Denny’s start serving alcohol?
My HS and college-aged kids who work in fast casual and sit down places have told me there are a ton of people who complain about trivial or nonexistent stuff hoping to get comped. Granted, that’s a biased view, but given how people are these days it wouldn’t surprise me.
My wife was on the cusp of exploding, so I had to wrangle her in a little. 45 min is about time to start wrapping it up when we have our 5 year old with. An hour had him really antsy and he was driving the wife crazy. So that didn't help at all.
Wait you went to an upscale place and ordered a burger?
You've got 40 tables. Normally you have 8 waitstaff covering 5 tables each (these numbers are for illustrative purposes only). You've been reduced to 5 waitstaff...now you have each of them covering 8 tables. That's when you get errors and bad service. Every restaurant I've ever been to closes off tables so you might take ten tables off the rotation and cover the remaining 30 with who you have. Everyone still gets good service. I'd much rather wait and get good service when I sit down than sit down and wait and wait and wait to get bad service from a waiter who's covering too many tables.
