We'll admit, we've gotten lost in conversation and not noticed a server walk up to the table before, especially way back in ye olde theater days.
The servers at Ruby Tuesday must have heard so much more than they ever bargained for. Then again, theater kids just have a way of standing out, ya know?
Maybe the servers knew exactly how ridiculous things could get with us...
Whether the customers just looked like the type to bring the drama, like the dad in the Mother's Day story, or not didn't seem to matter. Guests overlook service staff and get lost in conversation. They talk too loudly. They're oblivious.
Cheater
I was clearing some tables after a wedding. Overheard the bride talking to the grooms mother. She was trying to justify having cheated on the groom the night before (which seriously seems to happen way too often for both genders, wtf.)
The part that made it really bad is that she kept trashing her now-husband and his mother was trying to be as sweet as possible, telling her it's understandable and she is stressed and all that; telling her to give it time. Part of me respects her calmness but seriously, she cheated on your son, don't tell her that's okay! I've seen it so many times before. But this left me livid.
Delivery
GiphyAs a delivery boy I was handing this young woman her pizza while she was on the phone talking about how her mom is in the hospital for attempted suicide. It was really sad and awkward.
- amhylo
Porn Is Terrible Sex Ed
There was a group of high school girls near the server station and overheard one girl say "wait, I shouldn't have given him a bl*wjob after we did it? They did it in a porno though and he had a condom on before."
A Military Town
Once worked as a waiter. I was clearing a table when I heard the following from a table behind me. "Ok, we'll need assault rifles, sidearms, machetes, and full gear. Don't forget four full clips for each weapon."
That got me curious. I turned to see four guys in military uniform sitting at the table. It would've been fishy if the restaurant wasn't in a military town. It was a small town which was right next a military camp (infantry) and a military academy.
Buenos Aires
It's not mine, is my mom's. She passed the table where this rich couple from Buenos Aires was and stayed close so she could eavesdrop when she heard the word "abortion."
Apparently their daughter and nephew had sex, and she got pregnant.
Keeping It In The Family
Back in high school I was a host for a small sushi restaurant. The host stand was about 2 yards away from the closest bar stool. On one particularly slow night a couple came in to sit at the bar for dinner.
After a happy hour large sake bomb, the woman was talking loud enough for me to hear. Her sister came up in their conversation and took a turn for the worse. She started accusing her husband of always looking at her sister a little too long and said her sister used her obnoxious laugh (?) whenever he was around.
I leave the host stand to do some work around the restaurant fast forward 10 min.
Now both the lady and man are visibly upset when he stands out of his chair and loudly for the whole other 4 people to hear "Yeah I think her sisters hot and I slept with her too" and stormed out.
My manager just quickly gave the lady the bill even though she was sitting there crying. By far the most interesting night I had working there.
- dooidoo
An Immersive Experience
GiphyFrom the opposite standpoint; Definitely not something I was supposed to overhear from my waitstaff.
Anyone who knows anything about Disney World knows that they make it very immersive. You are never supposed to see anyone out of character at any time for any reason, even to the point where they keep dancing after going into the tunnels just in case someone can see.
That's why this story sticks out so much in my memory. I was in Disney back in my teen years and at a character breakfast. Alice and The Mad Hatter were very snippy at each other while they were entertaining, and finally they went aside and had it out around the corner toward the kitchen. They thought they were quiet enough, but my sister and I could hear the whole thing.
Alice and The Mad Hatter just had a coital rendezvous a few minutes earlier. The Mad Hatter was complaining that Alice totally took advantage of him, and that he was uncomfortable with the entire thing, and even more pissed off that she hadn't told him that she wasn't on birth control. She was snapping back that he never expressly objected to anything, so he can't be angry now.
The entire experience was absolutely surreal - watching two people in full costume that were supposed to have permanent smiles on their faces bickering over a very adult conversation. It was unforgettable.
- SLagonia
April Fool's
I was eating at a restaurant one day and a boyfriend proposed to his girlfriend. It was very sweet, not attention-seeking at all, and seemed very genuine.
She started crying and said yes.
He grinned and said "April Fool!"
She. Was. PISSED!
Josh
It was Mother's Day '19, and I work at the best breakfast joint in my city, at the most popular location. We were on a 3-4 hour wait pretty much all day. At around 11 or 12, I had a 3 top get sat in one of my booths. A little miffed about it because it's the busiest day of the year and they were in a family booth, but whatevs, let's turn and burn them. I creep on them from the kitchen a lil bit to see who I'm dealing with. A mid-late 30's woman, in decent shape, Karen hair cut. Teenage daughter, completely enthralled with whatever boy is trying to convince her to show her skin on Snapchat. A early 40's behemoth of a man, 220lbs of rock hard muscle and 6'5" AT LEAST. He's red in the face and mad already, I assume because of the wait. I'm already thinking, "oh these poor women"
I walk up, do my little song and dance, go get drinks. All is well. All is normal. Guy is a lil stiff, but I saw that coming from a mile away so I do my best to defuse and disarm him with some directed charm. Made a joke about black coffee that got the tables around me giggling and the two girls, but he just gave me a Stoney glare. Soooooo this is awk. Let's take their order.
I'm at the point-of-sale(POS) adjacent to their table, just around the corner, and I begin ringing their order in. As I'm ringing it in, I hear in a gruff voice, "...well JOSH didn't have a problem with that, did he??" Then, in a timid voice, "...nothing...going on...Josh"
Uh oh, I'm listening to someone being accused of cheating on Mother's Day in front of their daughter this just got AWK
So I leave them alone till their food is up. As I'm walking up with the tray, big guy is roaring his head off screaming how she's a whore, how she doesn't deserve happiness, how she should just go sleep with Josh again, the nines. All in front of the kid.
Then he goes to stand up and I'm close by because I have their food and don't wanna be blamed for it being cold so I'm still tryna drop this food off, forget their their argument. I try to back away but there's another table WAY TOO CLOSE.
He jumps back and stands and cracks his head on my tray, HARD. $80 worth of omelettes and pancakes come crashing down, on top of a table of 10 halfway through their meal, in a fantastic display of shattered ceramic and flying berries. The guy storms over to me, gruffly apologizes and shoves a crumpled $100 bill in my shirt pocket and stomps out of the restaurant.
The lady is crying, the daughter has both headphones in now, I'm laying in a pool of strawberry syrup and whipped cream, and I got to re-fire 20 plates of food and got a terrible tip from the 10.
Karen-hair says, "That should teach me to ever go out on Mother's Day with my ex husband." and starts crying into her oatmeal, which was the only plate I was able to save. I gave her and her daughter and awkward Christian side hug and related my experience of growing up in a divorced household and got them new food.
Def should have walked away when I could have.
Passing On Their Wisdom
I work at a small cafe that has outdoor seats close to the counter. As I was collecting some dirty plates from a table, I hear these two elderly women talking to a younger woman about sexual topics. What also sucked was that every time I went to clean a table, the elderly women were still talking about sexual stuff.
One of the things I can remember one of them saying word for word was "Trust me, if he wanted to be a virgin he wouldn't have slept with you, now its time for you to cheat on him"
Reddit user StickyRice4 asked:
Waiters/waitresses, what is the worst first date you've witnessed?
Considering your classic first date setup typically happens at a bar or restaurant, there were a lot of answers, each a little bit more awful than the one before. Generally speaking, they all boil down to one major mistake - an inability or unwillingness to read your date.
So there you go, folks. That's our pro-tip for the day. Read your date so you know whether or not you should bust out your Pokemon, your racism or homophobia, your fetishes, or that thing you do with your tongue.
Spoiler Alert: Yeeeeaaaaah you should probably keep that stuff to yourself on a first date.
Untouched
This isn't as bad as some of the others but the guy and girl arrived separately and it seemed like they were meeting for the first time at the restaurant. They sat down then the girl excused herself and went to the bathroom. The guy ordered drinks for them both while she was gone then, after like 30 mins, ordered two meals. It was so obvious she wasn't coming back but he kept calling her and eventually just left all the food and drink untouched and paid the bill.
Rum Punch
Bartended for a decade. For a while I was at a medium range Italian restaurant. More than once I saw a first date go awry because one of the two drank too much. Most memorable was a woman who started downing rum punches. They were at a table so I couldn't see them and I guess the waiter had forgotten his "red light, yellow light" training (I don't know if they still do that). After the sixth one I asked if these were all going to the same person and he said yes. I was like, oh sh!t. Sure enough, girl ended up puking all over my bathroom and locking herself in. When we got the door open she was passed out and there was puke everywhere including all over her. No cab would touch her so the guy ended up taking her home. He came in a week later and said they were going on another date. I was skeptical. They've been married for about 15 years and are absurdly happy. She avoids rum punches.
Starbucks And Japanese
She was Japanese and he started off by showing her his shirt with sumo wrestlers on it, then would ask questions like... what's your favorite sushi? Do you only speak Japanese? How do you say toilet in Japanese? They have sumo in Japan right? Did you see my shirt? It was so amazingly awkward
- daveyhh
Homophobic Mom
I once had two very young (like 15 at most) teenage boys come into my place for what was clearly their first date together, if not their first date ever. Maybe 20 minutes into their date one of their mothers showed up, realized it was a boy her son was on a date with, and started screaming and crying about she didn't understand how he could do this to her and didn't he know she wanted grandchildren, etc, etc. She just flipped out and was totally homophobic and told him he wasn't allowed in her home if he was going to choose this lifestyle. He started crying, his poor date was totally bewildered, and ended up calling his mom to come take them home.
BBQ
Girl and guy came into the barbecue restaurant I worked at. At this place, like many casual BBQ places, you pay after you order and then come back to pick up your food when your number is called. That will matter in a second. Anyway...
They met at the door exchanging the usual "Hi, nice to meet you!", etc. The guy was a complete ass. She ordered ribs and without hesitation he said:
"Do you want to keep that hot figure of yours or look like that chick over there?"
He then pointed to a woman who was slightly overweight. While they were waiting in line to pay he started flirting with the chick behind them. She dead ass waited until he paid then left without waiting for the food.
Her Hand
GiphyCouple in their mid-twenties comes in, it's obviously a first date but they seem to really like each other and are getting along well. I wasn't serving them however. About halfway through their meal I notice them holding hands over the table. Cute. Then, the guy lifts her hand to his lips and kisses the back of it. A bit of an outdated gesture, but still cute I guess. The woman seems slightly confused but goes along with it. A little while later I see the guy do it again. Okay, dude. Then again. Woman is confused and looks a little uncomfortable. They are no longer holding hands. I go to serve my table and see the dude full on MAKING OUT with her hand, tongue and all. Woman looks extremely embarrassed and uncomfortable, looking everywhere but at her date. I go over and casually ask if they need anything, and the dude stops. Woman yanks her hand back. She left pretty soon after.
The Cutest Karma
I had a 2 top in a small booth and across from them was a family of 6. The 2 top was in their mid 40's maybe 50. I was delivering food to the 6 top and I was being berated for not using legs with my big trays, so I grabbed a pair and headed off. When I was setting them down a stacked plate on my tray shifted to the side and the whole tray pitched toward the 6 top. I panicked and tried to stop it from falling and it all went backwards off the tray.
Unluckily I didn't hear a single plate shatter. I turned around and the woman at the 2 top had rib sauce on her face, mashed potatoes in her bust, and broccoli all over her lap. I started with, "I'm so sorry ma'am. Please stand up and we'll get you cleaned up."
My 6 top was forgotten at that moment. I pleaded with her to get up so we could clean her off, someone produced a towel for me, I had 2 managers trying to help. She was so polite and insistent that it was nobody's fault. Her husband finally said, "at least wipe the sauce off your face." And she laughed and got up.
Everything was comped on their ticket including alcohol. It was the only tray I ever dropped and they never made me use legs again.
They came back in and asked for me the next week. The husband told me they were celebrating 30 years together that night. I felt horrible. Then he told me on their first date she made spaghetti, and accidentally dumped it in his lap. He told her it was karma and they had a huge laugh, and a free meal.
- thebolda
These Gestures Are Offensive In Other Countries | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
People explain the friendly gestures in one country that are offensive in another. It's imperative to do a little research about the destinations and culture...The House Wine
I worked as a waitress in an Italian restaurant while in uni in 2006. Obvious first date comes in. He's booked it and requested a table in a secluded area of the restaurant because the acoustics would be perfect.She arrives and asks to move table to by the window. No big deal. He's annoyed at this.
They ordered a carafe of the house red with their meals. Anything she said he'd turn it into some achievement he'd already accomplished. He kept making comments about her order, such as how fattening a dish would be etc,and then proceeded to say his family owned a vineyard and he knew a good red wine when he smelt one.
He then asked for the most expensive wine on the menu and to take away the what he called "piss of a house wine" then talked about how the bouquet was different and the clarity was so much better on the "expensive" wine.
When it came to dessert she had enough of his bull and flipped when he said that she shouldn't have any or she'd end up with stretch marks. She was a bit overweight but not overly so. She stood up and yelled at him for being a condescending piece of garbage, for knowing nothing at all about wine and dropped the coup de grâce that her father was our wine supplier and that the "piss of a house wine" red was exactly the same as the most expensive wine (all of which was totally true).
He was left speechless with the full check to pay.
Why She Loved That Waitress
I was the person on a terrible first date.
It was unusual because he picked a very fancy location that was way out of town (like an hour drive), I normally prefer casual dates like walking in the park, or coffee but he insisted we go.
I arrived first and when I sat down I ordered a drink (strawberry lemonade I don't drink alcohol) and was talking to the waitress saying I was waiting on a date, she was super nice to me and said "oh I hope it's fun good luck!"
Once he arrived suddenly her mood shifted, she gave him an attitude when he ordered. He was trying to bully me into getting some alcohol but I was firm and said I would stick to my strawberry lemonade. Throughout the date he kept trying to order me vodka.
Waitress was being really weird and kept complimenting me and giving me free lemonades, refills every two minutes and basically giving him dirty looks and stayed close by always watching. The guy was being a prick about the situation and started acting rude, "I hope she's not gonna charge for those." He looked incredibly angry and uncomfortable.
I was starting to wonder why this waitress was being so mean so I went to the bathroom and waited to flag her down.
She told me he goes there every other weekend with a new girl and that the girls would walk out of there acting very drunk.
I did confront him and he admitted he gets girls drunk to sleep with him with pressure tactics. I took off right when he said that and the waitress took me to my car, I made sure to give all the cash I had as a tip.
I seriously love that waitress, and I'll never forget her.
Blasted Racist
Not a server but a bartender. My girlfriend was serving an obvious first date and they were ordering an alarming amount of drinks with 30 minutes of sitting down, I ask my gf what was going and and she said the girl was doing all of the shots they ordered. I walked from behind the bar to the bathroom purely to check in on the situation and good lord this girl on the date was blasted and just dropping the f-bomb every other word.
Eventually the chick went outside to smoke and the dude B-lined to the bar and asked if he could give me money for the waitress and sneak out (actually gave $200 for a $70 tab so nice)...the girl came back in and ate the food they ordered then tried to order more drinks. Had to throw her out and she started calling me the n word. I'm very much a white dude. Bizarre night that my girl and I still talk about years later.
The Hipster King And His Moral Mountain
GiphyOh yes! I've got the mother of all hipster dates!
So I was at Father's Office, it's kind of a trendy beer /hipster/ amazing food/ show that is wall to wall packed every night.My friends and I are enjoying what could possibly be the best burger ever made. I'm drinking a beer.
This place is set up kind of strange. You have 2 bars along the back wall, some tables in the middle for dinner and a ring of booths around the rest of the bar. Not a lot of room to move around or really have private space. It didn't really bother me because I was having an orgasmic out of body experience with this burger.
Until in walks the king of all of the Los Angeles hipsters...
This guy had every article of hipster clothing on. That stupid Amish hat, the fruit pattern button up shirt sleeve shirt, the swacket (sweater-jacket), burgundy corduroy pants, and yes deck shoes. His face was adorned with your typical hipster add ons; the septum piercing, gauges, those awful Harry Potter glasses, patchy stubble and a 80's porn star mustache. Bracelets clanking off his Apple watch he saunters in to the bar and plops himself in the booth behind me. My back is to his back, and I can feel the Mumford and Sons rolling out of his soul.
He orders some nonsense beer and begins to make "work" calls on his ridiculous watch... in a bar loud enough to bother my deaf uncle. So pretentious. His voice sounds like the Chipmunks smoked camel unfiltered's and drank wild turkey. I am immediately in hate with this walking skidmark on the underwear of society.
That is until the crowds around the bar part and in walks the most incredibly attractive ordinary girl I've ever seen. I know that sounds confusing but just think about it. We've all seen someone like that before, nothing really special about them... But all of the normality is just perfect. She is wearing jeans with a black v-neck shirt. She is rocking some really nice Jimmy Choo's (yes I know what those are don't judge me) I can tell she just got done with work because she has that "I want to go home and make love to my bed" look.
She smiles at our table as she walks by and then very sensually slides into the booth with the hipster King. My friends and I give each other that "here comes the show" look. He introduces himself, she introduces herself it's fairly normal conversation.
Then she asks what he does for work and the gates of hipster hell open. Apparently, he is the most accomplished man in the entire city of LA. He is a writer, a director, an actor, a vegan food expert, wine expert, tech genius who makes million dollar apps as a hobby, has a charity, and most importantly is involved in the weed industry. He says all of this in the most condescending tone possible; like she could never measure up to his incredible portfolio.
My table is struggling not to laugh as we listen to this modern day million dollar man tell this girl that he is probably a way better human being than she could ever hope to be. How he is totally down with black lives matter, how he donated buckets of money to Hillary Clinton's campaign. His moral fiber is so strong that scientist are trying to use it to catch meteors.
Now at this point I can't see her face, remember she is facing my back. But I have to see how she is reacting to this guy's PR interview... so I very casually stand up to stretch... and as I put my arms out I turn my head to look at her. She has this look of confusion sprinkled with disgust and a little dash of just being done with this entire situation. I unfortunately catch her eye and we link telepathically. Her eyes are saying "Can you believe this?"
My eyes respond "I'd save you but I don't want his words touching the air around me."
I finish my stretch and sit back down. My friends are giggling like a bunch of girls drunk on box wine. He is rambling on about how corporate America is responsible for all the evils in the world. I hear a very loud sigh and she finally says:
"Look my friend set this up, I'm really tired from work and I don't want to sit here and watch you build this moral high ground mountain that you're apparently so intent on building. Have a great night best of luck."
You could hear the air leaving this man child's body as she got up and walked away. Disappearing into the crowd like a victorious warrior.
But that wasn't the end!
He gathered his thoughts and started making calls on his watch as loudly as possible so everyone could hear how important he is. He sat at that table nursing that one beer for an entire hour. Just being an in-the-way person, a person so repugnant that the wait staff didn't even come to his table. Oh and the cherry on top of the douche Sunday? He only tipped 10% on his bill.
Pokemon
GiphyCouple years ago, I was tending bar at a high-end steak joint. A pretty brunette walked in and sat down at the bar. After fixing her a cocktail, I asked if she'd like to see a dinner menu. She explained that she was waiting for a date.
A few moments later, the guy arrived carrying a large bag.
It was immediately obvious this date was their first. Their conversation was lurching from forced to downright painful when he reached into the bag and pulled out an album containing...
...his Pokemon card collection.
He set the book on the bar and thumbed through each page, thoroughly and lovingly describing every card, attempting to educate his date in the ways of Japanese pocket monsters. I'll be fair to the guy - dude was passionate.
She feigned an emergency and called her friend to pick her up. He stayed and ate a plain hamburger at the bar. Both of these people were in their mid-30's.
Should Have Checked
I work as a part time waiter and one evening there was a couple in their 30s (he was probably in his way 40s) which seemed as a first date. At the beginning all was ok, she was laughing and being quite nice. He was same with her but pretty rude and condescending with me but fine.
At some point he goes to sit next to her, forces a kiss, caresses her hair and the woman looks very shocked and tries to back off. He still doesn't get the hint. Later, I heard her saying to him it will not work, she just doesn't feel it, etc. At this point I was pretty worried as he seemed to choke her, asking why, still trying to kiss her, his voice sounding quite angry and very insistent.
I wanted to write her a note when he was in the toilet if she needs help as she started to look worried that he will not leave her alone. Pretty soon they left and I was worried for her all night, should've offered to help her.
Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory
Lived in a small town at the time, one of those "Gotta escape from here" type places. At a brew house type place with a friend enjoying the evening off work and witnessed an absolute trainwreck. Guy who moved away comes back to wine and dine an old fling, but just trying so hard.
Bragged about his healthy six-figure income, bragged about how worldly he's become. Talked about himself like he was Elon Musk for the entire date without allowing a single shift in the conversation to allow for anything but himself. Poor girl just sat and politely responded with one-word answers of encouragement when she was allowed to while this torrent of exaggerated success gushed out towards her.
I've never felt so bad for someone in a date situation before, she started the date so impressed and seemed very into him, but was just so clearly over it by the end.
Guy likely did have a whole lot going for him (exaggerated, but even without embellishment) but just refused to ever stop talking about himself. He talked himself out of a second date and likely never realized it. Hilarious but brutal.
Their Bad Date Becomes Someone Else's Good Date
I asked out a girl I was friends with to a date to see if we can be more than just friends. It was kind of awkward and we couldn't think of anything to talk about. We already knew each-other pretty well. While we were there another couple shows up and sits in the booth behind us. I can tell it was their first date too because they kept talking about what they were into (at the time I wish my date was going like that).
But after a while the girl asks the guy what his favorite thing to eat was and he replied "the thing in between your legs". There was a pause and she said "I'll ask again, what's your favorite thing to eat". His reply didn't change and we heard her slap him across the face and walk out. He got up and left and me and my date started laughing. It was pretty sad their date didn't go well but it gave me and my date something to talk about that evening
Some People
GiphyI worked at a small restaurant and there was this nice lady that walked in. She sat at a table and ordered two drinks. I came back ever 5 minutes but 30 had passed and her date hadn't arrived. I ordered her some chips and salsa and put it on my tab to try and make her feel better.
She kept getting texts from him saying he would be there but she had been waiting for almost an hour. So about 20 minutes before we close, 1 and a half hours she had been there, she was ready to leave. The this guy struts in here, with a huge ass hickey on his neck, and went up to her. He tried to explain how his car broke down but we could tell from his messed up outfit and hickey that this definitely wants the case.
So she looked him in the eyes, grabbed her purse, and hit the guy. The proceeded to walk out. The guy looked shocked. He the at down and ordered food, of course I told him we were closing and when he tried to argue I kicked him out. Smh, some people.
Stood Up. Walked Out.
So this is... two fold.
Firstly, I grew up and lived in a fairly small town. There were about 3 diners/restaurants in town. I worked part time at a Goodwill, and then part time at nights over at one of the local bar/restaurants.
So one time I'm working at my Goodwill job and this guy asks me out. I don't really like being asked out at work but I was young and far more willing to put up with bullshit than I am now. I agree and ask if he has any preference of the 3 restaurants. He picks my restaurant. I didn't mention I worked there, but I said something along the lines of 'oh, that's great!' and we work out a time and day.
The night we were supposed to go out, I go to the bar and sit down and start chatting with the bartender/my coworker and just enjoy not being at work while being at work (weirdly liberating). He's 30m late. Then an hour. Doesn't pick up when I call. So I just order food, do some karaoke with the bartender, have fun, go home.
Fast forward like. A week. Maybe a little more but certainly not much. I'm waiting in the back section when the hostess seats a couple at one of my tables. I finish up another table's bill to drop off and then walk over.
Y'all can guess who it was.
This guy sees me, clearly in uniform for the place, goes absolutely beet red, excuses himself for (what his new date thinks is) no reason, and leaves. His date and I watch him pull out of the parking lot.
"I hope he wasn't your ride?"
"No..."
I asked if she still wanted to order and she said she might as well since she was already here, and later I explained what happened. We both laughed.
Love connections are never easy to forge, but these were some doozies.
Do you have similar stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.
