That’s What You Get!
Posted on September 9, 2010 by Brian under Life.
Today was my mothers birthday. Don’t ask me how old she is, I quit counting when I was 13. After dinner we were discussing the finer moments in the families dinning history. One moment will forever be ingrained in my memory.
It was several years ago at an eatery called “Rio Bravo”. It was an OK place. Not a fancy joint but the food was decent. At the time it was myself, my mother, father and brother. We were immediately seated as there were only a few people in the place and we had come early enough to beat the dinner crowd. We were sat down next to a table of about 16 people. We waited about 10 min and the waiter came and dropped down some water. He said he would be back shortly to get our drink orders. We waited and waited while we watched him cater to this table of 16 people. He just kept hovering and hovering and not paying any attention to us. About the time we were getting ready to get up and leave the Manager comes around. He asks “Is everything going OK? is our server assisting you OK?” My dad replied, “As a matter of fact, NO!” he went on to tell him how we were getting ready to leave as we had been waiting 30 min and only received water and our waiter had still not taken our order.
The manager immediately apologized and said he would find our waiter. My dad pointed out that he was at the table with 16 people and had been there since we sat down. The manager asked that we stay and said he would return in a moment. We watched as the manager walked over to the waiter and asked to see him for a moment. The manager and waiter walked to a little alcove directly in my line of sight and hearing. I listened as the manager asked why he had not gotten our order yet and asked if he realized that it had been 30 min. The waiter boldly replied “Yes I’m aware, but it’s only four people, I’m not going to get as good of a tip from them as I am going to get from the 16 top.” The manager simply replied “I see, well I’ll handle the 4 top then”. I saw this sheepish grin on the face of the manager as the waiter walked by giving us a dirty look. The manager noticed it as well and immediately walked over to our table. He announced his name again and said he would be our waiter this evening. He then said “Please order anything off of the menu tonight, and I mean anything! Dinner… will be on him!” as he pointed his finger at our previous waiter. We all looked at the manager in shock and awe!
At that moment we immediately looked over the menu and ordered appetizers, expensive main meals and desserts that we would not have ordered if we were paying the bill. At the end the manager walked over and laid the check down in front of us. We all looked at him, then at the check, then back at him. He stated “I just wanted you all to see what he is going to have to pay before he leaves here today”. Looking at the bill we realized that the 4 of us ran up a $90.00 bill. It was amazing. We were so stuffed we could barely move. At that moment the manager picked up the check just as the little waiter was walking back the the alcove, he then handed the waiter the check and told him “I hope you made a real good tip off of that 16 top”, the waiter said “yep, sure did! and thanks for taking care of that table”. The manager then handed the waiter the bill and said “this will need to be paid before you leave tonight, it’s the bill for the 4 top you abandoned”.
The manager made it a point to say it loud enough that we could all hear it. The waiter was pissed and immediately snapped us an evil look. At that moment we decided that it was time to go. But before we left, my dad took 30 dollars out of his pocket and handed it to the manager. He told him that he deserved this for taking such good care of us. The manager tried to refuse it but we are rather persistent people.
It was the greatest thing I have ever seen a manager do and I will never forget it for as long as I live.
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