I am a cocktail waitress & server in San Diego. I have just recently read the book ”Waiting-True Confessions of a Waitress” and have become so interested in the ridiculous stories of the serving industry! I, along with many others I am sure, have so many stories to tell I never know where to start.

I was just accused of stealing a man’s phone on New Year’s Eve! He walked into the restaurant, had about 3 beers with his girlfriend and then left for a half hour. They didn’t leave me any tip & I know it didn’t have to do with my service. I was disappointed, but it happens from time to time and the night was so busy I just figured they forgot.

Later on in the evening I see the same man enter the restaurant, and I am immediately grateful because I assumed he remembered that he didn’t tip me anything. Instead, this man, infront of a busy new years eve crowd, starts yelling at me accusing me of stealing his phone and then says it was because he didn’t tip me!

He then goes to say that he doesn’t feel obligated to tip anyone and that I obviously stole his phone because it was karma for not tipping me. All this time I am trying to calm the guy down and tell him that I did not take his phone and that if he would leave me a number where I could contact him I would call him and let him know if we found anything. He doesn’t find this to be a good enough answer and continues to yell at me.

Meanwhile I have a bar full of people that are waiting on food & drinks. Finally, the bartender realizes what is going on and steps in along with my boss. The owner of the restaurant ended up grabing him by his sleeve and pulling him out of the restaurant telling him never to come back.

Though I was appreciative that my boss, employees and even customers were on my side, It still made the rest of my night very uneasy. As a server, I’m sure you know, that is can be difficult to just tell people to basically piss off. Sometimes you just have to stand there and take it even when you know that none of it is true.

Submitted by: Mealz

I work at a high scale restaurant that cater’s to mostly the rich, house wives, and teenagers that will never have any concept of working for a living. So these four teenage girls sit in my section and start taking up time I could be spending on my other tables asking me questions like ”I see in this Roast beef sandwich…. it comes with onions and red peppers. Does it come with bread?” They are completely ridiculous, and ignore me any time I try to approach them. So they finally leave, after racking up a 56 dollar tab. When I walk to the table on the credit card receipt they payed with they wrote ”tip on the table”. They had left me approximately 63 cents in penny’s.

Submitted by: Molly