Several years ago, my daughter and her family came to visit for Thanksgiving. Lunchtime came and the whole nine of us decided to go to a large chain restaurant. Our server came to the table without an order pad or writing instrument and asked for our order. I was confused about that, but we started to order.

Each one of us ordered, but we all ordered something special, like, “I want a cheeseburger, but can you put pepper jack instead of cheddar on it?” or, “Instead of mashed potatoes, I’d like a baked potato.”

After the last of us ordered, the waitress repeated each order back perfectly. I have a pretty decent memory, but she blew me away. When she brought our food, each order was perfect.

We found out she was going for her Master’s degree and had no family around, so she would volunteer to work holidays where people usually spend time with their families. And her memory really helped her in her studies, so she practiced at the restaurant.

Needless to say, she got a huge tip, not because of her memory, but because her service was perfect. I think she will always be in my memory.

I had a customer come in and complain about how the government is going to track us with the [health crisis] contact tracing information.

He paid with a debit card.

I am training a member of staff. A moody customer comes up to our counter.

Customer: *Loudly* “I want a large [meal]. And use only one plate! I am not carrying a bunch of crap!”

Trainee: *Quietly, to me* “Doesn’t [meal] come on three plates?”

Me: *Resigned* “Yes.”

I watch the trainee carefully stack each item onto the plate as demanded, attempting to keep the items separated. It clearly does not meet the customer’s standards.

Customer: *Yelling* “What the f***?! Can you see this slop?!”

Me: *Calmly* “A large [meal], on one dish as requested. What isn’t meeting your standards today?”

Customer: “Everything’s slopped together! When I eat, I expect my food not touching!”

Me: “You requested a single plate for our largest meal. Unfortunately, our plates are only—”

Customer: *Cutting me off* “Your d***ed employee should have used a larger plate! I am the customer, I am right! You will fix this!”

Trainee: “Sir! You can read. The menu says [meal] comes on three plates. You demanded one plate, so clearly you read the menu. What did you expect?”

After a beat, the customer throws the plate of steaming food at me before booming that he is going to “beat some sense” into my trainee. With the sudden threat, I quickly position myself between them.

Me: “He’s new. It doesn’t excuse what he said, and I’ll handle it. Clearly, you’re upset. Please come and see my supervisor. I’ll personally fill him in while you rest comfortably.”

I led my trainee to my boss’s office. I explained what happened while my boss helped me clean up and bandage the burns on my arms. I didn’t want to press charges, but I did want this customer banned. My boss said he would handle it and left us to wait in his office.

Some time passed and my boss returned to fill us in. The customer was still angry when my boss got there and demanded he be allowed to handle the trainee. My boss refused and looked for a solution that would allow this customer to go home and not to jail, but he kept refusing and eventually swung at him!

After my boss slammed him onto the ground, the customer called the police claiming assault. When the police arrived, everything was explained and the police asked if my boss wanted to press charges. He said no, but the customer was banned.

The police explained to the customer what “banned” meant. He didn’t take the news well and went for the cops. He was arrested and guaranteed three free meals a day. I hope he likes them better than ours.

We no longer have dine-in for health reasons. An older man walks up to our window and orders food. Unfortunately, we can’t take walk-up orders because of safety issues; i.e., he gets hit by a car, we could get sued. He starts yelling.

Me: “Sir, do you have a car?”

No answer; he just walked away. After a while, I looked at our camera and saw a giant RV attempting to get to our speaker. The RV almost hit a line of cars already in our drive-thru and started causing a huge problem.

Our manager went out to ask them to leave and it was the same guy! Before she could explain and tell him to call in his order, he started screaming at her and cutting her off.

This continued for about five minutes and one threat of a bad review until finally she could cut him off and get his order. After I ran his food out, he still proceeded to yell at me about the “poor service.”

Bartender: “What can I get you?”

Customer: “Can I get a pint of the chocolate milk stout, but can I get almond milk, instead?”