Unfiltered Story #245175

I am a female bartender in a pub that opened a few months ago and the business is very slow. My boss insists I speak with the patrons as much as possible to make them want to stay and drink more so I always try to do so. I am now talking to a male customer that ordered his first drink in the otherwise empty bar.

Customer: So how much do you know about art ?
Me: Oh, I am afraid I don’t really know much. I was more of a science major –
Customer (interrupting): Do you know about [Obscure artist] ?
Me: I don’t think I have heard of him –
Customer (disappointed voice): Oh, that’s too bad.
He sounds slightly condescending but I shake it off, thinking it’s just my imagination. I do enjoy talking about new subjects though, as usually I spend my shift talking about the same subjects to different patrons, so I try to continue the conversation.
Me: So what is famous for ?
Customer (ignoring my question): What about [Obscure artist 2] ?
Me: I don’t really know –
Customer (condescending): He is quite famous for his impressionist art though.
Me: Ah ? It’s inters… –
Customer(interrupting): And [Obscure artist 3] ?

It continues for a while, despite my attempts to change the subject or just actually talk about the artists the customer ignores me. It becames quite obvious that he doesn’t want to talk about art – he just want to show me his knowledge is greater than mine. After 5 minutes of this I am quite fed up but he is the only customer so I can’t walk away.

Customer : And there is this artist, do you know him ?
Me (not trying anymore): No.
Customer: Well I guess you really don’t know anything, haha !

I am fuming. I don’t answer because I won’t be polite about it. Just at that moment I hear other customers enter, so I fly to them to escape this rude customer. He ends up talking to my boss (male). They seem to have a completly normal talk for the rest of the night.
Unfortunately, the rude customer became a regular. He would always come and try to belittle me or my female coworkers. He was good business though so we had to keep serving him with our best smiles…