Good Lord, Drink!  

I work in a small village pub which is well known for our food. Every Saturday and Sunday since I have started working there has been fully booked. We have a waiting list and you have to make a reservation about three weeks in advance for the weekend because it’s so popular.

That said, my manager/the landlord isn’t a local to the small village. Because of this, she feels that she has to accommodate the locals to foster goodwill. The locals get away with so much crap that it’s rather impressive.

One day, I start work on a Saturday and quickly realise that all of the tables in the restaurant have been rearranged and there are massive 50th birthday banners everywhere.

Parties are not unusual, and the restaurant is typically “free” to hire out as long as you pay for the buffet and you bring enough people which makes up the cost to the business in drinks.

Quickly, my colleagues and I realise that the people in our restaurant section — separate from the bar — are not drinking any alcohol and only drinking iced tap water. Combined with the cheapest option of the buffet, the loss to the business worked out at about £1k by the end of the evening.

It turned out that when the local woman had booked the restaurant, she had assured my manager that enough people would be coming to the bar to drink. She didn’t mention that they were all of a religion that doesn’t allow alcohol.

At the end of the evening, when they settled the bill for the buffet, we were treated to a sermon about how immoral we all were for serving alcohol.

We made no money from tips that evening.