I own a restaurant. I believe it would be considered a dive. Not fancy, small, lots of regulars, and I wait tables. We are located in a small town that is perceived by most to be full of rich people. Consequently, we have to deal with the occassional pre-madonna.

We had a famous chef come in one day. I was so excited that while on a delivery, I was telling my customer all about it. One of his customers overheard and a little while later, she and her (much younger) husband were at my shop.

They ordered and then told me all about how she had so much money and a mansion that she lost in a storm. Now she and her new husband were struggling to deal with living in a 4 bedroom townhome near the beach. She was slightly dramatic but that made her story very colorful. I listened and felt bad for what they had been through. I have family that lost almost everything in the same storm.

They were paying their bill and she was complimenting our food and our conversation. I was thanking them for their visit and she said, “Well, when I get back to the hotel, I’m going to let them know that we went slumming and found that you are a gem!”

LOL I thanked her for her kindness and remain completely amused that someone would think that “going slumming” can be made a compliment. LOL

- Monica

It is a busy Friday night, our waiting room is packed and we have a 40 minute wait. In the middle of the rush this lady walks in, completely ignores the hostess, and makes a mad dash toward one of our only open booths. “Excuse me miss,” I say trying to be polite, “we actually have a wait for a booth.” She looks at me like I am crazy and says, “But I want this booth.” Ummmm. “I understand that miss, but there is a wait for a booth.” “But I want this one.” “Oh you want this one? Well guess what, all those people in that room want it too. You have to wait like everybody else.” She looked at me like this was the first time anybody had ever spoken to her like that in her life. I loved it.

- The Regulator

Last Saturday night the brewpub I work at was packed – every table,
every bar seat, and we had a lengthy wait list. A couple at the bar
who had come in after two large parties approached me about their
food. “Is our food sitting back there and not being run?”, the woman
asked. No, I informed her, there were actually a lot of orders ahead
of theirs. “Thanks,” she said, “I just wanted to make sure the reason
for the wait was not because you were just leaving food back there.”
Her husband then said, “We have tickets to a play and can’t wait all
night.”

Sure, I’ll just go let the cooks know about your tickets. I’m sure
they’ll understand that you “can’t wait all night.”

-Tina