the race card doesn't work with me sweetie

If you take care of your servers...they will take care of you!!!

that is the long and short of it...

When a server messes up, they know it...and will sometimes do things to compensate their screwups...that is if you are not a jerk about it.

One day I was working a night shift and a couple was enjoying a date night. They had double fajitas and a margarita...a mack daddy margarita. Another server...Gentry...threw a receipt into the trash pail behind the server.

FYI the receipt that he threw away was a two inch by four or five inch piece of paper. That tiny piece of paper hit the guy in the head...he was also wearing a wave cap & a fitted baseball cap. I would be willing to bet that he didn't feel it.

So he said the words...Can I see your manager...

Deep breath...I walked over and said, "How are yall doing tonight?"

The guy responded by saying that it was fine until he had a piece of paper chunked at his head. I went through the steps...I listened, apologized, and tried to solve...(if the story is making the blog...chances are we didn't get to the thank you part)

I offered him a gift certificate so that the next time he came in we would take care of him. I gave them to him and even gave him the option to use them that same night...it wasn't good enough for him. He told me that he wanted his whole meal paid for...

I said sir, I hardly think that someone hitting you with a small piece of paper is worth me buying you a $22 meal. Especially when Gentry apologized and you accepted and told him it was cool. I will not be taking care of you meal also because I already gave you the GC's...again...not satisfied...He said that he was not paying...he then gave me a law lesson...or so he thought...

he told me that his aunt was a lawyer and that he would sue this company and walk away with big money...So I replied...well sir since you are so well versed with the law you are probably also familiar with the term frivolous...and your lawsuit would be just that. And if you are also familiar with Texas law you would also know that if I did take care of your meal you would still have to pay for your alcohol.

His poor girlfriend was sooooo embarrassed...she offered to just pay so that they could leave. He scolded her, "NO, I took you out to a nice meal and we are not paying for it..."

THERE WAS HIS MOTIVE!!!

He then said that he thought that I was treating him differently because he was black, and that he wanted my manager's name. I told him that I was offended by his comment...because he didn't know me or anything about me...he didn't know that I didn't have a two year old son at home that was 1/2 black...and that the race card was not going to work with me sweetie...

he said that he was prepared to do what he had to do...if I needed to call the cops then I needed to go ahead and call them. At this point the other guests were beginning to notice that we were not having a friendly conversation. I said, you know what...I am going to go ahead and take care of your meal...because I want you to leave my restaurant...and I am going to need you to pay for your margarita...

he did...and then he told me that he didn't need my charity...that he WAS going to leave his server a $20 tip...

I responded quickly by saying, please do not put words in my mouth or manipulate what I have said to you...I didn't imply that you needed anyone's charity...and I didn't see why he would punish his server when his server was not even the one who tossed the paper to begin with.

As the conversation was folding and he sat there with his GC's in hand...I said, since I took care of your meal this time...I am going to be needing these back...and took them out of his hand...I then asked him if he needed to me show him the door or if he knew which way to leave...I also asked him if he still needed my bosses name...hehe...I did get a chance to thank him...and it was genuine...SIKE...

sooooo there are always two sides to a story...I later found out from his server that he had ordered the Mack Daddy Margarita earlier and the server had forgotten...to try and make up for that he left if off the tab...but when the guy freaked out about the paper he added to the receipt and the guy freaked when he saw he added an $8 rita to the bill...

and as I am telling my boss the story he tells me...Jacklyn, you don't have a 2 year old mixed son...why would you tell him that...so I clarified...I didn't tell him that I had a son...I told him that he didn't know I didn't have a son at home...

so his race card doesn't work with me!!!