Coming in Late

If the sign in front of the restaurant says that we close at 1, that means WE CLOSE AT 1. That means that if your stoner/pregnant/teenaged/white-privileged/whatever ass should never stroll through the door at 12:55 and expect excellent service, because you are NOT going to get it. Closing at 1 means that by 1, we should not have any more customers. That means we’ve already all been working for over 9 hours - on our feet, with no breaks, probably without having eaten anything in that time period. We are tired, we are hungry, and we want to go the fuck home. Our cooks have probably been working since around noon, so it may be a surprise to you that they want to finish cleaning before they have to walk a few miles home and they don’t give a shit how your steak comes out. As servers, we are at that time trying to finish cleaning everything up and getting everything done so that we can leave. You are taking time away from that, and then we still have to clean up after YOU after you finally get the fuck out. Additionally, the closers all have to wait for your table to leave, so you are not just keeping ME late, you are keeping two other servers and the manager late.

I’m not sure why this is a difficult concept for some people. The restaurant closes at 1. If you order your food at 12:55, you will not receive it until 1:15 at best. You will be sitting at a table in the middle of a restaurant that is CLOSED. There will be no other people around you because everyone else read the sign outside and saw that we were no longer open. What makes you so special? If you walk into a store and it's closing, you don't keep shopping. You leave. Why should a restaurant be different?

This is another situation where people have some serious entitlement issues - a restaurant is a service, and we are not required to perform that service for you after a certain time. My boss will make me take a table if it comes in 15 minutes before we close, but technically at closing time, I don't need to do my job anymore, so don't get mad when I ignore you! If I go to a restaurant at 10:30 and realize that they close at 11, I turn the fuck around and drive to a 24-hour diner or convenience store and score something hopefully even remotely edible, because I’m not a douchebag.

I had a table come in the other night 15 minutes before we closed and demanded all this shit, complained about every single thing they ordered, wound up getting most of their food comped, and then they left me $2. I kind of want to rant about them forever, but I’m beat so that’ll be another story for another day. Actually, I’ll have another one by then. This shit happens all the time.

I hate people.