I was managing a very busy steakhouse one Saturday evening, and a server informed me of an overcooked steak that had been sent back to the kitchen at one of his tables. Although regrettable, it does happen and I approached the table to make apologies and let them know their steak would be out very shortly.
It was a middle aged couple and before I could open my mouth, the husband starts saying how terrible it is that a good restaurant can’t even cook a steak to the correct temperature, on and on as I try to settle him down. He starts eating his steak, and in under three minutes, his wife’s steak is replaced and I ask her to cut into the steak to check the temperature. She does so and agrees it’s to her liking.
The server comes back to me a few minutes later to inform me the husband is still not happy. I return to the table and agree to comp her steak from the bill for the inconvenience of waiting three long minutes for the recook. At the end of their meal, the server again comes to me and tells me the husband is refusing to pay for any of the meal. Now, there are a few cocktails, bottle of moderately priced wine, his dinner and two desserts on the check. He starts complaining that he had to eat his steak alone while waiting for his wife’s steak to be recooked and feels the entire check should be comped.
Enough, I tell him I am glad to pay for his wife’s dinner, but not the entire check. He is persistent and I finally tell him, “Sir, if you refuse to pay your check, I will call the police. Now, let me tell you what he’s going to do when he arrives. He’s going to ask you if you ordered this food, and you’ll say yes. Then he’ll ask you if you are going to pay the bill. At this point you’re going to want to go into this whole story again, but he will stop you and ask again if you are going to pay. At this point, you will say no. The next thing the policeman is going to say is, turn around and place your hands behind your back.”
The guy calls my bluff, I call the police on my cell phone right in front of him at the table. Since we are in a very busy tourist area, there are bike patrols and a cop is there in under two minutes. The rest is perfect; the cop looks at the guy, and word for word goes through the entire script I had just told this guy he would, right up to the point he told the husband to turn around and place his hands behind his back. At this point, the guy decides to pay for his dinner. After he left, I comped off the guys steak so the server didn’t get stiffed on his tip. Idiots !!
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