I'm gonna say it again: BE NICE TO YOUR WAITER
My mom and stepdad are in town and we went to breakfast this morning at Nadeen's, one of my favorite local places. We were seated outside. It took a while for us to decide what we wanted, and our waiter was training a young new waitress, so things were a little disorganized. I got my coffee right away because I was sat first and waited for them, but it took more than 10 minutes for my stepdad to get his coffee. He didnt seem too bothered by this, but he's always weirdly short with wait staff and it makes me uncomfortable.
So when we were finally ready to order, he got a hashbrown platter thing but instead of the melted cheese thats supposed to come on top, he asked for biscuit gravy. I knew what he meant but I sort of anticipated what could happen.
We waited quite a while for our food, during which they were not exactly prompt with refilling our tiny coffee cups. When it did come out, the trainee set in front of him two plates: the hashbrown thing he ordered, and a side of biscuits and gravy. He immediately flipped. "This isnt what I ordered, I wanted biscuit gravy ON TOP!" The trainee apologized and walked away, we all assumed she would be right back with a side of just gravy.
More than 5 minutes later, still no gravy. And my stepdad will not shut up about how his food is getting cold, how hes going to go in and find a manager and make sure our entire meal is free. All while there is A Plate of GRAVY Sitting RIGHT THERE??? Also Getting Cold? It just had biscuits under it.
So the waiter comes out finally, trainee right behind him with the gravy. And he apologizes sincerely, saying that he misunderstood and was sorry that the wait for the gravy was longer than he would have liked because of how busy it had suddenly gotten. My stepdad said over and over how he was now being forced to eat Cold Food and he just wanted to have a NICE meals with his FAMILY. He gestured at my mom and I. I made it clear with a look that I was uncomfortable but he didnt seem to notice or care.
A manager came over right after and my stepdad basically ignored him, passive aggressively digging into his meal without looking up, mumbling that it was fine. They had taken his food off the bill without him asking, so the harshness was in no way necessary. The man just wanted to complain.
Before we left, I went in to tip the singer who was playing covers inside. I found the waiter and his trainee and apologized that my stepdad was a dick. The waiter said it was fine, he deals with people like that all the time, but I told him it wasnt fine and no one deserves to be treated that way. I let them know that they are both lovely and that they did a perfectly fine job for how busy they were.
When my stepdad went in to pee, I made sure my mom knew how I felt, and that I had lost a good bit of respect for her husband just then. She tried to make excuses, "he travels a lot", "he eats out too much", "we're on a tight schedule today", but there is not a single good excuse. I made sure she understood that too. Especially around me, a former waitress who is extremely vocal about this kind of thing, the man should have known better.
I didn't see whether my stepdad left a tip, but I'm assuming he did not. Next time I'm there, I'll ask the waiter and make sure he gets from me what he should have made from our table today.
tl;dr: Be nice to wait staff or you might lose what little rapport you had with your stepkid.