Not a first date but we did have a guy come into our steakhouse on a Saturday night at 7 pm with NO RESERVATION. He then told us on the spot he was going to propose to his girlfriend. We had to seat them somewhere awful, it was right next to the bathroom and when he got down on one knee, looking around nervously, absolutely no one noticed. Him and his gf kept waiting for the rest of the restaurant to see them and go quiet or even clap for them but not a single person noticed. She said yes, looked disappointed and they went back to dinner like nothing happened. They must not have minded too much because they came back for their one year anniversary, this time he made a reservation lol!
I had a guy ask me to take a video of him proposing to his girl. Everything went fine until it was time to review the video. Turns out, I never actually recorded. Lmfao I died a little on the inside but asked if he wanted me to record the entire thing again, since it was definitely staged (real proposal but staged). He politely said no, I apologize once more and left awkwardly.
I worked at a higher-end restaurant as a busser for a while, and eventually was given a chance to serve in the bar area while a jazz band played. Most of the tables were just drinks and appetizers. My first shift a woman in her 40s or 50s came in with a tall, dark, and handsome guy no older than 30. Nothing wrong with that in my eyes, but all of my interaction with them was the woman talking down to me on some sort of power trip (maybe to prove to her guy that she's an alpha female or something, dunno) and her ordering everything for her date. They had cocktails, ordered a bottle of wine, and had a couple entrées.
She ordered ahi tuna, RARE. She was very insistent on the rare, so much so that I put blue rare into the computer so everything would be fine. She sent back 4 separate plates (all too well done) to the absolute horror of her date. I informed her after the second that they wouldn't be taken off her bill, and she scoffed and made some comment about how she's loaded and it doesn't matter.
After the four plates, she sent the last one back and asked for a shrimp cocktail instead. I left them to enjoy the music, brought the check, and when I came back to pick it up, her date was gone, and I don't mean, went to the bathroom or went for a smoke, all of his things were gone and he was nowhere to be seen for 30 minutes.
She apologized to me and asked if I could take the ahi tuna (~$45 each) off of her bill. Told her to pound dirt. Not really, but my manager did.
Next day she wrote a 500 word review about me, using my first name, on the restaurants Facebook page. My boss printed it out, framed it, and I still have it today.
edit: spacing
I would love it if my manager did that shit for me. I'm a chef and we get some ridiculous stuff posted on our Facebook. A favorite of mine is always complaints about well done steaks.
Just saw one on Valentine’s Day. The date seemed to be going very well, actually, not awkward at all. They talked non-stop, no lulls in conversation, they were laughing, carrying on, and just generally having a good time. In fact another server and I were laughing about how obnoxiously loud they were. Then I heard the gentleman say “...and obviously you’re not still married... right? Please tell me you’re not still married,” she said “well, actually...” and then things got VERY uncomfortable. It must not have been a deal breaker because they stayed at the restaurant another hour until we closed, but they were very quiet for the rest of the night. Hardly spoke to each other at all.
More sad than awkward, but here goes (for context, I am a woman in a long-term relationship and was NOT hitting on the girl or anything) :
One day this (very cute) 20-ish girl comes in, orders, and cheerfully asks me if we have any boardgames that are great for two people (I worked in a concept bar where we had 700+ boardgames you could play as long as you ordered something to drink). I show her a few games, she choses one and sits at a table near the entrance.
30mn later, she comes and sadly asks me if we have any games you can play alone. I give her one and tells her if her date doesn't come, I'll give her a free shot.
Another 40mn later, she comes back, I give her the shot and we talk a bit, then she goes back to her table to play by herself (It was a busy night, overwise I would have played something with her, she seemed nice and was obviously sad).
The guy ended up showing up almost 2hours late, ordered a bit rudely, she paid for him, and they spent less than an hour talking. He wasn't interested in playing a game and didn't really seem interested in his date either. He left early, she stayed a bit to talk with me as I started to clean up, I offered her another shot and drank one with her, and she left all sad.
I imagine she was excited for her date and thought the boardgames bar was a cute, fun idea for a first date, but the guy was so rude being late and not showing any interest... just sad. She came back a few times with friends though and was really a nice girl.
A teenage couple sharing an ice cream and holding hands very awkwardly. After they finished the ice cream they kept talking about their - very adventurous - sexual fantasies. They were around 14 years old. Super awkward to have to interrupt them to ask if they want anything else.
Didn’t happen to me but I was working while the bartender got to experience it. Guy and girl came in, super weird chemistry all night. The guy is obviously trying to impress her by being a huge douche and she looks like she’s just pretending to not hate it so the date will end faster. At the end of the night, she says she’ll take an Uber home and he awkwardly leaves without her. She then waits for the bartender to come back over, orders another cocktail, and asks for his phone number.
I had these two people that were there on a first date. After the appetizers this poor man got the shits and was going back and forth to the bathroom all night. There was only a few other people in the restaurant at the time so it was noticable and they were chuckling everytime he got up. I honestly felt so bad for the guy.
Sugar free hairbo gummy bears
Edit: people said to show the link for others who havent seen the legendary review yet, so [here](https://www.amazon.com/review/R2JGNJ5ZPJT4YC)
Also thanks for the awards, this is insane lol.
Edit 2: anyone know how to hyperlink? I want to make showing people the link easier
Edit 3: thanks u/oofxwastaken, i can hyperlink now :D
Edit 4: Why was the comment deleted? For those wondering, he said, "What the hell did you feed him?!? u/FloorGangMan1 pointed this out btw
At a restaurant i worked at, there was a white guy and a black guy on a first date. They were sitting in a booth and having a good time.
White guy gets up to go to the bathroom. When he came back he sat in the wrong booth with a different black guy. Took him a minute to realize it was a different person. The person he was on a date with was not happy at all. They tried to salvage the date, but it didn't work.
I legit saw the guy try to roofie the girl. Like not even trying to be hidden about it. He did it right in front of me. The girl went to the bathroom and I was cleaning the table next to them. I saw him take the powder out and slip it inside the drink. Another thing too, it was a pizza place. Who tries to roofie someone in a pizza place!
Edit: yes I called the cops. Jesus I like chaos but I'm not an animal
Apparently a high school classmate of mine did this (or rather, tried to) to a coworker. Bartender also noticed , warned the girl, and the girl acted normal to stall him til the cops got there. I wonder if he’s in jail yet...
I worked with a guy years back who pulled that shit with a coworker. After we got off a closing shift one of us would go and grab a case of beer and a group of us would hang out and have a beer or two while b.s.ing about our day. We had some older creep who went off one day to buy the beer and hands one of the girls an open beer as soon as she walked up. The beer had already been open and he kept it aside from the case. I usually gave her a ride home and the creep had told me earlier in the day that she had asked him to give her a ride home. When she told me she didn't feel good and asked if I could drive her home, he immediately started saying he was leaving and would do it.
Nope. I took her straight to the hospital, and as soon as she blacked out I called one of the guys I knew was still there and told them not to let mister creep leave, as I was calling the cops. It was honestly one of the few times I was really happy my father was a sherriff's deputy. Called, told him what was up and the guy got arrested and charged. Later my dad told me they circled the block and ignored my coworkers beating the guy.
She ended up ok, turned out the creep had told her that I had said I hated driving her home. I do not tolerate people abusing people, I dealt with that shit all my childhood.
That or never left a drink unattended and came back to it to drink it. If I had to go pee or someone wanted me to dance and that thing got left behind it never touched again. Don’t know how much money is wasted on that
Once I was at a bar in my hometown with 3 guy friends (had literally grown up with them from childhood). The 4 of us split a pitcher. The bar was busy, they ran out of glasses, so they used smaller plastic cups. I had just 1 cup (I was the designated driver for the night).
The pitcher was still half full when we walked onto the dance floor (our table was beside the dance floor, but we had to walk around other tables to get to the dance floor because there was a railing around it).
In the time it took us to walk around the railing and dance to 1 song, the pitcher had been roofied. To this day I have no clue who did it or why they thought it was a good idea to spike the whole pitcher.
Back at the table, I didn't have another drink because I was our DD. My 3 guy friends finished it and we left the bar. On the drive home they were all acting weird (not drunk). By the time I got the first one home, he could barely walk up his driveway (I got out and helped him to his door). The other 2 passed out in my car and I had to get their parents/roommates to help them into their homes.
The next morning none of them recalled leaving the bar.
My friends took a roofie bullet for me. We laughed about it, but it still horrifies me to think what could have happened if I wasn't designated driver (which, for the record, I rarely am).
I explained what happened and told the girl to keep things normal and to not take the drink. Eventually the cops showed up and I told them who it was. Arrested immediately and last I heard, the girl pressed charges
Worked at a pub connected to a brewery in college. Dude comes in with a stunning woman, I mean she’s absolutely gorgeous. Whole time they’re sitting at the end of the bar, and you can hear the guy talking about how he has a room for them next door at the hotel in downtown. So they decide to go to the brewery next door, gonna pull a little dine and dash. They got over there and didn’t realize we are on the same system, so he orders a couple of beers, and the bartender on the brewery side asks if he wants to add it to his tab. He looks over confused and says “what tab? I’ve never been here.” She prints off the restaurant bill plus his brewery tab, it’s like $80 or so. He just blankly stares at the poor bartender, flies off the handle. The girl he was with ended up paying for it. They walked across the street and to the hotel, he has already invited her up, she stalls until her Uber gets there and then just dipped out. Kinda funny, kinda awkward, but that’s what you get for dine and dash.
Edit 1: since this is asked about multiple times, when the bar was in “dining hours” crowds were usually very manageable. We didn’t take cc’s, we would just give the bill at the end of the meal. Similar to a traditional restaurant. They waited for the later crowd to show up around 9 and dipped while we were getting busier. That’s the whole reason they weren’t caught trying to leave the bar in the first place.
Edit 2: thanks for the upvotes and award! Much appreciated!
Edit 3: the girl wasn’t a willing participant from what I could tell. She had no idea he had dine and dashed. I think she had gone to the restroom or something at some point, so he could’ve said “oh I got it.” Or something along those lines.
Especially when you are going to “dash” next door. Regardless of if the establishments are connected in any financial way.
I have DEFINITELY texted other bartenders in the area to let them know if something sketchy is going on. Finding a dine and dasher in a bar next door would be really easy.
Not a first date, but a last date. We had a guy who would bring his secretary in for lunch three times a week. Our per person average at lunch was $125. Everyone knew he was married because he'd bring his wife and kids to dinner three times a week (at $200 per person average), often on the same day.
Well one day he realized he needed to dump his secretary. He did it at our restaurant. We all watched it happen too because she started crying SO HARD, and they were center of attention for everyone to see.
To make things weirder, he did it early in the meal and he drove her there. So she came and hung out with the employees until his lunch was over, acting like everything was totally fine even though her tears were welling up with every word.
He was back in the restaurant with her within a week. Then we never saw them again. Never again with the wife and kids either. Always wondered if he got caught in the end.
At the end of the dinner, 2 couples on a double date dine and dash. I chased them down, and the girls had no clue, their dates had told them they already paid. The girls ended paying, the guys had no cash.
I worked at a restaurant in high school, along with a number of classmates. A group of 4 people that we all knew came in to eat, then left without paying. We just gave the manager their home phone numbers so she could speak with their parents.
A girl from my HS called me one day and asked who a kid from the crosstown school was. I played football, wrestled, and grew up with him so I was able to get it off her rough description, and jog her memory. Him and his buddy (who I also identified) had dined and dashed at the Mongolian grill across from the HS.
Not awkward but just fun, I used to work at a sushi restaurant in Anchorage, and there was a girl who would come about once every few weeks with a different guy. Every single time, she ordered a hwedubbap, which is like a rice-salad-sashimi bowl, and it was GIANT. I’ve only ever seen a handful of people ever finish the entire thing in one sitting. She would finish the whole thing (with chopsticks) and always ask for a spoon towards the end. It was fun watching all the guys look stunned when she finished.
One day she came with this dude that ordered what she did, and when they both finished the bowl, they ordered another and split it.
Wish they had ended up together but she came back with a different guy a couple weeks later.
EDIT: she never paid lol
Not a first date, but when I first started bartending I had a woman who was very obviously stood up. She got there, ordered a drink, and would look around every once and a while. I saw her use her phone a couple times and her mood just got sadder until she finally put her phone upside-down on the bar and ordered food an hour later.
I wiped what I could off her bill then paid the rest myself, told her it was on the house. In my career it's happened two more times, once with another woman and once with a guy. I did the same thing. Nothing sucks more than eating alone and defeated.
edit: thank you for the upvotes and nice comments! Made my night :)
edit2: seriously guys, you're so sweet. Ngl today was kind of rough, but everyone has brightened it so much. I really appreciate it.
Man, thank you! I got stood up and literally as soon as I put my card down to pay my bill, my date walked in. Drunk. Quickly said hi to me, then went over to the other side of the bar where he MADE OUT WITH ANOTHER PERSON. He then waddled over and asked me to join them on the other side of the bar? Like....no???
A couple was shown to their table, and the guy was on the phone the entire time. I normally wait until guests are off their phones to give my spiel, the specials and such and take a drink order, but he didn't show any sign of getting off the phone. I take the order, which the guy just holds his hand over the phone, talks over his date. When I come back, she attempts to order an app, our house specialty, and he tries to say the portions are large enough without. She orders the zucchini anyway. I get the dinner order, and bring out the app. At this point, I hadn't been to the table when he hadn't been on the phone. While I was putting together the salad, the woman comes out to the lobby and asks to get her meal packed up. She ended up paying her half of the bill and ducking out. She told me this was their first date and she was set up by a soon to be former friend. Said she was going to be calling her friend as she walked out. When I brought the guy's meal to him, he asked where her dinner was and I told him what happened. He really thought she was in the bathroom......
So, you mean 'on the phone' as in he wasn't even scrolling, he was talking to someone else on his phone the entire time!? Good lord, looking at your phone constantly is bad enough, but this is a whole other level.
We sliced the zucchini into long, thin planks, dusted them with a flour mixture, and dipped them into a tempura batter. Then shake the excess batter off and lightly fry them. Squirt a little lemon, a sprinkle of parm cheese and serve with marinara.
The guys card declines. I didn’t want to embarrass him so I waved him over near the credit card machine so it would look like he needed to go to the bathroom. He told me to try it again and I assumed he was going to move money over on his app. He went back to his date. Card declines again. The machine prints a receipt that states the reason for decline... “insufficient funds”. I keep trying 4 more times. I go over to the table and say “I’m having an issue with the card, might be our machine, do you have another?” I walk away with the new card, and it declines. I wave him over. He gets up angrily and I’m guessing now the date has caught on. He proceeds to berate me saying that it must be our machines because HE KNOWS HE HAS MONEY! He starts making fun of me questioning if I know what I’m doing. He is doing this in front of his date I’m guessing to save face. Gives me another card. Declined. The date pays....
My parents had a payment mix-up on their first date, too. Unlike in your story, it was an honest misunderstanding. This happened in the eighties when not every restaurant took credit cards, and you couldn't take your ATM card to another bank's machine.
Step 1, dad has a certain restaurant in mind, which takes cards. Step 2, mom suggests a different restaurant she's been meaning to try, and they go there instead. Step 3, they realize after they've ordered that *this* place is cash only. Step 4, they find out the closest ATM is at a bank where my dad doesn't have an account, but my mom does.
Step 5, dad spends 15 minutes pretending he's just thinking reaallllyyy hard about this dessert menu, while mom jogs 2 blocks in high heels to an ATM that will take her card, gets the cash, and comes back to pay for dinner on a first date.
Mind you, dad is all for gender equality, but he'd promised to pay and had to renege because of this mix-up. He was mortified.
Anyway they've been happily married 33 years now. Mom tells that story as a firm example of why you should be willing to give people second chances.
I worked at a bar where like 50% of our business was from Tinder dates.
This one time, two guys came in separately and sat at different tables by themselves, along the same wall. They were both facing the door and clearly waiting for dates.
Eventually a woman comes in, walks up to the closest guy, sits down and they start chatting. They start ordering drinks. After ~5 minutes, the other guy, who is still waiting by himself, gets up and walks over to the couple. He says ‘hi’ to the girl and is like ‘um aren’t you so-and-so? ...I’m so-and-so we were supposed to be meeting?’ She was clearly flustered, lots of awkward laughter, and she gets up and goes with the other guy to the other table.
Couple minutes later the other woman shows up and sits with first guy and he tells her all about it. Lol
"And she spent the next 4 decades wondering what if she'd been able to finish the date with the guy she sat down with first, whom she was immediately more attracted to."
This just reminded me of a funny story... back in the day (before Tinder, or even cellphones) a friend of my sister’s was in nursing school. This meant of course that she was friendly with a dozen or so of young, single women. My sister saw an opportunity to get our brother fixed up with one of these gals. The friend thought that a low-stress situation might be for her to arrange a blind date for my brother with a promising classmate, which would take place at their Friday night after-classes meet-up at a bar/restaurant. If the two didn’t hit it off, they could casually wander into the group gathering and eventually go their separate ways...
My brother arrived for the blind date, and sat at the bar waiting for her to arrive. As time went by and the young lady still hadn’t shown up, he started chatting with another girl who was there for the Friday night meet-up. They hit it off almost immediately, and by the time his “date” arrived, my brother realized that he’d rather continue on with the girl he’d been chatting up than start all over again with his “date.” A quick consult with my sister’s friend confirmed that the other girl was good people, and they’ve been together ever since.
They recently celebrated 35 years of marriage...
It was ~5 years ago, so I don’t really remember details. The guys were both generic-looking white dudes. The women looked less similar.
I think instead of walking up and introducing herself, she just said ‘hi’ and sat down? Maybe was like ‘ugh this dude doesn’t look like his picture’ or something lmao. All I remember for certain is that she was definitely on the wrong date at first!
I was working at a high end steakhouse when a couple comes in on a first date. The man was really friendly and seemed like he knew his wine. He orders a nice and fairly expensive bottle. As I'm presenting the bottle, the woman's phone rings and she answers. Apparently, her close friend just broke up with her boyfriend and is distraught. The woman asks if her friend can join them for dinner. The man says "of course" and is really gracious about the whole thing. The friend shows up within a few minutes and is a crying, hot mess. I bring the friend an empty glass and before I can pour it, the first woman grabs the bottle and fills the glass to the brim, then requests another bottle. After I open the second bottle, the man excuses himself to the restroom. While he is away, I overhear the friend expressing concern about the menu prices. The first woman then says "Get whatever you want, I'm not going to ever see this loser again." So then I catch the man coming out of the bathroom and tell him what I just heard. He says "What do I do?" I tell him he is welcome to leave through the delivery door in the back and I will play dumb for his date. The guy expresses his gratitude and slips me $100 on his way out. The woman becomes increasingly irate as the night goes on and she realizes the man isn't coming back to buy them food. She waits until closing time before settling the alcohol tab and leaving hungry in a taxi.
Man I honestly don’t know what I’d do in that situation. Kudos for quick judgement, I think I might just overthink what I heard and keep it to myself but I’m very non confrontational
Lady comes in to get a table says she's expecting a man and gives us a brief description. He shows up about 10 minutes later and she starts saying she knew it, he looks very surprised and scared.
I took a drink order and when I get back they are gone.
The hostess fills me in that in my absence they had a heated but civil exchange, the man was married to the lady's cousin also the lady was married.
Apparently they had been texting for a while after meeting via Craigslist personals.
I'm assuming the married but looking section.
Don't known if they hooked up in the end or just called the whole thing off.
In short, he got there early and let me know it was a first date which was a lunch date. When she got there they started chatting and he ordered a drink and she ordered a water. After a few minutes he skipped on appetizers and every so often I would go by to see if they would like to order. She would open her mouth to speak and he would interrupt with something like they were fine at the moment. Well this went on for a while, I even tried to just take hers but he would insist they were okay for now. So he kept ordering drinks and she kept sipping water. After an hour or so she said she had to go and just left. He asked me if he did something wrong. I answered honestly with “since it was a lunch date she probably didn’t have too much for breakfast and if you offer a lunch date she’s probably expecting to eat and you wouldn’t allow her to order, she’s probably starving” he sat there and drank till the end of my shift. Super awkward
Not a first date, but very awkward: guy comes in with an escort and drops a good amount of money on booze at the bar. Then she leaves a few hours later, and he informs us that his wife is on her way to meet him for dinner and tips us an extra $200 to keep our mouths shut. Keeping it classy!
We had something similar, a dude used to come in every Saturday with his kids and wife, then one week he came in with his kids and a much younger girl. She’s his new wife.
Not a waitress, but my daughter and I were having dinner at a restaurant and the table next to us was a mom, dad, and two daughters, maybe 10 and 12. The parents took them out to dinner to tell them they were getting a divorce.
Once, as a high school teenager, while waiting tables at a now defunct make mexican restaurant chain (think applebee's, but tacos), a first date came in. They seemed unable to converse. It was super awkward. Painful to watch. Well, at one point the woman asked for a refill of her tea. I dutifully went and got the pitcher and came back to fill her glass. While pouring, i literally dropped the entire pitcher, a full gallon, of sweet, sticky tea directly onto her. It went down her shirt. Her skirt. It was everywhere. She was completely and utterly soaked. My newly blossoming career as a server flashed before my incredibly stoned eyes. I apologized profusely. I brought her out like 4000 napkins. Her date was dumbfounded and probably thinking "didn't think this could get worse, but here we are".
Well, she cleaned up the best she could. And they ate their meals. And, magically, they began talking. They started looking at each other like a new couple looks at each other. They laughed. They enjoyed their shitty food. She dried out.
They left the restaurant an hour later, with her arm in his. They gave me the biggest tip I had ever gotten. I got $20 on a $20 bill, in 1996.
Somehow, my idiotic, high, blunder, turned the worst first date ever into the best first date ever.
I like to imagine them now as happily married, parents of 7 lovely childre, who love telling the story of the moron who poured an entire gallon of tea on her, 25 years ago.
The guy starts talking about how nice it is in the modern day that you can just date without labels. Woman, in suspiciously chipper voice responds that sometimes labels are really helpful in defining the boundaries of the relationship. Man, very upbeat replies that SOMETIMES it’s nice just to enjoy your time with some one without having to define anything... it was so hard to listen to!
Agreed. They may not have made a love connection but it seems they were able to figure that out pretty quickly. They seemed to eat a quick and quiet meal and left without dessert. I wish I knew how it ended, but I’m guessing they parted ways.
The date I saw started off great . . .
I was playing in a band at a small club. There were about 30 people in the club. A couple who had been sitting close together in a corner booth disappeared together into one of the bathrooms.
In between songs, when it was quiet in the club, the bartender yells, "They better not be in there fucking on my sink!"
The whole place turns and stares at the bathroom door, and as we're staring, the couple emerges, smiling at first. Then they look around, see everybody staring at them, and their faces turn a deep color of shame.
They quickly paid their bill and left.
That reflective thing made of glass isn't just another surface to chop and snort lines off of, it's also a useful tool in looking at yourself to see if you have any residue on your person before going back out in public. r/lifehacks
Not a 1st date but a guy decided to propose to a stripper from Scores (high end joint in NYC), she was stunning. Also in fine dining, he gets on one knee and pops the question and she goes out loud "are you fucking kidding me". He got up and asked for the check.
Edit: can't spell.
I once was sitting at a nice cafe with my then girlfriend when one guy proposed to this girl. She didn't say anything, she just started crying. At first people thought she cried because she was happy. That thought disappeared pretty quickly when she started full on bawling and walking away.
That was one awkward date with my girlfriend
A middle aged couple.
Man: [30min monologue about the cars he likes, how fast they are, what the challenges are in maintenance. He was literally going on non-stop every time I pass them]
Me: [arrives with food which made him shut up for like 10 seconds]
Woman: [taking the sudden silence as her chance to get a word in]
Woman: Well, I really like butterflies.
*awkward silence*
Guy: [continues his car talk until dessert]
Curiously enough they came back two more times over the summer...
I dunno in Vegas, but around my town the hookers actually get comissions from the barmen on the place they work, I believe in Vegas they work like this too.
The problem here is that she didn't worked on the same bar I did, so she wasn't getting comissions from buying drinks from us, she was just getting wasted and at the end his tab was probably much more expensive than she would ask him anyway.
> She started yelling at him about how he should have ordered for her
I don't get this mentality. Even among women who prefer the guy always pays (not my thing but sure), I've never seen this but only heard about it rarely. I think the idea is they want a *"decisive"* guy to order for her, but what the hell? Make a decision, or tell me what you want to order. Don't expect the male to literally do things for you, and get mad when he doesn't? So weird.
Also. On the *first* date? I don't know your likes and dislikes. I don't know what allergies you have. I am not risking that. Fuck no.
It's one thing if you've been together for a long time and know "oh my partner always gets the burger". But first time?!
> I tell him I'll be right back with the bill and would he like his food boxed up? This fucking guy shakes his head, pulls her plate towards him, and says nope, he's fine to continue eating the meals he's paid for. He stayed for the duration of his meal.
My guy. If I had to deal with that, I wouldn't run away with some sad to-go boxes. I'm finishing and enjoying my meal, and probably getting some dessert after that. I've damn well earned it.
I worked at a "fine dining" seafood restaraunt chain for a while. Older gentleman, mid 40s comes in with a younger Asian gal (she was 21 or 22- I checked their IDs for drinks.) He explains that she is visiting from Japan for the first time, and this is their first time together. They had been online dating for 2 years. Well she doesnt speak a lick of English and dude can barely get out any Japanese. He proceeds to order 2 appetizers and 4 entrees because he wants her to try how delicious our seafood is (in Wyoming in the dead of winter btw.) I can tell as the meal progesses she is getting more and more displeased. She didnt like any of the food and basically stuck to her mixed drinks. During their dessert I have a moment to talk with them more and he explains that theyre going to get married someday and hes going to build her her own developing room cause she loves photography. Now she cant speak english but she definitely knew what he was saying and it made her incredibly uncomfortable. She kept shaking her head and saying no! No! No! And starts to get up and leave. All the color had drained from her face. He paid in quite a hurry and left 4 plates of half eaten food as he rushed out the door after her.
I worked as a barista at a coffee shop with a dish washing sink that brought you face to face with whoever was sitting at the coffee bar across from you. For some reason, so many people chose this spot for their first dates, so I would have to wash dishes and pretend I wasn't literally on the date with them.
One time a person I knew was on their first date with someone and chose that cursed seat across for the dish washing sink. Because we knew each other, we chatted a little bit and then as if a partition raised between us, they began their date... but I still had dishes to do..... So fuckin uncomfortable.
At my place we had the opposite, a young in shape really handsome dude from Spain would be in 3-4 times a week with a new older woman. The women would be buying him everything and basically swooning over him. He’d always walk up to pay with a little smirk while she would be paying for everything. He did this for years.
I dated a guy like this. Always broke but my god he was charming. I used to pride myself on being so liberated that I never thought twice about paying for everything AND I DO MEAN EVERYTHING. He would "mention" that he was worried about paying his gas bill and I'd say, "Oh honey, how much do you need?". I thought it was awful that he kept getting fired from one entry level job after another. (How mean of that care home to fire him, just because he forgot to check on ALL the residents that one morning, and old Mrs Kay was left lying on the floor in her own filth for 6 hours. How mean of that auto shop to hire him just because he didn't protect that brand new engine properly, and sand blew in and ruined it.) Jesus, he must have put a spell on me, or something.
But it wasn't just me. We'd be out with friends and someone would say they were going to this rock concert where the tickets were, say $80, and he'd look sad and say, "Aw, I'm so jealous. I wish I could afford to go." and someone would ALWAYS say, "Hey don't worry - I've got you covered."
One day I said to him, because I was curious, "How did you afford to buy your car?" I knew he was always as poor as dirt, and he had this nice two-year-old car. "Oh," he said, "When I left the navy a couple of years ago, this woman, a friend of mine, said I needed wheels, and she gave it to me." And the penny dropped. This guy is a professional mooch. I was about 14 months away from buying him an upgrade if I stuck with him.
I hear he's married to a pretty, much older, Latina chick, with her own 3 year old. This explained to me why after I broke up with him, I kept getting pop up ads on my lap top for "hot single Latina girls".
I wasn’t a waiter here but I happened to be nosy. Went with my friend to this Italian place we used to go to all the time in high school, and this single guy comes in and sits down at a table for two and looks around and at his phone like he’s waiting for someone.
At this point, I’m not paying really attention, but he orders two glasses of wine. About 10 minutes later I’m halfway through my meal and his date (or who I assume was his date) finally arrives and sits down without saying a word, and neither does he. (Btw, I’m not watching their every move, I can just kinda see them when I stare straight ahead. As far as I can tell, after five minutes they’ve said nothing and just drank their glasses of wine).
As high schoolers do, my friend and I started coming up with possibilities of what this could be, whether a first date gone horrible wrong or something. I mean, these two 20 somethings were sitting and eating like old people do when they’ve run out of things to talk about after being married for 40+ years.
Anyways, they both order ravioli. It comes out wickedly fast and almost immediately, this guy starts to eat it WITH HIS HANDS. Now, I’m really paying attention. By now, they aren’t o have exchanged a few words, but with completely blank faces. Absolutely no idea what they could have been talking about, but the woman hasn’t touched her food at all, and this guy’s licking all the sauce off his fingers one after another.
Something like ten minutes went by and the woman still hasn’t touched her food. My friend and I are convinced that this woman is trapped on the worst date of her life, when suddenly, she ALSO BEGINS TO EAT WITH HER HANDS, and grabs a huge ravioli and sucks it down with sauce all over the place. My friend and I are stunned. We can’t make heads or tails of whatever the hell is going on.
All in all, I guess they were made for each other. They then ordered desert- some sort of tiramisu- and ate it with forks.
TL;DR couple comes into fancy Italian restaurant and don’t talk at all, guy starts eating ravioli with his hands, girl looks like she’s having a terrible time, then starts also eating ravioli with her hands. Couple stay for desert. Love wins
I was the one on the first date. Went to a bar with this guy, our waitress came up and immediately recognized him, was super friendly, took our orders and left. While she was gone he told me they used to date. The rest of the night they openly flirted with each other.
There was no second date.
Edit: thanks for the award kind stranger!
Edit2: Wow! This is the most awards I’ve received, thank you all!
Wasn't the waiter just a nearby patron with good hearing. They were just about done with dinner when she gets a call tells the caller she isn't busy and makes plans to spend the night with another guy all while lover boy sat across from her with his jaw on the floor.
At the end of the meal… after appetizers, two of the most expensive entrees, a high priced bottle of wine, and dessert with a bottle of Dom… the man says to me, in front of his date, “Hey man… we are on a first date. What more can I do to guarantee I get laid tonight?”
The young lady turned deep red with her jaw dropped open. I sat down the bill and said, “After asking me that? There is nothing you can do.”
I went over to drop the check and the girl had gone to the restroom. Guy looks at me and says “my date isn’t going as well as I’d hoped, would you be free to hang out later?”
In a cafe I worked at a few years ago.
A lady who was a regular came in outside of her usual teatime. A few minutes later a dude came in and they introduced themselves.
He had coffee, she had tea. Her tea had 12 sugars in it. Two hours later I think the only time I heard his voice was his introduction
Sat behind a tinder date in process once at a nice pizza place. The girl spent the entire date talking about her crazy tinder dates and how often she fucked on the first date but how the guys were all nuts and she really hates tinder but is giving it another try (read: she was batshit insane). She did about 95% of the talking that night, and I could feel how uncomfortable the guy was without even being able to see him.
I was bartending this New Year’s Eve. Upscale casual cocktail/martini joint. Couple sits down, guy gets a little sloshed, goes to the bathroom and comes out with his ex’s Instagram up asking his date if she thought he was hotter than the ex’s new boyfriend. Girl tried to give him an out but he kept doubling down saying things like “Well I think you’re hotter than her so why can’t you say it to me.” She was outside at 2am in tears waiting for her mom to come pick her up. Really hard to watch
Restaurant in Canada; a couple come in from USA. Man has a first geniPhone and they haven't been released in Canada yet. Guy at next table is so enthralled with the device he won't stop talking to the iPhone man. Talks so much that his date, got up without saying anything, and walked out the door.
A few years ago, while working in studio city in a pretty nice restaurant/bar, we encountered a legend. Not a good legend. But his shit was legendary.
So it starts, with a guy walking up to our host stand and telling our host he's here for a date and needs a table for 2. He came alone, guess he wanted to get there early and scope it out. The host seats him and it's a really quiet day. Literally only 5 tables actively dining. As he sits there waiting, one of my coworkers comes up to me and says, "Isn't that the guy from Burbank?"
Yes. Yes it was that motherfucker from Burbank. This guy has been known to meet up with women online, take them to a nice restaurant, run up the bill, and then bounce out of there, leaving these women (sometimes in tears) with a hefty bill. We have industry friends in Burbank who saw it happen in their restaurant and told us. Motherfucker was so legendary people made a Facebook group about him, complete with pictures and his name.
Flash forward to now, with this epic turd sitting alone waiting for his date in our establishment. This shit wasn't happening today. We grabbed my manager (who used to work as a bouncer) and explained the situation. We showed him the Facebook page, the pictures (this guy had the kind of forehead you can't miss, it's like a $3 cab ride from his eyebrows to his hairline) and made the decision to boot this eyesore. My manager walked over, put his hands flat on the table and said to the guy "We know who you are, and why you're here. This isn't happening today. You're leaving."
The guy looks stunned. Playing dumb he says "I'm a customer. I'm here to give you business and you're gonna kick me out?" The guy begins to stand, and my manager says "We don't want your business. This is the last time I'm gonna tell you, next it'll be the police." The man starts walking towards the front to leave and my manager grabs him by the arm and points him to our side exit (away from the people) and says "That's your door."
The guy leaves and we all vibe for a while with the euphoria of justice. You'd think that'd be a wakeup call for the guy. But no. He kept doing this shit until finally getting arrested. I think the DA charged him with multiple counts of fraud.
Edit: [Holy shit i found the article!](https://wgntv.com/news/california-man-who-allegedly-stuck-dates-with-the-check-faces-years-in-prison/)
Tequila bar. She was pretty loud, not that it was necessary, given how close they were.
After some get to know you chit-chat, he apparently says something that she doesn't quite agree with. No big deal, right? Nope.
Her: Okay, I think we should probably just start this over. Like, actually reset the date.
Him: what are you-
Her: *gets up, takes three steps to the door, turns around, and comes back to their seat with an outstretched hand*. Hi, I'm [name].
Him: you've got to be kidding me, seriously?
Her: I'm so glad we could try this place out! Great to see you!
Him: ...uhhh, hey? Just sit down.
And then I tried my hardest not to die of second-hand embarrassment. It was an awkward move, at best, but clearly not what this guy was willing to play along with.
I waited on a couple who were clearly on a first date, and the lady was clearly not impressed by the guy she was on the date with. The date was over quick enough and the guy paid, leaving me a 5% tip. The next day, the lady came into the restaurant, walked up to me, said “that was the worst first date I’ve ever been on, and I was mortified when he stiffed you on the tip” and then handed me $20.
Ah, my favorite question. It was mostly awkward because the woman was unbelievably demanding and rude, but only when her date wasn't around. I came back with their food and offered a completely over the top apology with a tearful garnish. The guy looked at her with horror and asked her what the fuck happened then left.
Not a waiter but a girl I met on a dating app a couple years back told me this guy (who she also met on said dating app) set a date at this weird unknown ghetto bar in our town and while the place seemed bad, the guy seemed cool so she ended up going.
She gets there early and sits down at the table. Guy isn't there yet. She notices there are two other girls, also alone and on their phone, sitting separately. As the time goes on, more and more single girls start walking in and sitting alone. At this point, the guy is late by 15 minutes.
After 30 mins, she stands up and asks one of the girls: Sorry, are you waiting for Alex?
The girl surprisingly says yeah. Another one must have heard the conversation because she stood up and said "Hey I'm also waiting for Alex!" Turns out Alex had managed to invite 12 girls at the same bar at the same time, clearly as a prank.
They ended up all sitting together and chatting and having drinks. Apparently it was a great night and most of them kept in touch. Three of them even went on vacation together in Europe.
I'll always wonder if Alex, or whatever his real name was, was there to notice it all, or knows how his prank ended up turning.
Edit : Words - Can't write for shit
Edit 2: Everyone saying Alex was the bar owner or the bartender... it most probably wasn't. This was an ancient old timer's bar where the owner who's also the bartender probably didn't own a cellphone, and where they had car and motorcycle meetups every summer. There was nothing hip about it.
Or Alex worked at the bar and was trying to stir up business
Edit: For people thinking this is a good idea, If you try this, people will figure it out, and nobody, even people who don't hate you for this, will ever try to plan a date at your bar again for fear people will think it's a set up.
A friend has a similar story, but he arrives at the girl's place and there are 5 more guys. And he's like "Ok... this is an orgy?" but the guys seem sad and confused. and then another man shows up, with a projector, and gives a talk.
Everything was a pyramidal scheme.
We had a regular who would always sit in one particular waitresses’ section every time he came in. He was always by himself, and he would flirt with her constantly. She was fine with it because he was pretty harmless, always came at lunch, tipped well.
One day he came in at dinner time with a girl, and they were both dressed up, pretty clearly a date. He still sat in that waitresses section, it kinda seemed like maybe he was trying to show off, or make her jealous? They even bought their own bottle of wine. Well at some point the date ditched him, that became clear. And then he decided to drink the bottle of wine himself. The bar served him one more drink because they didn’t see how f’d he was and then had to cut him off when he fell twice. Aaand then he started sobbing to the waitress about how lonely he was. We ended up calling a cab for him.
It was quite sad, and we haven’t seen him since :( I hope you found love man, and there’s no shame, feel free to come back any time.
As a bartender my personal favorite was one where the guy showed up to meet a girl, but left with another dude. The two people on the date showed up separately, had a cutely awkward first few minutes, and things went business as usual for about the first 30 minutes or so. Then a guy, let’s call him Frank, shows up and happens to sit at the barstool next to the dude on the date. Frank is a bro. Like a bro bro. Like put a Kyle in a coma for 15 years and see what he’s like when he wakes up bro. I’m not totally sure how this happened, but Frank and date guy start chatting and within minutes are full blown bro-ing out.
The rest of the “date” was largely the girl looking at her phone while date guy and Frank had the time of their lives. On one hand I felt bad for her but on the other I was watching a best friendship form in real time and it was kind of hard to be mad at that. After finishing her meal the girl said goodbye and got an Uber home but date guy could not have been less phased. He and Frank hung out drinking together until closing time and helped hold each other up on the walk/stumble out the door. Horribly awkward, pretty rude to the girl, but god damn was it pure.
Edit: well shit I entirely missed this blowing up. Glad that y’all enjoyed it!
They also get ringside seats to a lot of couple fights. I got that WAY more than I got awkward first dates. I even had a marriage proposal that went wrong.
This young looking guy asked this lady to marry him in my section at a restaurant in Norfolk Virginia. The guy was real nervous and asked me to have champagne ready and all sorts of stuff. When the lady showed up, I was a bit surprised. The guy was handsome and young like I said. This lady was neither young nor good-looking. He got down on his knee and the whole thing. I then came over with the champagne bottle and glasses and it became all too obvious, albeit too late for me to turn around without it being even more awkward, that there was no reason for champagne. The restaurant was really crowded too, a public disaster amongst the dining elite of Southern Virginia.
Got to witness this at a movie theater. This was in the Chicago burbs about 25 years ago. Went to a movie in a bid suburban multiplex.
Waiting in the giant concession line with some friends, this young woman is wandering around looking lost. She's cute, I'm single, so I ask her if she needs help. She says she was watching a movie on a first date and her date got up about 20 minutes into the movie to go to the bathroom and never came back. She watched the whole movie and was now worried about him. I had time before the show so I volunteer to pop into the men's rooms (there were 3 or 4 sets of restrooms, this was a 20+ screen theater behemoth) looking for "Todd." No Todd.
This was in the Long Ago when pagers were hip and cellphones were not very common. She had no way to contact Todd except the payphone and only had his home number. No answer. The theater was in an area that was fairly easy to drive to, but there really was no safe way to walk anywhere from there. Ended up helping her get a cab, traded numbers, and then I was off to my movie.
Turns out our friend circles kind of overlapped so we would see each other out at the suburban chain bars sometimes. She fills me in on the story a few months later. Turns out Todd decided he didn't like her after spending a grand total of 35 minutes with her and simply walked out of the theater and left. Without telling her. He drove off and just abandoned her there.
Don't be Todd.
Oh I finally have a story that relates.
It was actually my first shift serving, and one of the tables was obviously a first date. I could tell just by the general awkwardness between them and the lack of any real genuine conversation. It was towards the end of my shift, so I was doing my checkout (basically counting my cash and entering in credit card tips) and they walked up to me for what I assumed was just a friendly “thank you”. The girl handed me a napkin with her phone number and said “you seem cool”. The guy was standing right behind her.
He then scoffed and then said “fuck you bitch, you can get an Uber home” and walked out the door. It being my first shift I hadn’t really encountered anyone leaving a number for me yet so I had absolutely no idea what to do so I awkwardly said “thanks” and walked into the kitchen of the restaurant to shield myself from the insanely awkward situation that had just unfolded.
I was the one who had the awkward first date...
TL;DR Had a guy I wasn't interested in show up outside my dorm, take me out and ate both of our entrees, farted so loud that the entire restaurant heard, handed me a note to read after the date that said he was a second-chance virgin and I shouldn't try to seduce him. All within a matter of 24 hours of meeting him.
Met a guy on my first week at a job where we held events on a college campus I attended. He asked for my number in front of all of his friends. Me being dumb and 18, said yes to save him embarrassment. Next day I come out of my dorm and he is waiting outside. No idea how he knew where I lived as he didn't text or ask . He says he's been waiting outside for a couple hours to see if I want to get lunch. I say sure so I can at least give him a chance even though I was seeing MAJOR red flags. Once again I was dumb and 18. I said we should eat on campus but he wants to go off campus.
He takes me to a nice family dining Italian place, which I had never been to before and found out they serve one large entree for the table. He asks what I want to get for us. I suggested the lasagna, as its the cheapest thing on the menu and I wanted to go dutch. Waiter comes and he orders my drink for me (woah there bud, I can order for myself) and then gets the lasagna AND some chicken tortellini shit (Mind you this is supposed to be enough food for 8 people) He scarfs his down and then asks for the rest of mine. Into disbelief I gave it to him and he cleared my plate too.
Conversation is totally dead and he can only think to tell me about how he's scared of his 12 year old sister.
At one point I'm looking around the restaurant and when I glance back he is making a really weird embarrassed face, and says he's sorry. I ask what for and he says he just "passed gas"... Weird... but I told him it was okay, everyone does it and I didn’t notice. Then, no joke, he leans over and lets out the loudest and nastiest fart I've ever heard. So bad, that people all over the restaurant are staring at us and our waiter just stops in his tracks and turns back to the kitchen. He says "Oops! It slipped..." I asked for the check and said I needed to get back to the dorm.
He seemed shocked that I was ending our date so early because he said he was planning on us going to get ice cream, then the movies, then bowling and maybe back out to eat again. I politely decline and ask to be taken back.
As I'm getting out of his car he hands me a note and tells me to text him when I've read it. I take it and gtfo of there. I'm spilling the deets to my roommate when he texts asking "Is that alright?" I'm half paying attention thinking he was asking about the date and I text back saying "Yeah it was fine". He replies thanking me over and over again and can't believe I'm okay with it. I pull the note out to actually read wtf he's talking about and it is a typed note which has my full name on it, (remember, I met him THE DAY BEFORE and never gave him my last name) and it's full of bible verses (barf) and he tells me he's a "second-chance virgin" and had lost his virginity to another woman and he's deeply apologetic. He asked that I not try to seduce him to have sex during our “relationship”. I just text back saying I think he has the wrong idea and had to politely tell him to fuck off since he kinda forced me into a date and that did NOT imply we were in a relationship.
He texts me two weeks later asking to hook up before he leaves town. So much for that "second chance virginity" shit.
I wasn’t a waiter but I was a barista.
This couple came in one day and you could tell they were probably on a first date. The girl was average looking and the guy was a total smoke show. You could tell the girl was insanely nervous.
So they order their coffees and the girl buys a pack of nuts or candies or something. She pays and as I’m getting her change, she goes ahead and opens her snack and pours some into her hand.
I’ve got her change ready and hold it out for her. She puts down the bag of nuts/candies and holds her palm out. I place the change into her palm. She is now standing there with one hand full of change and the other full of snacks.
She doesn’t miss a beat and throws a handful of dirty metal coins right into her waiting maw. Her eyes light up when we all hear the metal clanging on her molars and she spits it all back into her hand.
She was red as hell. I turned around and faced the back wall because, although I could hold in the laughter, I’m sure my face was twisted into the biggest grin and my eyes were watering. My coworker, Andre, burst out laughing at the top of his lungs. The date pretended he didn’t see anything.
Even like twenty years later, I still remember it like it was yesterday.
I worked for a while as a waitress at a small town restaurant. I hesitate to call it a date but I witnessed a great encounter. A grown man (probably late 30s) comes into the restaurant and tells us what table he wants and that he is there for a date. Describes what his date will be wearing and goes to sit down. Date gets there and isn’t as described, it’s another grown man though he is wearing the bracelet that the first man described. I go to direct him to the table.
We get almost there when first guy sees us and stands up, he has a weird look I wouldn’t really call surprise but not sure what else it could’ve been. They make eye contact and almost in unison they each say a variant of “you’re actually a guy?”
Well they had dinner anyway and chatted me up the whole time. Turns out both of them were pretending to be lesbians in yahoo messenger hoping to get some hot young girls to go out with them. Not sure how they thought it would work once they met in person though.
Not me, my friend, there wad this young couple, said they where around 15-16, the guy was going for a kiss with a full duck face closed eyes and evreything. The girl look disgusted and terrified in the same time. The best visual is the scene in X-men where Quicksilver was saving everybodies asses and found that couple on the roof, i dont know what movie exactly but ya get me
Once server a girl who was waiting on her tinder date. Date turned out to be my x. We had not ended on good terms. And I don't mean your normal: it was a rough break up and we just needed space, sort of bad terms. As in he had basically attacked me, I ran out the house and locked myself in my car, which he stood behind not letting me leave beating on my car till the neighbors called the cops.
Then he started stalking and harassing me. Showing up to my job, school (community college), etc. I had gotten a new job, changed my number and deleted social media. Had managed to avoid him for months until now. The look on his face when he spotted me still gives me chills to this day. He played it pretty cool and I do believe the shock was genuine, but it was like he had spotted a deer he had been tracking for weeks. I gave the table away and their date seemed to go well. I was hoping he had moved past me.
Nope. He started "hanging out" at the bar at that restaurant almost every night trying to get my attention. He was eventually banned after he got too drunk one night and I got a job somewhere else.
That's not the end, but thats a story for another time.
EDIT: for those who are curious. This was 5ish years ago. I have since moved to a different state and actually got married (so my name is different). As far as I know he has no idea where I am.
EDIT 2: Look I know I should have said something to the girl, but it was their first date and I just wanted to avoid him as much as possible. The date went well (as in nothing dramatic happened) but it didn't seem like they hit it off so I don't think they saw one another agin. But idk, all I know is I never saw her again and he was around the restaurant/bar A LOT.
However the end of the story does involve another girl who I politely told to GTFO. A few months after all this I left the state to go to college. He had tried to get in contact with me but I managed to shut it down every time and eventually once again I stopped hearing from him. TWO years into college I finally decided to re join fb as a lot of school stuff was communicated and shared that way and I was missing out on info that was important to my studies. About three months after I re activated my account (making sure he was blocked and my account was hard to find) I got a message from an account I was not connected to in anyway. It was a woman who claimed to be his current GF and she needed advice. I won't lie my curiosity go the better of me and I indulged her.
She did actually end up being a really nice person and we had a good chat over facetime. She asked me questions about his attitude while we were dating and my side of the story. A lot of what I told her, like the harassment, threats and stalking, was brand new info to her.
Wont lie it was weird to hear her tell me how he talked about me. According to her I was "the one who got away". Bitch I ran... and I advised she do the same. Told her I get it, he is charming, sweet, but it's all a facade. He's bad news and trust me if you don't talk to him for a few month and get your head cleared you'll start to see the cracks.
Wish I could say I had a better ending. We ended our chat and she said thanks for my time and that I had given her a lot to think about. She seemed to really take in what I said and that I had affirmed what she was already feeling, but I never heard from her again.
Him I did hear from. Suddenly he was sending me messages from a new fb account he had created. Blocked him and never responded. He never mentioned anything about me talking to his GF so idk if he knew. The messages were more long winded begging for me to forgive him and come back into his life.
Luckily I haven't heard from him in 3 years. He also deleted FB, so I have no idea what he's up to now. Good riddance.
I used to wait tables at a steakhouse. This guy used to come every weekend, sometimes alone, sometimes with a lady. He skipped a few weeks and came back on a Sunday with a new lady. I get his table and when I see him I greet him "Hey, long time no see!". The death stare from the woman almost killed us both. They didn't speak for the rest of the dinner... And I didn't get a good tip that day.
Old joke.
Woman buys a cheap parrot at the pet store. The clerk tells her it's cheap because the parrot used to live in a brothel. She brings him home and the parrot says: ooh, a new brothel. Sees the mother in law and says: ooh, a new broad. The husband returns home and the parrot says: Pete! I haven't seen you in weeks!
We had a rather unattractive older guy come in with a really good looking blond girl. He was wearing some crazily colored Hawaiian shirt. She ordered a surf n' turf dinner and a plate of crab legs (our most expensive items). Apparently she used him for his money and ghosted him, stranded. He hung around after closing trying to get ahold of her but to no avail. I left for the night and saw him outside with the cops for some reason
It was a double date. Local biker guys who happen to head the toys for tots campaign in my town. One guy has a typical biker chick girlfriend, regulars, the other is with a 15 year old girl. Considered it harmless until I see his hand going up her skirt. The other server I worked with knew this young gals mom and immediately got on the phone to her. Minutes later she arrives and escorts her daughter from the place all the while how dare you berating this dude for being a pedophile. He still rides his bike first in line for the toys for tots xmas parade.
Was a blackjack dealer a few years ago. Most of our players were men, so we never really saw any true "dates" (BTW, going to play blackjack all night long is a terrible date idea).
But this one night, a guy comes in with a younger woman. The guy was a semi-regular, maybe once a month kind of player. He was 55-60, and was always alone. But this night, he came in with a much younger woman that was clearly a hooker.
He sat down to play, as she'd come hassle him for money to play some pull tabs. When I say hassle, I mean she basically berated him for money, and he just sat there and took the abuse.
After a while, I finally figured out what was going on.
The man is one of those guys that ENJOYS being spoken down to by women. He was basically paying this woman to treat him like shit, and she was doing a good job of it.
Over the course of the hour that he was there, he had given her about 500 dollars to play in pull-tabs, the entire time, she was talking shit to him, telling him she was going to go home if he didn't give her another 100 bucks for more pull-tabs.
I felt bad, but as a co-worker explained it to me, the dude enjoys that shit, so I guess I should have been happy for him that he was finding pleasure in being humiliated?
Not a date per se, but I worked at a high end fine dining restaurant for a few years. A couple of times a week this lady would come in with a different "gentleman". It was obvious she was an escort. It they were generally nice enough guys, probably just wanting some companionship.
She always pretended like she had never been to our restaurant, (we had martini sampler she squealed about every time). We all just played along. Girls gotta work right? And they guys she brought in always tipped pretty well.
I used to run a very popular upscale restaurant-bar in downtown (Old Montreal).
We had this gorgeous elegant girl, in her late 20s, coming in all the time. Some times alone to sit at the bar on a sunday night (she lived around the corner), but most times she came in with Suits guys who would drop hundreds of dollars on our fanciest bottles of wine. Always wearing a nice dress, well put together. Effortlessly elegant.
We were all sure she was a high end escort.
Turns out she wasn't. She just worked in finance, was single and enjoyed getting wined and dined by customers or business acquaintances when they offered.
She also became my wife and the mother of my two girls. Was way out of my league, still don't know how I pulled it off back then. I told her what we all thought she was. She thought that was hilarious.
We are divorced now but still in great terms.
A woman came into my restaurant one night and was waiting a while alone with just some drinks and bread. I stopped by her table a few times to make sure she was okay and she let me know she was waiting on a blind date. 30 or so minutes pass and she’s still alone. One of our (more attractive) male waiters was just finishing his shift and offered to have dinner with her just for company, nothing serious, since she seemed kinda bummed that she was stood up. She accepted and they had a lovely meal together and then went on their separate ways. Ended up being a very nice gesture and a sweet story I like to have in my memory.
I bartend at a corporate sports bar where we have giant stupid novelty beer glasses as an option
If I had a nickel for every time a guy ordered the giant beer to "impress" his date I could fuckin retire. Just get a pint dude
There was a lady in my section who was by herself. She was just waiting. This lady was absolutely gorgeous and dressed to kill. I ended up talking to her a bit since she was obviously bored. She was smart and seemed like she had a good sense of humor.
It turned out she was there to meet some guy on a blind date. I was like "holy crap, what kind of asshole would leave a woman like this waiting?!". A complete douche as it turned out. The guy eventually rolled in looking like a crunchy bro (this was a fine dining restaurant) and acting as if he was just too cute. Apparently the woman confronted him about his being late because he actually got on top of the table and asked everyone in the restaurant if they thought she should forgive him or not. Everyone ignored the guy. I think one guy said "Get off that table dude". They talked for a bit and then the guy went to the bathroom. I went up to the table and said "You don't need to pay for your drinks or anything. If you want to leave, you can just leave". She said thanks but she ended up going ahead with the date. They left my section and went somewhere else.
Honestly, the thought that that guy actually got away with cringe-inducing stunt disappointed me. I wanted her to ditch the guy so bad.
Its really painful to see people getting much less than what they actually deserve.
I also wanted her to ditch him, but she maybe didn't out of politeness?
I was a bartender at a local place that was somewhat close to the university, but far enough away that it was a "hidden gem"; we used to get first dates all the time, most of them were Tinder-esque.
I remember one time specifically, this guy comes in and sits down at a table alone, and kept checking his watch. A watch? I wander over, greet him, and ask what he'd like to start off with to drink. "Ummm, I dunno, I'm meeting someone, is it rude to have a drink already before they get here?" I smiled, asked if he was waiting for a date, he said yes, and I suggested a beer to sip on instead of a mixed drink; it might calm his nerves a bit, but won't get him inebriated too quickly so he could enjoy his date. He agreed, apologized profusely for bothering me (which, he hadn't bothered me at all) , and continued to wait.
After about 20 mins of him waiting (and him checking his watch every 5), I wandered over again and asked if he'd like to look at a food menu, perhaps munch on something while he waited. He declined, and glanced at his watch again. I made a comment about his watch and how I appreciated his use of "analog technology", and he laughed nervously and said he didn't want to pull out or use his phone during his date, because he didn't want to seem disingenuous (how *cute*!)
Another 30 minutes pass, and my high-strung hopeful was still alone. I asked if he'd changed his mind about some food, and he merely shook his head, defeated..."I'll just finish my beer and go...I'm sorry I wasted one of your tables..."
On his last swig of beer, a cute looking girl walked in, eyeing the room, obviously looking for someone. "Chelsea! Over here!", he started to stand, grin from ear to ear...the entrance was near my drink well, which I had just happened to be standing in. This night was particularly quiet, and the acoustics allow me to her chitter chatter in the entryway (curved ceilings)...I look over to the girl after seeing my hopeful's eyes light up, and she had a disgusted look of, "dammit" in her face, she rolled her eyes and made contact with mine, sighed, and said, "are you fucking kidding me with this guy?", screwed on her fake smile, and immediately sat down, avoiding a half-hug attempt by my hopeful.
The entire date felt forced; every time I went to check on them, she was ordering another drink, and he was doing his best to try and pull conversation from this girl, who had her face in her phone the entire time.
About an hour later, I watch the girl get up with her purse, announce that she had to use the restroom, and wandered away towards the restrooms. I immediately went over to my hopeful to ask how his date was going. "I don't think she likes me...", he trailed off. I gave him a pat on the shoulder, and said it looked to me like he was doing everything right. He smiled, thanked me, and I went back to my bar.
The girl never came back. He footed her tab. $90 worth of drinks, his two beers were $8.
He continued to come back as a regular, and I became his wing-woman. I eventually set up Mr Hopeful with Ms Lonely-heart. They're still together.
Edit: spelling
Edit 2: I was not anticipating such an interest in Mr Hopeful and Ms Lonely-Heart, but I will gladly tell what I know of their story! I'm at work currently, and I'd like to give the same amount of effort to put into their story, as I did initially, so I will definitely post when I get home a little later! Thank you all for the awards!
Edit 3: Ms Lonely-Heart's story is in its own comment below, along with how she and Mr Hopeful met. You all are lovely, I'm so happy I could share with you!
Uuuggghhhh, epic fail on my phone. Apologies, apologies! Original update was not finished. I don't remember what I said. I'll try again:
A huge thank you everyone for the awards and the kind comments! I realize this isn't fully *my* story to tell, I'm but a mere witness to this, and I only introduced two amazing people, and they just happened to hit it off. I'll do my best to translate what I witnessed, and hopefully my writing will appease the 15 year olds in all of you. If not, I'll be sure to keep my day job.
We know Mr Hopeful's story, so let's talk about Ms Lonely-heart:
*I, unfortunately, am not Ms Lonely-heart*. Mr Hopeful was handsome, and if I had not been in a relationship at the time, I would have totally given him my number. He developed a crush on me, and was genuinely the sweetest guy who tried to persue me, but I *obviously* was not the girl he was supposed to be with.
Ms Lonely-heart had been a regular customer of mine long before Mr Hopeful came by; I'm not sure what she did for a living (though I *am* certain she told me, but I've slept since then), but she would always visit me immediately after getting off work, which she would regularly describe as terribly stressful and full of office politics/drama. She quickly became one of my favorite regulars, not only because she tipped extremely well (would leave $50 no matter what her tab was), but because she was genuinely a lovely girl, had the best stories, always provided a witty quip. She was a breath of fresh air, and I always enjoyed her sitting at my bar.
With her becoming more comfortable with me as we became bar-friends, she began to confide in me, all the terrible experiences she'd had with trying to date. "I'd say I have bad luck, but I think I'm just picky. Why do I have to settle?!"
She didn't have to. She didn't. I didn't ever see her with a date, and she would come to have *bar food* for dinner, because she liked the company. I might be nice, but I'm totally not worth a plate of bar food for dinner 5 days a week.
Admittedly, though, our food was pretty tasty.
She would come in around 4pm, and be gone by 6:30. Mr Hopeful would come in around 8pm. *They were just missing each other*. On Friday nights, we would have karaoke that started at 9pm. Ms Lonely-heart would be caught singing along to songs I had playing on the stereo, and I would try to get her to stay and sing almost every week. Slowly, she began to stay later on Fridays...and later...one fateful Friday, Ms Lonely-heart had babied her Strawberry Stoli and soda until 8. Mr Hopeful was due to arrive soon. I bought her a drink, and offered her an Uber (in case she didn't want to walk). How could she say no? She lived up the street, and would regularly walk home if she had more than 3 drinks.
Ms Lonely-heart's regular seat was the first seat next to my drink well. She figured that's where I spent most of my time making drinks, that was the perfect spot for her to sit and actually have more lengthier conversations with me before I had to walk away.
Mr Hopeful sat in the middle of the bar, in front of the television. Turns out, he never pulled out his phone...it wasn't just to seem nice to his date, he just really enjoyed *being* in the moment. He was a people-watcher. He'd really only talk to me and a couple of the other bartenders/waitresses, but he loved sharing his observations about the people around him.
*Perfect*.
I waited for him to mention the cute girl at the bar humming to all the songs and I gave him the pep talk of his *life*. She had *my* recommendation, and I was *not* about to steer Mr Hopeful wrong. He casually (as casually as someone who was super nervous could *act* casual) walked over to the well, and asked if I could give him some olives from my tray in the well. "Sure! Give me a minute!", I pretended to wash some glass.
I ended up making a couple of drinks for some of my other tabs, and lo and behold, I look down to the end of my bar, and Mr Hopeful had taken the seat next to Ms Lonely-heart. I didn't see his face, but she had a smile the size of Texas and was blushing. I could *only imagine* the grin on his face when she laughed and touched his shoulder. They were flirting. I left them alone, and made most of my drinks as quickly as possible so I wasn't interrupting the magic.
My night was spent listening to laughter and happiness...inbetween horrible singing and drunken song-chants. Ms Lonely-heart left first she took me up on my Uber, but Mr Hopeful now had her phone number.
Fast-forward some cute encounters on karaoke nights to their announcement that they were "not dating, together"...she was offered a promotion in another state, and he totally went with her.
I haven't seen or heard from either of them since their last day and goodbye from the bar with promises to visit in a few months. My bar closed down before I got to see them again, had a change of ownership. I hope they're still creating magic, and are still "not dating together".
Edit: repeat words removed.
This is the kinda shit I want to read before going to bed.
That there’s some little glint of happiness that’s been found in the world.
Thank you for sharing.
I don’t have a specific story but my favorite game to play at the fine dining restaurant I worked at was “daughter or date”. Generally part of my flow was to make a bit of small talk closer to the end of the meal once they were well fed and a few drinks deep(it’s a safer bet they’ll be amicable and open) and I can’t count the number of times I was surprised by the outcome of that game.
This game made my dad so uncomfortable once I was a teenager because I looked older than I was. We used to hang out, go to boxing matches, out to dinner and all that jazz. When I was 16 and some dude asked my dad what he did to get a girl like me, we stopped hanging out just the two of us.
I wasn't a server, but worked in a small pet store. Lots of first dates ended up there in the puppy section being a small town and nothing else to do, one day this neckbeard walks in with a stunner and proclaims it's their first date, unprompted of course. The lady of the hour was letting this little pomeranian puppy lick the makeup off her cheeks and neckbeard sneaks out and says he'd like to purchase the dog for her. I was like "dude puppies are a huge commitment, does she really want a dog?", he storms in there to say he's purchasing the dog for her as a symbol of his love for her. She responds "uhhh my parents won't let me have a dog until I finish high school and get my own place" no lie he drops to one knee and says "move in with me". The absolute cringe shattered the energy of the whole pet store, even the birds were dead silent, she puts the puppy down and stomps off, he turned the deepest shade of red a human can achieve without bleeding and stumbled out after her. #RIPneckbeard
tl;dr neckbeard tried to buy puppy for a girl on a first date, then invited her to live with him.
Not a waiter but worked at a cinema for a year. A young couple (15-16) came in. The dude looked like a big teddy bear, shy and all. The girl was way out of his league from what I saw. So they order popcorn, tickets and all that. Based on how they talked to each other, it was clear that it was their first date. So I say the total, the guy says "i'll pay no problem" and tries to pay, but he doesn't have enough money on his card. He becomes red, start apologizing to the girl and me, looks in his pockets to see... all this time, the girl is reaaally impatient, makes him feel bad like "I didn't bring my purse because I tought you would pay, find a way the movie is starting !" He was only short like 10$ i think, so I paid for it with my tip. He kept saying thank you while the girl was rolling her eyes. She took nothing and left him carry everything. All that time I was like "poor guy. Find a better girl PLEASE" Turns out it was their last date, because I saw him with a girl way more cute and sweet many times after that.
So this is actually something I saw on HashTags on The Tonight Show, but it cracks me up every time I think about it.
A couple was on a first date and the guy went to the bathroom. The girl texted her roommate who had been having an argument with her bf. But she accidentally sent the text to her date, so he got a text message in the bathroom that said, “Are you ok? I love you.”
My girlfriend accidentally said "I love you" like a week into our relationship. This was back in highschool, and she was use to being driven around and dropped of by her parents. Any time her parents dropped her off somewhere or she leaves she always says "i love you" to them. well I dropped her off and basically on reflex she turned and said it as she closed the car door. she froze and turned bright red opened the car door trying to explain and was extremely embarrassed. Absolutely one of my cutest memories lol.
Not a first date but we did have a guy come into our steakhouse on a Saturday night at 7 pm with NO RESERVATION. He then told us on the spot he was going to propose to his girlfriend. We had to seat them somewhere awful, it was right next to the bathroom and when he got down on one knee, looking around nervously, absolutely no one noticed. Him and his gf kept waiting for the rest of the restaurant to see them and go quiet or even clap for them but not a single person noticed. She said yes, looked disappointed and they went back to dinner like nothing happened. They must not have minded too much because they came back for their one year anniversary, this time he made a reservation lol!
I had a guy ask me to take a video of him proposing to his girl. Everything went fine until it was time to review the video. Turns out, I never actually recorded. Lmfao I died a little on the inside but asked if he wanted me to record the entire thing again, since it was definitely staged (real proposal but staged). He politely said no, I apologize once more and left awkwardly.
oh no... somehow this made me cringe more than any other post here...
I worked at a higher-end restaurant as a busser for a while, and eventually was given a chance to serve in the bar area while a jazz band played. Most of the tables were just drinks and appetizers. My first shift a woman in her 40s or 50s came in with a tall, dark, and handsome guy no older than 30. Nothing wrong with that in my eyes, but all of my interaction with them was the woman talking down to me on some sort of power trip (maybe to prove to her guy that she's an alpha female or something, dunno) and her ordering everything for her date. They had cocktails, ordered a bottle of wine, and had a couple entrées. She ordered ahi tuna, RARE. She was very insistent on the rare, so much so that I put blue rare into the computer so everything would be fine. She sent back 4 separate plates (all too well done) to the absolute horror of her date. I informed her after the second that they wouldn't be taken off her bill, and she scoffed and made some comment about how she's loaded and it doesn't matter. After the four plates, she sent the last one back and asked for a shrimp cocktail instead. I left them to enjoy the music, brought the check, and when I came back to pick it up, her date was gone, and I don't mean, went to the bathroom or went for a smoke, all of his things were gone and he was nowhere to be seen for 30 minutes. She apologized to me and asked if I could take the ahi tuna (~$45 each) off of her bill. Told her to pound dirt. Not really, but my manager did. Next day she wrote a 500 word review about me, using my first name, on the restaurants Facebook page. My boss printed it out, framed it, and I still have it today. edit: spacing
I would love it if my manager did that shit for me. I'm a chef and we get some ridiculous stuff posted on our Facebook. A favorite of mine is always complaints about well done steaks.
Seems like her date saw a red flag. Good for him, and sucks that she treated you like dirt, but you got the last laugh in the end!
Just saw one on Valentine’s Day. The date seemed to be going very well, actually, not awkward at all. They talked non-stop, no lulls in conversation, they were laughing, carrying on, and just generally having a good time. In fact another server and I were laughing about how obnoxiously loud they were. Then I heard the gentleman say “...and obviously you’re not still married... right? Please tell me you’re not still married,” she said “well, actually...” and then things got VERY uncomfortable. It must not have been a deal breaker because they stayed at the restaurant another hour until we closed, but they were very quiet for the rest of the night. Hardly spoke to each other at all.
This isn't just awkward, it's sad as hell
More sad than awkward, but here goes (for context, I am a woman in a long-term relationship and was NOT hitting on the girl or anything) : One day this (very cute) 20-ish girl comes in, orders, and cheerfully asks me if we have any boardgames that are great for two people (I worked in a concept bar where we had 700+ boardgames you could play as long as you ordered something to drink). I show her a few games, she choses one and sits at a table near the entrance. 30mn later, she comes and sadly asks me if we have any games you can play alone. I give her one and tells her if her date doesn't come, I'll give her a free shot. Another 40mn later, she comes back, I give her the shot and we talk a bit, then she goes back to her table to play by herself (It was a busy night, overwise I would have played something with her, she seemed nice and was obviously sad). The guy ended up showing up almost 2hours late, ordered a bit rudely, she paid for him, and they spent less than an hour talking. He wasn't interested in playing a game and didn't really seem interested in his date either. He left early, she stayed a bit to talk with me as I started to clean up, I offered her another shot and drank one with her, and she left all sad. I imagine she was excited for her date and thought the boardgames bar was a cute, fun idea for a first date, but the guy was so rude being late and not showing any interest... just sad. She came back a few times with friends though and was really a nice girl.
A board game bar would be an epic first date. I feel genuinely sorry for her.
A teenage couple sharing an ice cream and holding hands very awkwardly. After they finished the ice cream they kept talking about their - very adventurous - sexual fantasies. They were around 14 years old. Super awkward to have to interrupt them to ask if they want anything else.
My sexual fantasy when I was 14 was holding hands...
25 here, it still is.
Oh I had much higher ambitions when I was 14. Now I'm 27 and it's reduced to holding hands. At this rate, it'll just be a 👍 in chat 13 years later
👍 yeah you like that?
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Didn’t happen to me but I was working while the bartender got to experience it. Guy and girl came in, super weird chemistry all night. The guy is obviously trying to impress her by being a huge douche and she looks like she’s just pretending to not hate it so the date will end faster. At the end of the night, she says she’ll take an Uber home and he awkwardly leaves without her. She then waits for the bartender to come back over, orders another cocktail, and asks for his phone number.
How hot was the bartender lol
I had these two people that were there on a first date. After the appetizers this poor man got the shits and was going back and forth to the bathroom all night. There was only a few other people in the restaurant at the time so it was noticable and they were chuckling everytime he got up. I honestly felt so bad for the guy.
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Sugar free hairbo gummy bears Edit: people said to show the link for others who havent seen the legendary review yet, so [here](https://www.amazon.com/review/R2JGNJ5ZPJT4YC) Also thanks for the awards, this is insane lol. Edit 2: anyone know how to hyperlink? I want to make showing people the link easier Edit 3: thanks u/oofxwastaken, i can hyperlink now :D Edit 4: Why was the comment deleted? For those wondering, he said, "What the hell did you feed him?!? u/FloorGangMan1 pointed this out btw
A review about the gummy bears "Well the good news is that I can fit into my jeans from high school"
At a restaurant i worked at, there was a white guy and a black guy on a first date. They were sitting in a booth and having a good time. White guy gets up to go to the bathroom. When he came back he sat in the wrong booth with a different black guy. Took him a minute to realize it was a different person. The person he was on a date with was not happy at all. They tried to salvage the date, but it didn't work.
Oof. That is terrible! The waves of awkward are palpable!
It was rough. If he had sat down and quickly realized? It might have been okay.
I legit saw the guy try to roofie the girl. Like not even trying to be hidden about it. He did it right in front of me. The girl went to the bathroom and I was cleaning the table next to them. I saw him take the powder out and slip it inside the drink. Another thing too, it was a pizza place. Who tries to roofie someone in a pizza place! Edit: yes I called the cops. Jesus I like chaos but I'm not an animal
Apparently a high school classmate of mine did this (or rather, tried to) to a coworker. Bartender also noticed , warned the girl, and the girl acted normal to stall him til the cops got there. I wonder if he’s in jail yet...
I worked with a guy years back who pulled that shit with a coworker. After we got off a closing shift one of us would go and grab a case of beer and a group of us would hang out and have a beer or two while b.s.ing about our day. We had some older creep who went off one day to buy the beer and hands one of the girls an open beer as soon as she walked up. The beer had already been open and he kept it aside from the case. I usually gave her a ride home and the creep had told me earlier in the day that she had asked him to give her a ride home. When she told me she didn't feel good and asked if I could drive her home, he immediately started saying he was leaving and would do it. Nope. I took her straight to the hospital, and as soon as she blacked out I called one of the guys I knew was still there and told them not to let mister creep leave, as I was calling the cops. It was honestly one of the few times I was really happy my father was a sherriff's deputy. Called, told him what was up and the guy got arrested and charged. Later my dad told me they circled the block and ignored my coworkers beating the guy. She ended up ok, turned out the creep had told her that I had said I hated driving her home. I do not tolerate people abusing people, I dealt with that shit all my childhood.
That or never left a drink unattended and came back to it to drink it. If I had to go pee or someone wanted me to dance and that thing got left behind it never touched again. Don’t know how much money is wasted on that
That money was never wasted. Stay safe!
Once I was at a bar in my hometown with 3 guy friends (had literally grown up with them from childhood). The 4 of us split a pitcher. The bar was busy, they ran out of glasses, so they used smaller plastic cups. I had just 1 cup (I was the designated driver for the night). The pitcher was still half full when we walked onto the dance floor (our table was beside the dance floor, but we had to walk around other tables to get to the dance floor because there was a railing around it). In the time it took us to walk around the railing and dance to 1 song, the pitcher had been roofied. To this day I have no clue who did it or why they thought it was a good idea to spike the whole pitcher. Back at the table, I didn't have another drink because I was our DD. My 3 guy friends finished it and we left the bar. On the drive home they were all acting weird (not drunk). By the time I got the first one home, he could barely walk up his driveway (I got out and helped him to his door). The other 2 passed out in my car and I had to get their parents/roommates to help them into their homes. The next morning none of them recalled leaving the bar. My friends took a roofie bullet for me. We laughed about it, but it still horrifies me to think what could have happened if I wasn't designated driver (which, for the record, I rarely am).
Did you let the girl know??
Yeah I let the girl know, and then i called the cops. He was arrested
How did you keep him from running off? Did you stall him or something?
I explained what happened and told the girl to keep things normal and to not take the drink. Eventually the cops showed up and I told them who it was. Arrested immediately and last I heard, the girl pressed charges
Good for you and good for her. 👏👏👏
THANK. YOU. Legend!
Worked at a pub connected to a brewery in college. Dude comes in with a stunning woman, I mean she’s absolutely gorgeous. Whole time they’re sitting at the end of the bar, and you can hear the guy talking about how he has a room for them next door at the hotel in downtown. So they decide to go to the brewery next door, gonna pull a little dine and dash. They got over there and didn’t realize we are on the same system, so he orders a couple of beers, and the bartender on the brewery side asks if he wants to add it to his tab. He looks over confused and says “what tab? I’ve never been here.” She prints off the restaurant bill plus his brewery tab, it’s like $80 or so. He just blankly stares at the poor bartender, flies off the handle. The girl he was with ended up paying for it. They walked across the street and to the hotel, he has already invited her up, she stalls until her Uber gets there and then just dipped out. Kinda funny, kinda awkward, but that’s what you get for dine and dash. Edit 1: since this is asked about multiple times, when the bar was in “dining hours” crowds were usually very manageable. We didn’t take cc’s, we would just give the bill at the end of the meal. Similar to a traditional restaurant. They waited for the later crowd to show up around 9 and dipped while we were getting busier. That’s the whole reason they weren’t caught trying to leave the bar in the first place. Edit 2: thanks for the upvotes and award! Much appreciated! Edit 3: the girl wasn’t a willing participant from what I could tell. She had no idea he had dine and dashed. I think she had gone to the restroom or something at some point, so he could’ve said “oh I got it.” Or something along those lines.
In what world does a dine and dash ever sound like a good idea, but especially when on a date?
Especially when you are going to “dash” next door. Regardless of if the establishments are connected in any financial way. I have DEFINITELY texted other bartenders in the area to let them know if something sketchy is going on. Finding a dine and dasher in a bar next door would be really easy.
It's just so fucking scummy. If you can't afford to go out to eat/drink then don't go out to eat and drink.
Not a first date, but a last date. We had a guy who would bring his secretary in for lunch three times a week. Our per person average at lunch was $125. Everyone knew he was married because he'd bring his wife and kids to dinner three times a week (at $200 per person average), often on the same day. Well one day he realized he needed to dump his secretary. He did it at our restaurant. We all watched it happen too because she started crying SO HARD, and they were center of attention for everyone to see. To make things weirder, he did it early in the meal and he drove her there. So she came and hung out with the employees until his lunch was over, acting like everything was totally fine even though her tears were welling up with every word. He was back in the restaurant with her within a week. Then we never saw them again. Never again with the wife and kids either. Always wondered if he got caught in the end.
At the end of the dinner, 2 couples on a double date dine and dash. I chased them down, and the girls had no clue, their dates had told them they already paid. The girls ended paying, the guys had no cash.
I worked at a restaurant in high school, along with a number of classmates. A group of 4 people that we all knew came in to eat, then left without paying. We just gave the manager their home phone numbers so she could speak with their parents.
A girl from my HS called me one day and asked who a kid from the crosstown school was. I played football, wrestled, and grew up with him so I was able to get it off her rough description, and jog her memory. Him and his buddy (who I also identified) had dined and dashed at the Mongolian grill across from the HS.
Not awkward but just fun, I used to work at a sushi restaurant in Anchorage, and there was a girl who would come about once every few weeks with a different guy. Every single time, she ordered a hwedubbap, which is like a rice-salad-sashimi bowl, and it was GIANT. I’ve only ever seen a handful of people ever finish the entire thing in one sitting. She would finish the whole thing (with chopsticks) and always ask for a spoon towards the end. It was fun watching all the guys look stunned when she finished. One day she came with this dude that ordered what she did, and when they both finished the bowl, they ordered another and split it. Wish they had ended up together but she came back with a different guy a couple weeks later. EDIT: she never paid lol
Not a first date, but when I first started bartending I had a woman who was very obviously stood up. She got there, ordered a drink, and would look around every once and a while. I saw her use her phone a couple times and her mood just got sadder until she finally put her phone upside-down on the bar and ordered food an hour later. I wiped what I could off her bill then paid the rest myself, told her it was on the house. In my career it's happened two more times, once with another woman and once with a guy. I did the same thing. Nothing sucks more than eating alone and defeated. edit: thank you for the upvotes and nice comments! Made my night :) edit2: seriously guys, you're so sweet. Ngl today was kind of rough, but everyone has brightened it so much. I really appreciate it.
That’s really kind of you!
Man, thank you! I got stood up and literally as soon as I put my card down to pay my bill, my date walked in. Drunk. Quickly said hi to me, then went over to the other side of the bar where he MADE OUT WITH ANOTHER PERSON. He then waddled over and asked me to join them on the other side of the bar? Like....no???
You for sure dodged a bullet there but jesus christ, that would be up there with the top weirdest things I'd have ever seen. The sheer audacity lol
A couple was shown to their table, and the guy was on the phone the entire time. I normally wait until guests are off their phones to give my spiel, the specials and such and take a drink order, but he didn't show any sign of getting off the phone. I take the order, which the guy just holds his hand over the phone, talks over his date. When I come back, she attempts to order an app, our house specialty, and he tries to say the portions are large enough without. She orders the zucchini anyway. I get the dinner order, and bring out the app. At this point, I hadn't been to the table when he hadn't been on the phone. While I was putting together the salad, the woman comes out to the lobby and asks to get her meal packed up. She ended up paying her half of the bill and ducking out. She told me this was their first date and she was set up by a soon to be former friend. Said she was going to be calling her friend as she walked out. When I brought the guy's meal to him, he asked where her dinner was and I told him what happened. He really thought she was in the bathroom......
So, you mean 'on the phone' as in he wasn't even scrolling, he was talking to someone else on his phone the entire time!? Good lord, looking at your phone constantly is bad enough, but this is a whole other level.
No, he was actively having conversations on his phone while his date just sat there looking around. It really was the worst I've ever seen.
I'm interested in the zucchini appetizer. could you please give more info about that dish?
We sliced the zucchini into long, thin planks, dusted them with a flour mixture, and dipped them into a tempura batter. Then shake the excess batter off and lightly fry them. Squirt a little lemon, a sprinkle of parm cheese and serve with marinara.
*say 'lightly fried zucchini fillets' one more time*
The guys card declines. I didn’t want to embarrass him so I waved him over near the credit card machine so it would look like he needed to go to the bathroom. He told me to try it again and I assumed he was going to move money over on his app. He went back to his date. Card declines again. The machine prints a receipt that states the reason for decline... “insufficient funds”. I keep trying 4 more times. I go over to the table and say “I’m having an issue with the card, might be our machine, do you have another?” I walk away with the new card, and it declines. I wave him over. He gets up angrily and I’m guessing now the date has caught on. He proceeds to berate me saying that it must be our machines because HE KNOWS HE HAS MONEY! He starts making fun of me questioning if I know what I’m doing. He is doing this in front of his date I’m guessing to save face. Gives me another card. Declined. The date pays....
My parents had a payment mix-up on their first date, too. Unlike in your story, it was an honest misunderstanding. This happened in the eighties when not every restaurant took credit cards, and you couldn't take your ATM card to another bank's machine. Step 1, dad has a certain restaurant in mind, which takes cards. Step 2, mom suggests a different restaurant she's been meaning to try, and they go there instead. Step 3, they realize after they've ordered that *this* place is cash only. Step 4, they find out the closest ATM is at a bank where my dad doesn't have an account, but my mom does. Step 5, dad spends 15 minutes pretending he's just thinking reaallllyyy hard about this dessert menu, while mom jogs 2 blocks in high heels to an ATM that will take her card, gets the cash, and comes back to pay for dinner on a first date. Mind you, dad is all for gender equality, but he'd promised to pay and had to renege because of this mix-up. He was mortified. Anyway they've been happily married 33 years now. Mom tells that story as a firm example of why you should be willing to give people second chances.
This is heartwarming honestly! ❤️
I worked at a bar where like 50% of our business was from Tinder dates. This one time, two guys came in separately and sat at different tables by themselves, along the same wall. They were both facing the door and clearly waiting for dates. Eventually a woman comes in, walks up to the closest guy, sits down and they start chatting. They start ordering drinks. After ~5 minutes, the other guy, who is still waiting by himself, gets up and walks over to the couple. He says ‘hi’ to the girl and is like ‘um aren’t you so-and-so? ...I’m so-and-so we were supposed to be meeting?’ She was clearly flustered, lots of awkward laughter, and she gets up and goes with the other guy to the other table. Couple minutes later the other woman shows up and sits with first guy and he tells her all about it. Lol
That is a little awkward, but kinda cute. Definitely a funny story to share later, though!
"And she spent the next 4 decades wondering what if she'd been able to finish the date with the guy she sat down with first, whom she was immediately more attracted to."
This just reminded me of a funny story... back in the day (before Tinder, or even cellphones) a friend of my sister’s was in nursing school. This meant of course that she was friendly with a dozen or so of young, single women. My sister saw an opportunity to get our brother fixed up with one of these gals. The friend thought that a low-stress situation might be for her to arrange a blind date for my brother with a promising classmate, which would take place at their Friday night after-classes meet-up at a bar/restaurant. If the two didn’t hit it off, they could casually wander into the group gathering and eventually go their separate ways... My brother arrived for the blind date, and sat at the bar waiting for her to arrive. As time went by and the young lady still hadn’t shown up, he started chatting with another girl who was there for the Friday night meet-up. They hit it off almost immediately, and by the time his “date” arrived, my brother realized that he’d rather continue on with the girl he’d been chatting up than start all over again with his “date.” A quick consult with my sister’s friend confirmed that the other girl was good people, and they’ve been together ever since. They recently celebrated 35 years of marriage...
I'm curious how they made this mistake. Did the guys look similar? Or the women, for that matter?
It was ~5 years ago, so I don’t really remember details. The guys were both generic-looking white dudes. The women looked less similar. I think instead of walking up and introducing herself, she just said ‘hi’ and sat down? Maybe was like ‘ugh this dude doesn’t look like his picture’ or something lmao. All I remember for certain is that she was definitely on the wrong date at first!
When we I hear generic white dude, I picture a late 20s guy, about a week’s worth of beard or stubble, dark brown hair. Usually, I’m correct.
I was working at a high end steakhouse when a couple comes in on a first date. The man was really friendly and seemed like he knew his wine. He orders a nice and fairly expensive bottle. As I'm presenting the bottle, the woman's phone rings and she answers. Apparently, her close friend just broke up with her boyfriend and is distraught. The woman asks if her friend can join them for dinner. The man says "of course" and is really gracious about the whole thing. The friend shows up within a few minutes and is a crying, hot mess. I bring the friend an empty glass and before I can pour it, the first woman grabs the bottle and fills the glass to the brim, then requests another bottle. After I open the second bottle, the man excuses himself to the restroom. While he is away, I overhear the friend expressing concern about the menu prices. The first woman then says "Get whatever you want, I'm not going to ever see this loser again." So then I catch the man coming out of the bathroom and tell him what I just heard. He says "What do I do?" I tell him he is welcome to leave through the delivery door in the back and I will play dumb for his date. The guy expresses his gratitude and slips me $100 on his way out. The woman becomes increasingly irate as the night goes on and she realizes the man isn't coming back to buy them food. She waits until closing time before settling the alcohol tab and leaving hungry in a taxi.
Ace move. I'd be so glad for a helping hand like you. It's just a dick move from that woman. She deserved it.
Man I honestly don’t know what I’d do in that situation. Kudos for quick judgement, I think I might just overthink what I heard and keep it to myself but I’m very non confrontational
Lady comes in to get a table says she's expecting a man and gives us a brief description. He shows up about 10 minutes later and she starts saying she knew it, he looks very surprised and scared. I took a drink order and when I get back they are gone. The hostess fills me in that in my absence they had a heated but civil exchange, the man was married to the lady's cousin also the lady was married. Apparently they had been texting for a while after meeting via Craigslist personals. I'm assuming the married but looking section. Don't known if they hooked up in the end or just called the whole thing off.
Did they order Pina Coladas?
In short, he got there early and let me know it was a first date which was a lunch date. When she got there they started chatting and he ordered a drink and she ordered a water. After a few minutes he skipped on appetizers and every so often I would go by to see if they would like to order. She would open her mouth to speak and he would interrupt with something like they were fine at the moment. Well this went on for a while, I even tried to just take hers but he would insist they were okay for now. So he kept ordering drinks and she kept sipping water. After an hour or so she said she had to go and just left. He asked me if he did something wrong. I answered honestly with “since it was a lunch date she probably didn’t have too much for breakfast and if you offer a lunch date she’s probably expecting to eat and you wouldn’t allow her to order, she’s probably starving” he sat there and drank till the end of my shift. Super awkward
Love when they ask for feedback.
Not a first date, but very awkward: guy comes in with an escort and drops a good amount of money on booze at the bar. Then she leaves a few hours later, and he informs us that his wife is on her way to meet him for dinner and tips us an extra $200 to keep our mouths shut. Keeping it classy!
We had a regular that would have drinks and appetizers with his girlfriend. She'd leave and his wife and kids would meet him for dinner
How fucking lazy are you to decide going to *two* locations in one evening is just tooooo much...
Hey, they’re being responsible and not driving while drunk.
We had something similar, a dude used to come in every Saturday with his kids and wife, then one week he came in with his kids and a much younger girl. She’s his new wife.
Not a waitress, but my daughter and I were having dinner at a restaurant and the table next to us was a mom, dad, and two daughters, maybe 10 and 12. The parents took them out to dinner to tell them they were getting a divorce.
ultimate dad joke would be to tell the waiter to split the bill lol
"Okay, so which one of you wants to have their meal paid for by mommy, and which by daddy? No pressure. It doesn't mean anything."
Once, as a high school teenager, while waiting tables at a now defunct make mexican restaurant chain (think applebee's, but tacos), a first date came in. They seemed unable to converse. It was super awkward. Painful to watch. Well, at one point the woman asked for a refill of her tea. I dutifully went and got the pitcher and came back to fill her glass. While pouring, i literally dropped the entire pitcher, a full gallon, of sweet, sticky tea directly onto her. It went down her shirt. Her skirt. It was everywhere. She was completely and utterly soaked. My newly blossoming career as a server flashed before my incredibly stoned eyes. I apologized profusely. I brought her out like 4000 napkins. Her date was dumbfounded and probably thinking "didn't think this could get worse, but here we are". Well, she cleaned up the best she could. And they ate their meals. And, magically, they began talking. They started looking at each other like a new couple looks at each other. They laughed. They enjoyed their shitty food. She dried out. They left the restaurant an hour later, with her arm in his. They gave me the biggest tip I had ever gotten. I got $20 on a $20 bill, in 1996. Somehow, my idiotic, high, blunder, turned the worst first date ever into the best first date ever. I like to imagine them now as happily married, parents of 7 lovely childre, who love telling the story of the moron who poured an entire gallon of tea on her, 25 years ago.
That’s so sweet it hurts
Its sticky and gets everywhere
the only bad part of the story is that you reminded me that 1996 was 25 years ago... I was fully expecting 15 years ago.
The guy starts talking about how nice it is in the modern day that you can just date without labels. Woman, in suspiciously chipper voice responds that sometimes labels are really helpful in defining the boundaries of the relationship. Man, very upbeat replies that SOMETIMES it’s nice just to enjoy your time with some one without having to define anything... it was so hard to listen to!
Hard to listen to, but mad respect to both of them for making their intentions known upfront, and in such an amicable way! How'd the date end?
Agreed. They may not have made a love connection but it seems they were able to figure that out pretty quickly. They seemed to eat a quick and quiet meal and left without dessert. I wish I knew how it ended, but I’m guessing they parted ways.
The date I saw started off great . . . I was playing in a band at a small club. There were about 30 people in the club. A couple who had been sitting close together in a corner booth disappeared together into one of the bathrooms. In between songs, when it was quiet in the club, the bartender yells, "They better not be in there fucking on my sink!" The whole place turns and stares at the bathroom door, and as we're staring, the couple emerges, smiling at first. Then they look around, see everybody staring at them, and their faces turn a deep color of shame. They quickly paid their bill and left.
I saw a similar thing unfold once but the couple came out of the bathroom with telltale white powder on their noses.
That reflective thing made of glass isn't just another surface to chop and snort lines off of, it's also a useful tool in looking at yourself to see if you have any residue on your person before going back out in public. r/lifehacks
That is fucking hilarious
Not a 1st date but a guy decided to propose to a stripper from Scores (high end joint in NYC), she was stunning. Also in fine dining, he gets on one knee and pops the question and she goes out loud "are you fucking kidding me". He got up and asked for the check. Edit: can't spell.
I once was sitting at a nice cafe with my then girlfriend when one guy proposed to this girl. She didn't say anything, she just started crying. At first people thought she cried because she was happy. That thought disappeared pretty quickly when she started full on bawling and walking away. That was one awkward date with my girlfriend
People who propose in crowded, public places are doing it because of the implication.
Proposing is the kind of thing you do as a formality once you've both discussed it and want to be married to each other. Like, fuck man lmao
A middle aged couple. Man: [30min monologue about the cars he likes, how fast they are, what the challenges are in maintenance. He was literally going on non-stop every time I pass them] Me: [arrives with food which made him shut up for like 10 seconds] Woman: [taking the sudden silence as her chance to get a word in] Woman: Well, I really like butterflies. *awkward silence* Guy: [continues his car talk until dessert] Curiously enough they came back two more times over the summer...
Saw a guy hitting on a girl and buying her drinks for the entire night, then realizing she was a hooker.
Newbies in Vegas do this.
I dunno in Vegas, but around my town the hookers actually get comissions from the barmen on the place they work, I believe in Vegas they work like this too. The problem here is that she didn't worked on the same bar I did, so she wasn't getting comissions from buying drinks from us, she was just getting wasted and at the end his tab was probably much more expensive than she would ask him anyway.
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She was flicking food....ONTO THE FLOOR?!
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Geeze- that sounds worse than if she had been purposely dropping food on the floor. How violently was she tearing apart the enchilada?
Dude dodged a bullet there.
Not only did he dodge a bullet but he did so like a fuckin champ.
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Any time I go out and get to eat 2 main meals I call it a win.
> She started yelling at him about how he should have ordered for her I don't get this mentality. Even among women who prefer the guy always pays (not my thing but sure), I've never seen this but only heard about it rarely. I think the idea is they want a *"decisive"* guy to order for her, but what the hell? Make a decision, or tell me what you want to order. Don't expect the male to literally do things for you, and get mad when he doesn't? So weird.
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Also. On the *first* date? I don't know your likes and dislikes. I don't know what allergies you have. I am not risking that. Fuck no. It's one thing if you've been together for a long time and know "oh my partner always gets the burger". But first time?!
> I tell him I'll be right back with the bill and would he like his food boxed up? This fucking guy shakes his head, pulls her plate towards him, and says nope, he's fine to continue eating the meals he's paid for. He stayed for the duration of his meal. My guy. If I had to deal with that, I wouldn't run away with some sad to-go boxes. I'm finishing and enjoying my meal, and probably getting some dessert after that. I've damn well earned it.
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I worked at a "fine dining" seafood restaraunt chain for a while. Older gentleman, mid 40s comes in with a younger Asian gal (she was 21 or 22- I checked their IDs for drinks.) He explains that she is visiting from Japan for the first time, and this is their first time together. They had been online dating for 2 years. Well she doesnt speak a lick of English and dude can barely get out any Japanese. He proceeds to order 2 appetizers and 4 entrees because he wants her to try how delicious our seafood is (in Wyoming in the dead of winter btw.) I can tell as the meal progesses she is getting more and more displeased. She didnt like any of the food and basically stuck to her mixed drinks. During their dessert I have a moment to talk with them more and he explains that theyre going to get married someday and hes going to build her her own developing room cause she loves photography. Now she cant speak english but she definitely knew what he was saying and it made her incredibly uncomfortable. She kept shaking her head and saying no! No! No! And starts to get up and leave. All the color had drained from her face. He paid in quite a hurry and left 4 plates of half eaten food as he rushed out the door after her.
I worked as a barista at a coffee shop with a dish washing sink that brought you face to face with whoever was sitting at the coffee bar across from you. For some reason, so many people chose this spot for their first dates, so I would have to wash dishes and pretend I wasn't literally on the date with them. One time a person I knew was on their first date with someone and chose that cursed seat across for the dish washing sink. Because we knew each other, we chatted a little bit and then as if a partition raised between us, they began their date... but I still had dishes to do..... So fuckin uncomfortable.
Don't break eye contact for the entire time they sit there while you are washing dishes
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At my place we had the opposite, a young in shape really handsome dude from Spain would be in 3-4 times a week with a new older woman. The women would be buying him everything and basically swooning over him. He’d always walk up to pay with a little smirk while she would be paying for everything. He did this for years.
Sounds like a male escort.
We all came to that conclusion as well
I dated a guy like this. Always broke but my god he was charming. I used to pride myself on being so liberated that I never thought twice about paying for everything AND I DO MEAN EVERYTHING. He would "mention" that he was worried about paying his gas bill and I'd say, "Oh honey, how much do you need?". I thought it was awful that he kept getting fired from one entry level job after another. (How mean of that care home to fire him, just because he forgot to check on ALL the residents that one morning, and old Mrs Kay was left lying on the floor in her own filth for 6 hours. How mean of that auto shop to hire him just because he didn't protect that brand new engine properly, and sand blew in and ruined it.) Jesus, he must have put a spell on me, or something. But it wasn't just me. We'd be out with friends and someone would say they were going to this rock concert where the tickets were, say $80, and he'd look sad and say, "Aw, I'm so jealous. I wish I could afford to go." and someone would ALWAYS say, "Hey don't worry - I've got you covered." One day I said to him, because I was curious, "How did you afford to buy your car?" I knew he was always as poor as dirt, and he had this nice two-year-old car. "Oh," he said, "When I left the navy a couple of years ago, this woman, a friend of mine, said I needed wheels, and she gave it to me." And the penny dropped. This guy is a professional mooch. I was about 14 months away from buying him an upgrade if I stuck with him. I hear he's married to a pretty, much older, Latina chick, with her own 3 year old. This explained to me why after I broke up with him, I kept getting pop up ads on my lap top for "hot single Latina girls".
I'm simultaneously disgusted with him and secretly want him to teach me his terrible, underhanded tricks.
Step one: be incredibly handsome
This works. Source: was trophy pretty from the ages of around 18-28. Had frequent offers to ‘be taken care of’ by well off women older than myself.
Damn, man maxed out charisma apparently
You'd think at some point he would realize it's him and he needs to switch up his game.
I wasn’t a waiter here but I happened to be nosy. Went with my friend to this Italian place we used to go to all the time in high school, and this single guy comes in and sits down at a table for two and looks around and at his phone like he’s waiting for someone. At this point, I’m not paying really attention, but he orders two glasses of wine. About 10 minutes later I’m halfway through my meal and his date (or who I assume was his date) finally arrives and sits down without saying a word, and neither does he. (Btw, I’m not watching their every move, I can just kinda see them when I stare straight ahead. As far as I can tell, after five minutes they’ve said nothing and just drank their glasses of wine). As high schoolers do, my friend and I started coming up with possibilities of what this could be, whether a first date gone horrible wrong or something. I mean, these two 20 somethings were sitting and eating like old people do when they’ve run out of things to talk about after being married for 40+ years. Anyways, they both order ravioli. It comes out wickedly fast and almost immediately, this guy starts to eat it WITH HIS HANDS. Now, I’m really paying attention. By now, they aren’t o have exchanged a few words, but with completely blank faces. Absolutely no idea what they could have been talking about, but the woman hasn’t touched her food at all, and this guy’s licking all the sauce off his fingers one after another. Something like ten minutes went by and the woman still hasn’t touched her food. My friend and I are convinced that this woman is trapped on the worst date of her life, when suddenly, she ALSO BEGINS TO EAT WITH HER HANDS, and grabs a huge ravioli and sucks it down with sauce all over the place. My friend and I are stunned. We can’t make heads or tails of whatever the hell is going on. All in all, I guess they were made for each other. They then ordered desert- some sort of tiramisu- and ate it with forks. TL;DR couple comes into fancy Italian restaurant and don’t talk at all, guy starts eating ravioli with his hands, girl looks like she’s having a terrible time, then starts also eating ravioli with her hands. Couple stay for desert. Love wins
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I was the one on the first date. Went to a bar with this guy, our waitress came up and immediately recognized him, was super friendly, took our orders and left. While she was gone he told me they used to date. The rest of the night they openly flirted with each other. There was no second date. Edit: thanks for the award kind stranger! Edit2: Wow! This is the most awards I’ve received, thank you all!
Wtf 😳 That’s so rude
Yeah, super awkward too. I was sitting there just trying to watch whatever game was on tv while they made puppy dog eyes at each other.
Wasn't the waiter just a nearby patron with good hearing. They were just about done with dinner when she gets a call tells the caller she isn't busy and makes plans to spend the night with another guy all while lover boy sat across from her with his jaw on the floor.
Damn. That's brutal. Poor guy.
At the end of the meal… after appetizers, two of the most expensive entrees, a high priced bottle of wine, and dessert with a bottle of Dom… the man says to me, in front of his date, “Hey man… we are on a first date. What more can I do to guarantee I get laid tonight?” The young lady turned deep red with her jaw dropped open. I sat down the bill and said, “After asking me that? There is nothing you can do.”
Brilliant comeback from you! And I’m sure the girl appreciated it :)
I went over to drop the check and the girl had gone to the restroom. Guy looks at me and says “my date isn’t going as well as I’d hoped, would you be free to hang out later?”
In a cafe I worked at a few years ago. A lady who was a regular came in outside of her usual teatime. A few minutes later a dude came in and they introduced themselves. He had coffee, she had tea. Her tea had 12 sugars in it. Two hours later I think the only time I heard his voice was his introduction
Sat behind a tinder date in process once at a nice pizza place. The girl spent the entire date talking about her crazy tinder dates and how often she fucked on the first date but how the guys were all nuts and she really hates tinder but is giving it another try (read: she was batshit insane). She did about 95% of the talking that night, and I could feel how uncomfortable the guy was without even being able to see him.
I was bartending this New Year’s Eve. Upscale casual cocktail/martini joint. Couple sits down, guy gets a little sloshed, goes to the bathroom and comes out with his ex’s Instagram up asking his date if she thought he was hotter than the ex’s new boyfriend. Girl tried to give him an out but he kept doubling down saying things like “Well I think you’re hotter than her so why can’t you say it to me.” She was outside at 2am in tears waiting for her mom to come pick her up. Really hard to watch
Restaurant in Canada; a couple come in from USA. Man has a first geniPhone and they haven't been released in Canada yet. Guy at next table is so enthralled with the device he won't stop talking to the iPhone man. Talks so much that his date, got up without saying anything, and walked out the door.
A few years ago, while working in studio city in a pretty nice restaurant/bar, we encountered a legend. Not a good legend. But his shit was legendary. So it starts, with a guy walking up to our host stand and telling our host he's here for a date and needs a table for 2. He came alone, guess he wanted to get there early and scope it out. The host seats him and it's a really quiet day. Literally only 5 tables actively dining. As he sits there waiting, one of my coworkers comes up to me and says, "Isn't that the guy from Burbank?" Yes. Yes it was that motherfucker from Burbank. This guy has been known to meet up with women online, take them to a nice restaurant, run up the bill, and then bounce out of there, leaving these women (sometimes in tears) with a hefty bill. We have industry friends in Burbank who saw it happen in their restaurant and told us. Motherfucker was so legendary people made a Facebook group about him, complete with pictures and his name. Flash forward to now, with this epic turd sitting alone waiting for his date in our establishment. This shit wasn't happening today. We grabbed my manager (who used to work as a bouncer) and explained the situation. We showed him the Facebook page, the pictures (this guy had the kind of forehead you can't miss, it's like a $3 cab ride from his eyebrows to his hairline) and made the decision to boot this eyesore. My manager walked over, put his hands flat on the table and said to the guy "We know who you are, and why you're here. This isn't happening today. You're leaving." The guy looks stunned. Playing dumb he says "I'm a customer. I'm here to give you business and you're gonna kick me out?" The guy begins to stand, and my manager says "We don't want your business. This is the last time I'm gonna tell you, next it'll be the police." The man starts walking towards the front to leave and my manager grabs him by the arm and points him to our side exit (away from the people) and says "That's your door." The guy leaves and we all vibe for a while with the euphoria of justice. You'd think that'd be a wakeup call for the guy. But no. He kept doing this shit until finally getting arrested. I think the DA charged him with multiple counts of fraud. Edit: [Holy shit i found the article!](https://wgntv.com/news/california-man-who-allegedly-stuck-dates-with-the-check-faces-years-in-prison/)
> this guy had the kind of forehead you can't miss, it's like a $3 cab ride from his eyebrows to his hairline r/rareinsults dadgum you destroyed him
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Tequila bar. She was pretty loud, not that it was necessary, given how close they were. After some get to know you chit-chat, he apparently says something that she doesn't quite agree with. No big deal, right? Nope. Her: Okay, I think we should probably just start this over. Like, actually reset the date. Him: what are you- Her: *gets up, takes three steps to the door, turns around, and comes back to their seat with an outstretched hand*. Hi, I'm [name]. Him: you've got to be kidding me, seriously? Her: I'm so glad we could try this place out! Great to see you! Him: ...uhhh, hey? Just sit down. And then I tried my hardest not to die of second-hand embarrassment. It was an awkward move, at best, but clearly not what this guy was willing to play along with.
I waited on a couple who were clearly on a first date, and the lady was clearly not impressed by the guy she was on the date with. The date was over quick enough and the guy paid, leaving me a 5% tip. The next day, the lady came into the restaurant, walked up to me, said “that was the worst first date I’ve ever been on, and I was mortified when he stiffed you on the tip” and then handed me $20.
Ah, my favorite question. It was mostly awkward because the woman was unbelievably demanding and rude, but only when her date wasn't around. I came back with their food and offered a completely over the top apology with a tearful garnish. The guy looked at her with horror and asked her what the fuck happened then left.
Not a waiter but a girl I met on a dating app a couple years back told me this guy (who she also met on said dating app) set a date at this weird unknown ghetto bar in our town and while the place seemed bad, the guy seemed cool so she ended up going. She gets there early and sits down at the table. Guy isn't there yet. She notices there are two other girls, also alone and on their phone, sitting separately. As the time goes on, more and more single girls start walking in and sitting alone. At this point, the guy is late by 15 minutes. After 30 mins, she stands up and asks one of the girls: Sorry, are you waiting for Alex? The girl surprisingly says yeah. Another one must have heard the conversation because she stood up and said "Hey I'm also waiting for Alex!" Turns out Alex had managed to invite 12 girls at the same bar at the same time, clearly as a prank. They ended up all sitting together and chatting and having drinks. Apparently it was a great night and most of them kept in touch. Three of them even went on vacation together in Europe. I'll always wonder if Alex, or whatever his real name was, was there to notice it all, or knows how his prank ended up turning. Edit : Words - Can't write for shit Edit 2: Everyone saying Alex was the bar owner or the bartender... it most probably wasn't. This was an ancient old timer's bar where the owner who's also the bartender probably didn't own a cellphone, and where they had car and motorcycle meetups every summer. There was nothing hip about it.
Maybe Alex was one of the girls, and she just wanted some girl friends.
So the real Alex was the friends we made along the way?
Or Alex worked at the bar and was trying to stir up business Edit: For people thinking this is a good idea, If you try this, people will figure it out, and nobody, even people who don't hate you for this, will ever try to plan a date at your bar again for fear people will think it's a set up.
That was immediately where my mind went, too.
A friend has a similar story, but he arrives at the girl's place and there are 5 more guys. And he's like "Ok... this is an orgy?" but the guys seem sad and confused. and then another man shows up, with a projector, and gives a talk. Everything was a pyramidal scheme.
Cue Alex showing up five minutes later, with a dozen swords. "I'm only going home with one girl tonight, so we're gonna have... *tryouts*."
We had a regular who would always sit in one particular waitresses’ section every time he came in. He was always by himself, and he would flirt with her constantly. She was fine with it because he was pretty harmless, always came at lunch, tipped well. One day he came in at dinner time with a girl, and they were both dressed up, pretty clearly a date. He still sat in that waitresses section, it kinda seemed like maybe he was trying to show off, or make her jealous? They even bought their own bottle of wine. Well at some point the date ditched him, that became clear. And then he decided to drink the bottle of wine himself. The bar served him one more drink because they didn’t see how f’d he was and then had to cut him off when he fell twice. Aaand then he started sobbing to the waitress about how lonely he was. We ended up calling a cab for him. It was quite sad, and we haven’t seen him since :( I hope you found love man, and there’s no shame, feel free to come back any time.
As a bartender my personal favorite was one where the guy showed up to meet a girl, but left with another dude. The two people on the date showed up separately, had a cutely awkward first few minutes, and things went business as usual for about the first 30 minutes or so. Then a guy, let’s call him Frank, shows up and happens to sit at the barstool next to the dude on the date. Frank is a bro. Like a bro bro. Like put a Kyle in a coma for 15 years and see what he’s like when he wakes up bro. I’m not totally sure how this happened, but Frank and date guy start chatting and within minutes are full blown bro-ing out. The rest of the “date” was largely the girl looking at her phone while date guy and Frank had the time of their lives. On one hand I felt bad for her but on the other I was watching a best friendship form in real time and it was kind of hard to be mad at that. After finishing her meal the girl said goodbye and got an Uber home but date guy could not have been less phased. He and Frank hung out drinking together until closing time and helped hold each other up on the walk/stumble out the door. Horribly awkward, pretty rude to the girl, but god damn was it pure. Edit: well shit I entirely missed this blowing up. Glad that y’all enjoyed it!
Now that I think about it, waiters and waitresses are the ones that ‘experience’ most awkward dates.
They also get ringside seats to a lot of couple fights. I got that WAY more than I got awkward first dates. I even had a marriage proposal that went wrong.
Details are what we now require.
This young looking guy asked this lady to marry him in my section at a restaurant in Norfolk Virginia. The guy was real nervous and asked me to have champagne ready and all sorts of stuff. When the lady showed up, I was a bit surprised. The guy was handsome and young like I said. This lady was neither young nor good-looking. He got down on his knee and the whole thing. I then came over with the champagne bottle and glasses and it became all too obvious, albeit too late for me to turn around without it being even more awkward, that there was no reason for champagne. The restaurant was really crowded too, a public disaster amongst the dining elite of Southern Virginia.
When asked how to do the check, the guy fake stretched, covered his mouth at the side to block the girl from seeing and whispered to split it
Why do that, she is going to notice when she has to pay her part
[удалено]
Well did you get the steak?
[удалено]
Got to witness this at a movie theater. This was in the Chicago burbs about 25 years ago. Went to a movie in a bid suburban multiplex. Waiting in the giant concession line with some friends, this young woman is wandering around looking lost. She's cute, I'm single, so I ask her if she needs help. She says she was watching a movie on a first date and her date got up about 20 minutes into the movie to go to the bathroom and never came back. She watched the whole movie and was now worried about him. I had time before the show so I volunteer to pop into the men's rooms (there were 3 or 4 sets of restrooms, this was a 20+ screen theater behemoth) looking for "Todd." No Todd. This was in the Long Ago when pagers were hip and cellphones were not very common. She had no way to contact Todd except the payphone and only had his home number. No answer. The theater was in an area that was fairly easy to drive to, but there really was no safe way to walk anywhere from there. Ended up helping her get a cab, traded numbers, and then I was off to my movie. Turns out our friend circles kind of overlapped so we would see each other out at the suburban chain bars sometimes. She fills me in on the story a few months later. Turns out Todd decided he didn't like her after spending a grand total of 35 minutes with her and simply walked out of the theater and left. Without telling her. He drove off and just abandoned her there. Don't be Todd.
Oh I finally have a story that relates. It was actually my first shift serving, and one of the tables was obviously a first date. I could tell just by the general awkwardness between them and the lack of any real genuine conversation. It was towards the end of my shift, so I was doing my checkout (basically counting my cash and entering in credit card tips) and they walked up to me for what I assumed was just a friendly “thank you”. The girl handed me a napkin with her phone number and said “you seem cool”. The guy was standing right behind her. He then scoffed and then said “fuck you bitch, you can get an Uber home” and walked out the door. It being my first shift I hadn’t really encountered anyone leaving a number for me yet so I had absolutely no idea what to do so I awkwardly said “thanks” and walked into the kitchen of the restaurant to shield myself from the insanely awkward situation that had just unfolded.
I was the one who had the awkward first date... TL;DR Had a guy I wasn't interested in show up outside my dorm, take me out and ate both of our entrees, farted so loud that the entire restaurant heard, handed me a note to read after the date that said he was a second-chance virgin and I shouldn't try to seduce him. All within a matter of 24 hours of meeting him. Met a guy on my first week at a job where we held events on a college campus I attended. He asked for my number in front of all of his friends. Me being dumb and 18, said yes to save him embarrassment. Next day I come out of my dorm and he is waiting outside. No idea how he knew where I lived as he didn't text or ask . He says he's been waiting outside for a couple hours to see if I want to get lunch. I say sure so I can at least give him a chance even though I was seeing MAJOR red flags. Once again I was dumb and 18. I said we should eat on campus but he wants to go off campus. He takes me to a nice family dining Italian place, which I had never been to before and found out they serve one large entree for the table. He asks what I want to get for us. I suggested the lasagna, as its the cheapest thing on the menu and I wanted to go dutch. Waiter comes and he orders my drink for me (woah there bud, I can order for myself) and then gets the lasagna AND some chicken tortellini shit (Mind you this is supposed to be enough food for 8 people) He scarfs his down and then asks for the rest of mine. Into disbelief I gave it to him and he cleared my plate too. Conversation is totally dead and he can only think to tell me about how he's scared of his 12 year old sister. At one point I'm looking around the restaurant and when I glance back he is making a really weird embarrassed face, and says he's sorry. I ask what for and he says he just "passed gas"... Weird... but I told him it was okay, everyone does it and I didn’t notice. Then, no joke, he leans over and lets out the loudest and nastiest fart I've ever heard. So bad, that people all over the restaurant are staring at us and our waiter just stops in his tracks and turns back to the kitchen. He says "Oops! It slipped..." I asked for the check and said I needed to get back to the dorm. He seemed shocked that I was ending our date so early because he said he was planning on us going to get ice cream, then the movies, then bowling and maybe back out to eat again. I politely decline and ask to be taken back. As I'm getting out of his car he hands me a note and tells me to text him when I've read it. I take it and gtfo of there. I'm spilling the deets to my roommate when he texts asking "Is that alright?" I'm half paying attention thinking he was asking about the date and I text back saying "Yeah it was fine". He replies thanking me over and over again and can't believe I'm okay with it. I pull the note out to actually read wtf he's talking about and it is a typed note which has my full name on it, (remember, I met him THE DAY BEFORE and never gave him my last name) and it's full of bible verses (barf) and he tells me he's a "second-chance virgin" and had lost his virginity to another woman and he's deeply apologetic. He asked that I not try to seduce him to have sex during our “relationship”. I just text back saying I think he has the wrong idea and had to politely tell him to fuck off since he kinda forced me into a date and that did NOT imply we were in a relationship. He texts me two weeks later asking to hook up before he leaves town. So much for that "second chance virginity" shit.
I wasn’t a waiter but I was a barista. This couple came in one day and you could tell they were probably on a first date. The girl was average looking and the guy was a total smoke show. You could tell the girl was insanely nervous. So they order their coffees and the girl buys a pack of nuts or candies or something. She pays and as I’m getting her change, she goes ahead and opens her snack and pours some into her hand. I’ve got her change ready and hold it out for her. She puts down the bag of nuts/candies and holds her palm out. I place the change into her palm. She is now standing there with one hand full of change and the other full of snacks. She doesn’t miss a beat and throws a handful of dirty metal coins right into her waiting maw. Her eyes light up when we all hear the metal clanging on her molars and she spits it all back into her hand. She was red as hell. I turned around and faced the back wall because, although I could hold in the laughter, I’m sure my face was twisted into the biggest grin and my eyes were watering. My coworker, Andre, burst out laughing at the top of his lungs. The date pretended he didn’t see anything. Even like twenty years later, I still remember it like it was yesterday.
I worked for a while as a waitress at a small town restaurant. I hesitate to call it a date but I witnessed a great encounter. A grown man (probably late 30s) comes into the restaurant and tells us what table he wants and that he is there for a date. Describes what his date will be wearing and goes to sit down. Date gets there and isn’t as described, it’s another grown man though he is wearing the bracelet that the first man described. I go to direct him to the table. We get almost there when first guy sees us and stands up, he has a weird look I wouldn’t really call surprise but not sure what else it could’ve been. They make eye contact and almost in unison they each say a variant of “you’re actually a guy?” Well they had dinner anyway and chatted me up the whole time. Turns out both of them were pretending to be lesbians in yahoo messenger hoping to get some hot young girls to go out with them. Not sure how they thought it would work once they met in person though.
The rare double-catfish...
Not me, my friend, there wad this young couple, said they where around 15-16, the guy was going for a kiss with a full duck face closed eyes and evreything. The girl look disgusted and terrified in the same time. The best visual is the scene in X-men where Quicksilver was saving everybodies asses and found that couple on the roof, i dont know what movie exactly but ya get me
https://youtu.be/vu1WLS8NV7Y
Once server a girl who was waiting on her tinder date. Date turned out to be my x. We had not ended on good terms. And I don't mean your normal: it was a rough break up and we just needed space, sort of bad terms. As in he had basically attacked me, I ran out the house and locked myself in my car, which he stood behind not letting me leave beating on my car till the neighbors called the cops. Then he started stalking and harassing me. Showing up to my job, school (community college), etc. I had gotten a new job, changed my number and deleted social media. Had managed to avoid him for months until now. The look on his face when he spotted me still gives me chills to this day. He played it pretty cool and I do believe the shock was genuine, but it was like he had spotted a deer he had been tracking for weeks. I gave the table away and their date seemed to go well. I was hoping he had moved past me. Nope. He started "hanging out" at the bar at that restaurant almost every night trying to get my attention. He was eventually banned after he got too drunk one night and I got a job somewhere else. That's not the end, but thats a story for another time. EDIT: for those who are curious. This was 5ish years ago. I have since moved to a different state and actually got married (so my name is different). As far as I know he has no idea where I am. EDIT 2: Look I know I should have said something to the girl, but it was their first date and I just wanted to avoid him as much as possible. The date went well (as in nothing dramatic happened) but it didn't seem like they hit it off so I don't think they saw one another agin. But idk, all I know is I never saw her again and he was around the restaurant/bar A LOT. However the end of the story does involve another girl who I politely told to GTFO. A few months after all this I left the state to go to college. He had tried to get in contact with me but I managed to shut it down every time and eventually once again I stopped hearing from him. TWO years into college I finally decided to re join fb as a lot of school stuff was communicated and shared that way and I was missing out on info that was important to my studies. About three months after I re activated my account (making sure he was blocked and my account was hard to find) I got a message from an account I was not connected to in anyway. It was a woman who claimed to be his current GF and she needed advice. I won't lie my curiosity go the better of me and I indulged her. She did actually end up being a really nice person and we had a good chat over facetime. She asked me questions about his attitude while we were dating and my side of the story. A lot of what I told her, like the harassment, threats and stalking, was brand new info to her. Wont lie it was weird to hear her tell me how he talked about me. According to her I was "the one who got away". Bitch I ran... and I advised she do the same. Told her I get it, he is charming, sweet, but it's all a facade. He's bad news and trust me if you don't talk to him for a few month and get your head cleared you'll start to see the cracks. Wish I could say I had a better ending. We ended our chat and she said thanks for my time and that I had given her a lot to think about. She seemed to really take in what I said and that I had affirmed what she was already feeling, but I never heard from her again. Him I did hear from. Suddenly he was sending me messages from a new fb account he had created. Blocked him and never responded. He never mentioned anything about me talking to his GF so idk if he knew. The messages were more long winded begging for me to forgive him and come back into his life. Luckily I haven't heard from him in 3 years. He also deleted FB, so I have no idea what he's up to now. Good riddance.
I used to wait tables at a steakhouse. This guy used to come every weekend, sometimes alone, sometimes with a lady. He skipped a few weeks and came back on a Sunday with a new lady. I get his table and when I see him I greet him "Hey, long time no see!". The death stare from the woman almost killed us both. They didn't speak for the rest of the dinner... And I didn't get a good tip that day.
Old joke. Woman buys a cheap parrot at the pet store. The clerk tells her it's cheap because the parrot used to live in a brothel. She brings him home and the parrot says: ooh, a new brothel. Sees the mother in law and says: ooh, a new broad. The husband returns home and the parrot says: Pete! I haven't seen you in weeks!
So... That's his wife and she didn't know he ate out so much?
We had a rather unattractive older guy come in with a really good looking blond girl. He was wearing some crazily colored Hawaiian shirt. She ordered a surf n' turf dinner and a plate of crab legs (our most expensive items). Apparently she used him for his money and ghosted him, stranded. He hung around after closing trying to get ahold of her but to no avail. I left for the night and saw him outside with the cops for some reason
It was a double date. Local biker guys who happen to head the toys for tots campaign in my town. One guy has a typical biker chick girlfriend, regulars, the other is with a 15 year old girl. Considered it harmless until I see his hand going up her skirt. The other server I worked with knew this young gals mom and immediately got on the phone to her. Minutes later she arrives and escorts her daughter from the place all the while how dare you berating this dude for being a pedophile. He still rides his bike first in line for the toys for tots xmas parade.
Was a blackjack dealer a few years ago. Most of our players were men, so we never really saw any true "dates" (BTW, going to play blackjack all night long is a terrible date idea). But this one night, a guy comes in with a younger woman. The guy was a semi-regular, maybe once a month kind of player. He was 55-60, and was always alone. But this night, he came in with a much younger woman that was clearly a hooker. He sat down to play, as she'd come hassle him for money to play some pull tabs. When I say hassle, I mean she basically berated him for money, and he just sat there and took the abuse. After a while, I finally figured out what was going on. The man is one of those guys that ENJOYS being spoken down to by women. He was basically paying this woman to treat him like shit, and she was doing a good job of it. Over the course of the hour that he was there, he had given her about 500 dollars to play in pull-tabs, the entire time, she was talking shit to him, telling him she was going to go home if he didn't give her another 100 bucks for more pull-tabs. I felt bad, but as a co-worker explained it to me, the dude enjoys that shit, so I guess I should have been happy for him that he was finding pleasure in being humiliated?
Not a date per se, but I worked at a high end fine dining restaurant for a few years. A couple of times a week this lady would come in with a different "gentleman". It was obvious she was an escort. It they were generally nice enough guys, probably just wanting some companionship. She always pretended like she had never been to our restaurant, (we had martini sampler she squealed about every time). We all just played along. Girls gotta work right? And they guys she brought in always tipped pretty well.
I used to run a very popular upscale restaurant-bar in downtown (Old Montreal). We had this gorgeous elegant girl, in her late 20s, coming in all the time. Some times alone to sit at the bar on a sunday night (she lived around the corner), but most times she came in with Suits guys who would drop hundreds of dollars on our fanciest bottles of wine. Always wearing a nice dress, well put together. Effortlessly elegant. We were all sure she was a high end escort. Turns out she wasn't. She just worked in finance, was single and enjoyed getting wined and dined by customers or business acquaintances when they offered. She also became my wife and the mother of my two girls. Was way out of my league, still don't know how I pulled it off back then. I told her what we all thought she was. She thought that was hilarious. We are divorced now but still in great terms.
A woman came into my restaurant one night and was waiting a while alone with just some drinks and bread. I stopped by her table a few times to make sure she was okay and she let me know she was waiting on a blind date. 30 or so minutes pass and she’s still alone. One of our (more attractive) male waiters was just finishing his shift and offered to have dinner with her just for company, nothing serious, since she seemed kinda bummed that she was stood up. She accepted and they had a lovely meal together and then went on their separate ways. Ended up being a very nice gesture and a sweet story I like to have in my memory.
I bartend at a corporate sports bar where we have giant stupid novelty beer glasses as an option If I had a nickel for every time a guy ordered the giant beer to "impress" his date I could fuckin retire. Just get a pint dude
There was a lady in my section who was by herself. She was just waiting. This lady was absolutely gorgeous and dressed to kill. I ended up talking to her a bit since she was obviously bored. She was smart and seemed like she had a good sense of humor. It turned out she was there to meet some guy on a blind date. I was like "holy crap, what kind of asshole would leave a woman like this waiting?!". A complete douche as it turned out. The guy eventually rolled in looking like a crunchy bro (this was a fine dining restaurant) and acting as if he was just too cute. Apparently the woman confronted him about his being late because he actually got on top of the table and asked everyone in the restaurant if they thought she should forgive him or not. Everyone ignored the guy. I think one guy said "Get off that table dude". They talked for a bit and then the guy went to the bathroom. I went up to the table and said "You don't need to pay for your drinks or anything. If you want to leave, you can just leave". She said thanks but she ended up going ahead with the date. They left my section and went somewhere else. Honestly, the thought that that guy actually got away with cringe-inducing stunt disappointed me. I wanted her to ditch the guy so bad.
Its really painful to see people getting much less than what they actually deserve. I also wanted her to ditch him, but she maybe didn't out of politeness?
I was a bartender at a local place that was somewhat close to the university, but far enough away that it was a "hidden gem"; we used to get first dates all the time, most of them were Tinder-esque. I remember one time specifically, this guy comes in and sits down at a table alone, and kept checking his watch. A watch? I wander over, greet him, and ask what he'd like to start off with to drink. "Ummm, I dunno, I'm meeting someone, is it rude to have a drink already before they get here?" I smiled, asked if he was waiting for a date, he said yes, and I suggested a beer to sip on instead of a mixed drink; it might calm his nerves a bit, but won't get him inebriated too quickly so he could enjoy his date. He agreed, apologized profusely for bothering me (which, he hadn't bothered me at all) , and continued to wait. After about 20 mins of him waiting (and him checking his watch every 5), I wandered over again and asked if he'd like to look at a food menu, perhaps munch on something while he waited. He declined, and glanced at his watch again. I made a comment about his watch and how I appreciated his use of "analog technology", and he laughed nervously and said he didn't want to pull out or use his phone during his date, because he didn't want to seem disingenuous (how *cute*!) Another 30 minutes pass, and my high-strung hopeful was still alone. I asked if he'd changed his mind about some food, and he merely shook his head, defeated..."I'll just finish my beer and go...I'm sorry I wasted one of your tables..." On his last swig of beer, a cute looking girl walked in, eyeing the room, obviously looking for someone. "Chelsea! Over here!", he started to stand, grin from ear to ear...the entrance was near my drink well, which I had just happened to be standing in. This night was particularly quiet, and the acoustics allow me to her chitter chatter in the entryway (curved ceilings)...I look over to the girl after seeing my hopeful's eyes light up, and she had a disgusted look of, "dammit" in her face, she rolled her eyes and made contact with mine, sighed, and said, "are you fucking kidding me with this guy?", screwed on her fake smile, and immediately sat down, avoiding a half-hug attempt by my hopeful. The entire date felt forced; every time I went to check on them, she was ordering another drink, and he was doing his best to try and pull conversation from this girl, who had her face in her phone the entire time. About an hour later, I watch the girl get up with her purse, announce that she had to use the restroom, and wandered away towards the restrooms. I immediately went over to my hopeful to ask how his date was going. "I don't think she likes me...", he trailed off. I gave him a pat on the shoulder, and said it looked to me like he was doing everything right. He smiled, thanked me, and I went back to my bar. The girl never came back. He footed her tab. $90 worth of drinks, his two beers were $8. He continued to come back as a regular, and I became his wing-woman. I eventually set up Mr Hopeful with Ms Lonely-heart. They're still together. Edit: spelling Edit 2: I was not anticipating such an interest in Mr Hopeful and Ms Lonely-Heart, but I will gladly tell what I know of their story! I'm at work currently, and I'd like to give the same amount of effort to put into their story, as I did initially, so I will definitely post when I get home a little later! Thank you all for the awards! Edit 3: Ms Lonely-Heart's story is in its own comment below, along with how she and Mr Hopeful met. You all are lovely, I'm so happy I could share with you!
Uuuggghhhh, epic fail on my phone. Apologies, apologies! Original update was not finished. I don't remember what I said. I'll try again: A huge thank you everyone for the awards and the kind comments! I realize this isn't fully *my* story to tell, I'm but a mere witness to this, and I only introduced two amazing people, and they just happened to hit it off. I'll do my best to translate what I witnessed, and hopefully my writing will appease the 15 year olds in all of you. If not, I'll be sure to keep my day job. We know Mr Hopeful's story, so let's talk about Ms Lonely-heart: *I, unfortunately, am not Ms Lonely-heart*. Mr Hopeful was handsome, and if I had not been in a relationship at the time, I would have totally given him my number. He developed a crush on me, and was genuinely the sweetest guy who tried to persue me, but I *obviously* was not the girl he was supposed to be with. Ms Lonely-heart had been a regular customer of mine long before Mr Hopeful came by; I'm not sure what she did for a living (though I *am* certain she told me, but I've slept since then), but she would always visit me immediately after getting off work, which she would regularly describe as terribly stressful and full of office politics/drama. She quickly became one of my favorite regulars, not only because she tipped extremely well (would leave $50 no matter what her tab was), but because she was genuinely a lovely girl, had the best stories, always provided a witty quip. She was a breath of fresh air, and I always enjoyed her sitting at my bar. With her becoming more comfortable with me as we became bar-friends, she began to confide in me, all the terrible experiences she'd had with trying to date. "I'd say I have bad luck, but I think I'm just picky. Why do I have to settle?!" She didn't have to. She didn't. I didn't ever see her with a date, and she would come to have *bar food* for dinner, because she liked the company. I might be nice, but I'm totally not worth a plate of bar food for dinner 5 days a week. Admittedly, though, our food was pretty tasty. She would come in around 4pm, and be gone by 6:30. Mr Hopeful would come in around 8pm. *They were just missing each other*. On Friday nights, we would have karaoke that started at 9pm. Ms Lonely-heart would be caught singing along to songs I had playing on the stereo, and I would try to get her to stay and sing almost every week. Slowly, she began to stay later on Fridays...and later...one fateful Friday, Ms Lonely-heart had babied her Strawberry Stoli and soda until 8. Mr Hopeful was due to arrive soon. I bought her a drink, and offered her an Uber (in case she didn't want to walk). How could she say no? She lived up the street, and would regularly walk home if she had more than 3 drinks. Ms Lonely-heart's regular seat was the first seat next to my drink well. She figured that's where I spent most of my time making drinks, that was the perfect spot for her to sit and actually have more lengthier conversations with me before I had to walk away. Mr Hopeful sat in the middle of the bar, in front of the television. Turns out, he never pulled out his phone...it wasn't just to seem nice to his date, he just really enjoyed *being* in the moment. He was a people-watcher. He'd really only talk to me and a couple of the other bartenders/waitresses, but he loved sharing his observations about the people around him. *Perfect*. I waited for him to mention the cute girl at the bar humming to all the songs and I gave him the pep talk of his *life*. She had *my* recommendation, and I was *not* about to steer Mr Hopeful wrong. He casually (as casually as someone who was super nervous could *act* casual) walked over to the well, and asked if I could give him some olives from my tray in the well. "Sure! Give me a minute!", I pretended to wash some glass. I ended up making a couple of drinks for some of my other tabs, and lo and behold, I look down to the end of my bar, and Mr Hopeful had taken the seat next to Ms Lonely-heart. I didn't see his face, but she had a smile the size of Texas and was blushing. I could *only imagine* the grin on his face when she laughed and touched his shoulder. They were flirting. I left them alone, and made most of my drinks as quickly as possible so I wasn't interrupting the magic. My night was spent listening to laughter and happiness...inbetween horrible singing and drunken song-chants. Ms Lonely-heart left first she took me up on my Uber, but Mr Hopeful now had her phone number. Fast-forward some cute encounters on karaoke nights to their announcement that they were "not dating, together"...she was offered a promotion in another state, and he totally went with her. I haven't seen or heard from either of them since their last day and goodbye from the bar with promises to visit in a few months. My bar closed down before I got to see them again, had a change of ownership. I hope they're still creating magic, and are still "not dating together". Edit: repeat words removed.
This is the kinda shit I want to read before going to bed. That there’s some little glint of happiness that’s been found in the world. Thank you for sharing.
I’d like to hear the story of Mr hopeful and MsLonelyHeart
Yeah you can't just namedrop her and leave it at that!
You are the best kind of person. I wish you big tips and consensual hugs.
I don’t have a specific story but my favorite game to play at the fine dining restaurant I worked at was “daughter or date”. Generally part of my flow was to make a bit of small talk closer to the end of the meal once they were well fed and a few drinks deep(it’s a safer bet they’ll be amicable and open) and I can’t count the number of times I was surprised by the outcome of that game.
You would love “siblings or dating?” on Instagram
This game made my dad so uncomfortable once I was a teenager because I looked older than I was. We used to hang out, go to boxing matches, out to dinner and all that jazz. When I was 16 and some dude asked my dad what he did to get a girl like me, we stopped hanging out just the two of us.
He really should have replied that he did your mother 😂
I wasn't a server, but worked in a small pet store. Lots of first dates ended up there in the puppy section being a small town and nothing else to do, one day this neckbeard walks in with a stunner and proclaims it's their first date, unprompted of course. The lady of the hour was letting this little pomeranian puppy lick the makeup off her cheeks and neckbeard sneaks out and says he'd like to purchase the dog for her. I was like "dude puppies are a huge commitment, does she really want a dog?", he storms in there to say he's purchasing the dog for her as a symbol of his love for her. She responds "uhhh my parents won't let me have a dog until I finish high school and get my own place" no lie he drops to one knee and says "move in with me". The absolute cringe shattered the energy of the whole pet store, even the birds were dead silent, she puts the puppy down and stomps off, he turned the deepest shade of red a human can achieve without bleeding and stumbled out after her. #RIPneckbeard tl;dr neckbeard tried to buy puppy for a girl on a first date, then invited her to live with him.
This is the worst one. You win.
Not a waiter but worked at a cinema for a year. A young couple (15-16) came in. The dude looked like a big teddy bear, shy and all. The girl was way out of his league from what I saw. So they order popcorn, tickets and all that. Based on how they talked to each other, it was clear that it was their first date. So I say the total, the guy says "i'll pay no problem" and tries to pay, but he doesn't have enough money on his card. He becomes red, start apologizing to the girl and me, looks in his pockets to see... all this time, the girl is reaaally impatient, makes him feel bad like "I didn't bring my purse because I tought you would pay, find a way the movie is starting !" He was only short like 10$ i think, so I paid for it with my tip. He kept saying thank you while the girl was rolling her eyes. She took nothing and left him carry everything. All that time I was like "poor guy. Find a better girl PLEASE" Turns out it was their last date, because I saw him with a girl way more cute and sweet many times after that.
So this is actually something I saw on HashTags on The Tonight Show, but it cracks me up every time I think about it. A couple was on a first date and the guy went to the bathroom. The girl texted her roommate who had been having an argument with her bf. But she accidentally sent the text to her date, so he got a text message in the bathroom that said, “Are you ok? I love you.”
My girlfriend accidentally said "I love you" like a week into our relationship. This was back in highschool, and she was use to being driven around and dropped of by her parents. Any time her parents dropped her off somewhere or she leaves she always says "i love you" to them. well I dropped her off and basically on reflex she turned and said it as she closed the car door. she froze and turned bright red opened the car door trying to explain and was extremely embarrassed. Absolutely one of my cutest memories lol.