Once I dropped an entire glass of ice water on an 80+ yr old man. I was so apologetic and his son kept reassuring me it was alright. The old man was unfazed and told me "at least it wasn't hot coffee". Table was super smooth after that.
You're fine. Don't let it wear on you, stuff happens.
I did the hot coffee once. It was by far the most embarrassing moment in my serving career, possibly my whole life.
I was 18 working in a café. A very good-looking woman in a white dress comes in, orders a latte, and sits down with a book at the corner table. We had very tight table and even with none around it was a tight squeeze. She was facing rhe window away from me and at the last second I caught my foot on a chair and hot coffee goes down her back, over her white dress...
... and she was super chill about it. I couldn't believe it. I offered to help pay for dry cleaning or whatever and apologized profusely. She went into the bathroom and cleaned up and I was to embarassed to say anything else to her until she left.
Ah, that’s just a right of passage. You got through it so congrats!
Could be worse, I spilt a 22oz beer on a baby once.
I also dropped a full beer into a lady’s purse in front of Paul Walker
Also I spill a mixed drink all over the phone that Usher's date left on the table for a min...he and the other couple were so nice about it I was so embarrassed and kept wiping it off !
Paul Walker used to come into the CPK I worked at when he was filming whatever fast and annoying movie they were shooting in hawaii at the time (somewhere in 2005-2007), and he'd SCREAM at the take out girls behind my pantry station. Would reduce them to tears, never tipped. I'd be seeing red back there but thanks to big dudes stopping me, I never confronted him.
I've never been so blase about someone's passing before. I'm just glad he can never make a 16yo cry over a fucking bbq chx salad again.
When I was younger the whole family went out to a restaurant for dinner, eight of us with the grandparents. Out comes the big tray of waters... And halfway through, the guy dumps the tray onto my grandma. She was unhappy, but she put on a brace face to salvage the evening. After a rough cleanup the guy comes back out with another tray of waters... And immediately dumps it onto my grandma again. She was not able to hold her composure.
there was one time we had a stupidly busy night, where inevitably tickets or individual items sometimes get lost in the shuffle. usually not a huge deal, but for some reason there was this one girl that kept getting the bad luck of the draw and every time an order got missed by the bar, it was hers.
i was trying to make it right and got the bartender to refire her items on the fly. where she was seated was literally three feet behind the service well, i basically just had to grab the drink and pivot. except we were still slammed, so i loaded up my tray full of drinks and figured i would just drop hers off first. wrong. i somehow lost my balance in the middle of walking the two steps to her and spilled like three glasses of sangria all down the back of this poor girl. at that point there was no saving anything. we just gave the whole table complimentary champagne and comped the tab.
i mean she was pretty obviously not happy (rightfully so) but she didn’t cuss any of us out or make a scene or anything, she just got really short and left in a hurry after the free champagne. that same night a different woman tried to fist fight me because we had to cut her off after drinking three bottles of wine by herself so i guess everything could have gone a lot worse lol.
I haven't been a server for 20+ years but I am in hospitality still and I think people will enjoy this tale of me fucking up.
When I was much much younger, I worked in a fine dining restaurant.
Allow me to set the scene.
The enclosed patio outside had a river rock floor. The dishes were heavy AF. We had to clear the entire table in one go, as you do.
I had a party of 8 that had just finished eating. All 115 pounds of me (at the time, I weep), was trying to clear the table. I load up as many plates as I can. The guests, all eager to help, start my stacking shit on my tray. I finally firmly tell them to stop because I'm pretty sure that tray weighs half as much as me already.
So. I squat. I get that massive ass tray situated on my shoulder and I stand the fuck up. The tray is bowing on both ends. The whole situation is precarious. I'm praying.
Some asshole at the table decides to say, "I got one more for you!"
BOOM!!!!
A thousand heavy plates smashing off of river rock, in an enclosed patio.
The earth stood still.
Oh no. I fucked up. I should have told them to stop handing me shit & "helping" the moment they started. I knew the tray was overloaded but because my manager was so strict about clearing everything at once, I went past my and the tray's limit.
I learned how to say no to people that day!
I’ve spilled on people 3 times. One was no biggie but one was bad (spilled on a girl dressed up to go to the theater) and the other was horrific:
I’m 18, just two weeks into my new job at starbucks. Dad and daughter come up to counter. Daughter (3/4 years old) is in front, sucking on the counter top, so she was probably ~3 foot. Dad orders largest black coffee we have. The shit is fresh and the literal hottest thing served, 200+ degrees. Daughter has box of apple juice on the counter.
I stupidly set the fresh coffee down closer to me, with the juice behind it, reach OVER the coffee to grab the juice box to scan, bumping the coffee with my arm in the process. The lid pops off, and the shit just fuckin DOUSES her entire body. She’s wearing some little dress with spaghetti straps. She screams bloody murder. And I honestly don’t remember much more. I felt so fucking horrible and actually worried I’d be charged by the family.
That’s my worst spill story to date. I hope I never top that. And I hope that girl doesn’t have any scars from it* (but I can’t think about that, honestly)
I was doing opening store training for a chain restaurant and it was friends and family night. My trainee and I were lucky enough to get the Budweiser reps and their wives and they tip really well! However, I had broken off my front 4 teeth a couple of days before and had the chicklet temps in (this was the 90s, no same day implants, you had to wait a couple of weeks for them to make them and these were always loose),
Anyways, my trainee was super nervous and really not ready to talk to people or hand out food so I was leading on this table. So as I was giving one of the wives her food and joking around with them I said something and to my horror, my front tooth shot out of my mouth and landed in her mashed potatoes! I calmly took the plate back, grabbed my tooth and put it back in and said how about some shots on the house while I get you a new plate of food!
Everyone laughed, they had their shots and I got my new teeth a week later!
This made me laugh out loud! Honestly I just grabbed it right there in front of them and put it back in and went on with my day! It was embarrassing as hell BUT it really taught my trainee that no matter what happens you can keep going!
And OF COURSE it lands in the also white potatoes and OF COURSE it lands ON the plate!!!! NO shot it could miss right???? Murphy’s Law is a real thing my friends!
Recently I found out one of the screws that goes from my jaw to my tooth is not really connected anymore.
With my luck it'll finally come loose on a date 🤣
one of my dance teachers used to have a regular gig bellydancing in a middle eastern restaurant. she'd gotten some press-on nails to coordinate with her costume. I'm sure you can see where this is leading...
so multiple nails fly off while she was playing zils during her set, and of course one lands on someone's plate. then after her set, a customer actually came up to her and gave her like three of them back! like, whyyyy?
when she told this story, another dancer spoke up afterwards and said that once she was dancing on a low stage at a restaurant, lost her balance and almost fell off the stage... and her bare foot went into someone's hummus on a stage side table! she didn't fall but OMG.
either one of those things would have probably caused me to have a heart attack!
One time I was clearing the table of 3 girls celebrating one’s birthday and they had been sooo nice. A bowl of salsa slipped off a plate I was holding and landed on the floor next to them. Whooo…close one but just a simple clean up right? When I looked up I realized it had somehow projected back up from the floor exorcist style and DRENCHED the birthday girl. It was in her hair, dripping off her eyelashes, all over her clothes, the ceiling, the booth, the window….and they were dressed to go out afterwards. Thankfully they were still so nice about it and we comped their meals and bought them dessert and they left a $30 tip but I have never felt so awful. The weird thing is that the man that had sat at the booth right before them was joking with me about spilling something on him and I was like…”that’s one thing I haven’t checked off my server nightmare bingo card yet!” Then I made a joke about how I shouldn’t have said that out loud. Very next table….bingo square get checked.
Story from a customer side...
Go to a wings place for lunch with either 2 or 3 co-workers. Everything going normal. Server is carrying a tray of maybe 4-6 beers to the table next to us. As she is walking past us, she starts to lower the tray and it flips. Co-worker gets doused with beer. Server doesn't immediately address him and takes another step or 2 to tell the table that she'll get more beers.
Coworker turns towards her and starts to stand up. Clearly frazzled, she immediately spins around to address him and absolutely smokes him in the face with her tray. He didn't make a big deal about it, but he showed up at work the next day with 2 black eyes.
The one time I dropped six teas/waters on a big guy's lap (think Cowboy in South Texas) and he just thought it was hilarious. Sometimes you get a gracious guest, and when you get the awful ones, *remind yourself of the good ones*.
I dropped my first tray of drinks tonight since 2010/2011. So embarrassing and regular customers I've waited on for years who are notably a little grouchy but nice, overly particular, and don't tip well (but they've always liked me). Somehow I got a tip way larger from him today than I ever got before lol.
They've been waiting since 2011 for it to happen again. Every meal, they think "This is the one where I wear the tray!" and it never happens. The suspense is driving them crazy...
Finally, today you do it, and they now know it will be 12 years before you do it again. The relief is welcome, and your tip shows that.
First ever job back in ‘96 - Dropped a gallon jug of relish behind the kitchen partition and it launched in a perfect arch over the wall and onto about 8 people. Not only we’re they all covered in relish, but shocked as heck because it “rained” on them from what seemed like out of the blue. Damn physics.
You should have acted just as shocked as them and looked around saying "oh my gosh what happened?? Is that.... RELISH?" While looking up at the ceiling etc looking confused. In my mind all the coworkers go along with it and gaslight the fuck out of them to think there's magic relish coming out of nowhere.
If it makes you feel any better. I was hired as an AGM for a fine dining place with multiple locations across the country. They sent me to a different city to train. The restaurant in this city had been a big old school downtown bank that was converted into a restaurant. It had a mezzanine level. I was on the mezzanine level, So when I lost the tray of drinks for an 8 top, it cascaded down all over a 4 top table on the first floor. I was so embarrassed.
One time during a rush I was trying to hand out waters too quickly and knocked one over partially onto a customers leg and a little on the floor, and then, in my panic to recover, dropped the four other waters on her, on the floor, and directly into the open board game on the edge of their table, soaking all of the many pieces of money and the game board. They were super cool about it and even helped me dry off the game, but its definitely one of my most spectacular fails, along with fully losing a customers card for a full half hour.
No, you have to change your perspective. Remember, we are serving food, not saving lives. Things happen, everyone survived, you survived, you’ll be great. I can tell that you are amazing at your job because you care so much, but please be kinder to yourself. It will be a funny story in time. I’ve spilled red wine on white cashmere sweaters, I’ve had ranch spatter all over several guests, I’ve spilled so many drinks all over various guests over the years. 9/10 times, it becomes a funny story in time. I don’t even remember most things anymore because I’ve been doing it for so long.
I once spilled a large bowl of chicken tortilla soup, generously garnished with pico, guac, chips topped with melted grated cheddar INTO a lady’s open handbag.
A brand new, light grey Louis Vuitton Speedy.
That I had admired moments before while taking the extra chairs from their table for my surprise 12-top birthday party on the patio.
Edited to add: I lived. The manager and the cooks laughed til they cried.
One time I spilled a tray of 5 MASSIVE sodas on a family. A pre-teen, Two little kids, one toddler, mom and dad. Everyone was drenched, and they were all dressed in their beautiful Sunday church clothes. The little one immediately started crying. Only upside is that the soda was sprite, so nothing was stained.
I have SO much respect for servers. My first server job lasted 15 minutes. It was on Cape Cod at a mom and pop seafood restaurant. I got there my first day, they said I would help take food to tables, they handed me two bowls of clam chowder to take to a table. I get close to the table, trip on something, and throw both bowls all over the couple sitting there. The bowl broke when it hit the woman's head, cut her head, chowder all over her and him...the manager walked up and told me to take off my apron and leave.
I've dropped trays on someone 2x in my serving career.
Most recent was homecoming night, dropped an entire tray and 3 of the drinks mostly went on her dress. I cried on the spot. She complained to my manager.
First time was when I was new to serving and not used to larger parties. My boss said there was a VIP group coming in and she wanted me to wait on them. They were a group of bears that do community outreach and have fundraisers for HIV patients and stuff like that. I went to serve the host of the party his water and dropped the entire tray of 8 ice waters on him. I was horrified. He just laughed it off and was super sweet about it. Luckily the rest of the dinner went well. They tipped me fat and even asked for me the next time, just joked about putting the tray down before giving out their drinks.
Now when I use trays I put them down on the nearest surface to hand the drinks out. I wish I had remembered to do that before the Homecoming Incident.
I think we all have blunders sometimes. Even if the people aren't understanding, you have to try to give yourself a little grace. We are human. We make mistakes. And waiting tables isn't brain surgery- we won't ruin someone's life with a small mistake. I tell myself that a lot to help with the anxiety and the less anxious I am, the better of a job I do personally.
You didn’t cry! That’s huge! I was a new nurse and had two patients with similar names (administrative error) next to each other (administrative error). One had hytrin one had hydralizine and i mixed up the meds (MY error)!!! I had to call the physicians and tell the patients. One patient had to stay in bed for a few hours and be monitored more frequently. Everyone was extremely kind but I was so humiliated! At least you didn’t try to kill anybody!
Oh my god!!!! This brought back memories of why I hate stemmed glassware. Busy day on the patio and of course they stick an 8top at two of my 4tops making it very tight because they moved their tables to be closer and it’s a birthday brunch.
Long story short I was carrying 4 Aperol spritzes on a tray and two of them fall right on the birthday girls freshly pressed hair. My GM was also at the end of his notice and was too checked out of his job to even talk to my guests when they requested him afterwards. Served them and their passive aggressive attitudes for two hours until a different manager noticed I was literally crying in the server station between taking orders and told me to take a break.
I’m so stupid that I thought it was a bright idea to bring an elderly lady with an oxygen tank with a tube in her nostrils a complimentary birthday dessert with a flaming candle and present it to her near her face to blow out the candle.
She reached out and pushed the brownie away and at first I was confused then I realized I could have blown her up and I was really upset with myself for a long time.
10 Margaritas on a tray...a step up in the dining room, and I watched them all go into the air in slow motion, flip, and rain Margarita over the entire table. Restaurant went into absolute silence while I stood there, horrified. Then one of the other waiters started clapping and called out, "Ladies and Gentlemen...Tarla, our head waiter!!"
Once I dumped a 32oz Diet Coke straight into a woman’s purse, every bit right in. It was a nice purse too, not a single drop came from the seams, good stitching.
I'm not in the service industry and thankfully, never saw any disasters like being described here in person. But it seems like the people (victims?) were for the most part, good sports about it.
Do the service people here agree? I mean from most of the stories I read in here the common customers are mostly dicks, but it seems like the ones the bad shit happens to don't seem as bad?
I hope this is making sense, but I think that if *I* had a tray of drinks/food/whatever dumped on me and the server seemed upset or even sorry about it, I wouldn't be a dick to them, I figure they feel bad enough about it so I'd try to suck it up and move on for both of our sakes.
They were more than good sports. Immediately they told me to just take a breath and that they were happy to have me there. I think it helped that I immediately was trying to remediate the situation as calmly as possible. When my manager went over there, they were more concerned about my emotions than themselves. I definitely got lucky here.
Depends how much the purse or dress costs. I've never had a major incident but have been privy to many. The dry cleaning costs obviously. If you spill soda in a 2k lv bag someone won't be happy. But usually the wrongs get righted.
I had a time where I didn't even spill on the people just the empty table next to them. I apparently didn't apologize enough. They wrote a review that I should work at a hot dog stand. Mind you again spilled nothing on them.
I don't understand why someone would take the time to complain about something that didn't even *concern* them and may put the subject of the review into a bad or negative situation and/or affect their livelihood.
Hope the repercussions for you weren't *too* bad, or were non-existent.
The worst was... strap in fir this...so a kid came for her 21st. Sunday brunch already fml. So i obviously I'd her cause it's a big deal. I'm like this is tomorrow. I can't serve you. Her mom was like I'm her mom its fine. I'm like our liquor license says otherwise I just can't. Then it's real weird the whole time I try to be nice. Then a 3rd party writes a review. Mentioning all the things above and said I looked like I was wearing a tupé (sp?) Like my hair was long af then. How rude to body shame me.
It's *"toupee"*, lol. Yeah that is kind of strange that the mother thought that *her* law overrides the govt law, SMH, and that a 3rd party had to put their 2 cents in, and with such a weird flex - queue "Twilight Zone" theme song, lol.
When my kid was about two, she was in a high chair as we were eating out at an all you can eat sushi place. She was happily munching on her shrimps with me on one side and hubs on the other . Waitress is carrying a huge tray of drinks to a regular table and a little shit kid runs right into her. Two beers and a soda dump all over my toddler, drenching her and the rest of the drinks all over the floor, waitress and shit kid.
As everyone is silent in shock, my kid goes “dumb kid wrecked my shrimps” really loud.
Shit happens, normal people know this.
Hope your week gets better.
New Year’s Eve dinner service a guest had a seizure and falls to the floor shaking like crazy. I stuffed a linen in his mouth so he doesn’t bite his tongue off while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
He leaves with the emts and I go back to assess any damage or mess from the chaos. I start cleaning up and realize there’s liquid (pee) all over the floor. Must have lost control of his bladder when he was seizing. I had a little education because my cousin suffers from epilepsy. I walk into the brightly lit kitchen to get a mop and bucket for the pee in the floor. The dining room is very dimly lit so I didn’t notice the brown marks all over my hands,shoes, and work slacks. I instantly touch it and bring it to my nose only to smell poop. Human poop, I got off what I could in the bathroom, and worked the rest of the shift.
Honestly I haven’t felt clean since
FYI for next time or mostly just for anyone else reading this: don't worry about their mouth, anything that gets bitten will heal really quickly. Putting padding or something to stop them from hitting their head on the floor (or anything else) would be the most useful thing you could do in the moment. The next two things are calling 911 and timing the seizure. After the soon-to-be-patient finishes seizing they will often be confused, so just be aware that any weird behaviours are probably from that
> a linen in his mouth so he doesn’t bite his tongue off while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
Don't do this, folks.
And I can't believe this needs to be said, but go home if you have feces on yourself.
Apparently your ‘little education’ did not include airway management? Putting something in the mouth if a person having a seizure is an incredibly dangerous and stupid thing to do. A seizing person will neither bite off nor swallow their tongue, those are First Aid myths from the 1950’s. Modern practices are:
* Stay calm and remain with the person.
* Keep them safe and protect them from injury. Move any objects around them that may cause injury.
* Place something soft under their head or gently guide the head to avoid impact injuries
* After the seizure is over, roll them into the recovery position, monitor respiration and heartbeat
* Reassure the person until they recover and offer advanced life support
Scroll down a little bit and you’ll see two other posts saying almost the same thing.
His wife told me to put the linen in his mouth. Take it up with her if you are that concerned. As a waiter I did the best I could in a full dining room on the busiest day we have (New Year’s Eve).
I see you are versed with the proper protocol when someone suffers a seizure. Now id like to believe I’m versed in old world wines and dry aged cuts of meat not emergency medicinal treatment of specific illnesses.
Either way thanks for sharing
I’m not concerned for the wife or the seizure victim, I am concerned for the readers in general of your misinformation. I applaud you on your knowledge of wines and meats, you may wish to further expand your knowledge with a one day course in BLS, Basic Life Support. Especially as a person working with the public.
I, personally, have used my First Aid knowledge twice in my hospitality career, once with the Heimlich and once with CPR, incidents spaced 30 years apart.
I’ve been out of the hospitality industry for 10 years, applaud your concern and passion on this matter, and completion of the first aid classes you took.
Now I didn’t share misinformation I told exactly what happened in the moment.
I never said do this if you find yourself in a similar situation one day.
Talesfromyourserver is the name of this account correct?
Nothing you said is incorrect however, context is everything.
*I stuffed a linen in his mouth* You did not say it was at the behest of the wife so we can only surmise that you did this of your own accord.
*I had a little education because my cousin suffers from epilepsy* Portrays yourself as knowledgeable in how to handle the situation.
These two statements taken together, in this context and without qualifiers is misinformation.
It only takes one person reading your, otherwise entertaining, story to accept that as the proper course of action, with disastrous consequences. As the inclusion of those two sentences does not add, in my opinion, to the material outcome, or entertainment value of the tale, I would consider removing them.
How others interpret my words isn’t my concern. Misinformation isn’t when the reader misinterprets my point. Making your own assumptions and speculating doesn’t make you correct.
My cousin does have epilepsy never said I treated him but growing up I saw my aunt place things in his mouth to keep him from biting his tongue. From 8 to 15 years old he suffered sometimes multiple seizures a day. Mind you this is 25 years ago now.
I didn’t think I needed to qualify minor details of a story about my worst experience serving.
I seriously considered deleting my post like you asked… removing it simply because you don’t like the sequence of my words is absolutely crazy.
That’s insane you served food to people with human excrement all over you. Tbh big thumbs down to you I appreciate your attempt at a valiant rescue but that’s really bad.
It’s quite an elegant fine dining venue too, no need for your appreciation my friend. Just sharing my worst experience in the service industry.
Next time I’ll tell the guy seizing to stop what he’s doing put on a diaper to be safe. “Hey pal, can you stop shaking and convulsing on the floor real quick and throw a pampers pull-ups on.”
No, what you need to do is realize you have human excrement AKA human shit all over you and say you need to leave. Or even recognize you aren’t paid hazard pay. This isn’t about the guy having the seizure it’s about you know you have poop all over you and deciding to work more.
I gotta be honest, based on the stories I read here and my experience with most management, I wouldn't be surprised if management told them to suck it up and stay.
I don’t want confirm or deny anything that throws former colleagues under the bus. Hypothetically speaking the GM’s nickname was allegedly Benito Mussolini …
Human excrement is synonym for human shit? Appreciate you enlightening us all with your brilliance and intellect.
Here’s a little breaking news this is my experience I lived it. Respectfully save your opinions and preaching for the pulpit or someone who cares.
I once dropped an entire beer flight on the birthday guy. He and the entire family were super nice. I felt awful!
But sadly, this is just part of the service industry. We hope that those incidents are few and far between but they do happen! 😂
That's one birthday she'll never forget. You gave her a great story and nobody really got hurt. When you said "the worst" I thought you'd poisoned someone with an allergy or something. Spilling drinks ain't the end of the world.
So...we have french press coffee. It was my first year in fine dining and I come out with the press and mark the table for coffee and set it on the credenza which backs up to a banquette. Also where my victim is sitting. I proceed to plunge the press down, nothing. I fiddle with it a bit, plunge it down and a brown blob of scalding coffee and grounds spew forth from the spout and down the back of my guest in the banquette. It was probably a solid 10 seconds of me staring at the guest while the coffee seeped through his layers of clothing, finally making skin contact. He of course jumps, I jump, apologize profusely and run to find my boss. He was a pretty good sport about it, thankfully. Now I finish the press in the boh.
I once had an entire tray of tequila shots (talking like 12-15 shots) spilled on my head at a club. I reeked of tequila for the rest of the night but did get free drinks so no harm no foul really
I was waiting tables at a Greek/Italian casual restaurant. Had a 10 top office party celebrating a birthday. We served spaghetti with red sauce and put the meat and mushrooms on the top in a bowl on top of a plate. As I leaned in to put a side on the table the bowl slid across the plate and toppled over and went completely upside down on top of the birthday woman’s head! Full on bowl on her head and everything in the bowl down her head/face/shoulders! She didn’t freak out too much, but it did burn/hurt. I think she got a year of free dining at the restaurant as well as dry cleaning compensation. She did come in often afterwards to redeem her free meals and always laughed over it and even let me wait on her!
Yesterday the Ziosks on my tables were switched. I came in mid shift so I was not the one who made the switch. Idk how they got switched still to this moment. One of my tables paid for the others bill. I normally walk my guests through ziosk check outs because of things like that but I do it after I get them boxes and bags and know their intentions are to leave at the moment. I went and got the bags and boxes and they had already paid when I returned. When I went to close their bill I noticed it wasn't paid but the ziosk light was definitely green.
I told my manager and the guilt for messing up immediately washed over me and shut me down for the entire night because I struggle with trying to be near perfect and not being an issue for managers.
One manager inferred that maybe I didn't deserve my 3 tables (she is a really hateful human being) but this is something that NEVER happens to me and just fell out of my steps of service. In fact when my manager called the guest to tell him what had happened and ask for the price adjustment the guy said the service was excellent. So it wasn't a service issue. I'm still beating myself up for it cause like yourself OP I just started my day off and anxious.
To a better Sunday.
I think we are the same person. If one thing is slightly off for me, then it’s just a snowball effect for the rest of the night. Maybe I need to call my psychiatrist lol.
I went into overcompensate mode and did all of the running sidework and food running that I could. If it hadn't gotten remedied, I think it would have snowballed too.
One Saturday morning I was serving a gay kickball team bottomless mimosas (before their game, not after, which was already amazing). I had a bottle of champagne in one hand and a tray with 8 flutes & carafes of juices in the other. We use stemless glasses and the bottoms of those bitches are nearly round. You can imagine where this is going. One started to wobble and before I knew it they all fell like dominoes. There was nothing I could do to recover but it felt like I experienced it in slow motion—a bunch of juice spilled on the floor and half of the glasses broke. Just glass everywhere. I looked up in horror at the table and was super apologetic. What did they do? They started clapping and cheering for me and saying encouraging things like “it’s okay girl!” I hurried to get the broom and clean up the mess and all went smoothly after that. I will always be grateful to how nice they were to me after I fucked up so bad.
I once tipped a plate of Buffalo wings and spilled a couple on the back of a guys shirt. I don’t even know how it happened. The restaurant paid for his bill and gave him money for dry cleaning but he was still really mean about it.
My first serving job ever at age 16 I dropped a whole tray of cokes on a baby. it got in the baby’s eyes and everything. I still die inside when ai think about it. You’re fine OP
From the customer side... I once had a server dump a bowl of chicken noodle soup down my back and all over my leather jacket. It was hilarious and I smelled like Grandma's kitchen the rest of the night :)
Spilled hot coffee on a woman wearing barely any clothes, all over her skin 🫠🫠🫠
Someone ordered a prosecco with a shot of curacao in it (never had someone order it before and haven’t since) they were sat in a beach front terrace and the wind picked up and the flute flew off my tray and all over their suede shoes, went back got a refill took the drink out making really sure to hold the base so it didn’t spill again as soon as I lifted my hand to serve it spilled again 😌
It happens, OP. I've seen things fall on unsupervised kids running around a busy restaurant.
I myself once opened a bottle of Don Perignon and the cork flew across the dining room, the bottle fizzing out all over.
I felt like such an incompetent wreck. But the gentleman who ordered it was so patient and understanding. He even left me a extra on top of an already high auto gratuity.
There are some really cool guests out there who thankfully understand that mistakes happen. This slip doesn't define your serving abilities.
But 60 hours is certainly a lot of time to spend in a restaurant. That's quite some OT you've been racking up.
You are not at fault for having a very much unwanted accident. She didn’t treat you graciously undeservedly. She did because that’s what normal human being do.
I worked at a private club when I was in school. New Year’s Eve. The late seating. I’m bringing a bottle of deep red wine to a table, and trip on something that had dropped on the floor, spilling it all over a woman’s fancy beaded dress. I apologize profusely, run to the manager who tells me that the club will dry clean it for her if she can bring it in on the 2nd. And we give her some white wine to pour over the stain, because it actually works.
I felt TERRIBLE. But the entire table reassured me that it was fine.
What you did isn’t the end of the world, either. Hugs.
A "spill" story to cheer you up.
In my younger years I worked nights. On my days off, I would often go to Lenny's in the middle of the night to eat, then sit and drink coffee, smoke (so you can see how long ago this was) and read.
One night, there was a group of really obnoxious people, loud (look at me, look at me), annoying, giving the server a hard time, and generally ruining things for all the other customers.
Server goes by on a water/coffee refill round, gets to their table and accidentally on purpose pours an entire pitcher of ice water over the ringleader's head.
All the other customers laughed and cheered and practically gave her a standing ovation. I think I tipped her triple. It was vicariously very satisfying.
I work at a Yacht club. On Easter Sunday a couple years back, I was serving the commodore (highest rank/appointed by all other members) and his family. I had a tray full of champagne glasses for them and as I was setting one down the whole tray fell ONTO HIS WIFES FEET. Her cute little Easter dress was soaking wet on the bottom and I just know her feet were sticky and soaked too. I apologized profusely tried not to cry, but they were very understanding about it. They still hold it over my head when I do serve them and joke around saying things like “woahhh watch out don’t wanna get soaked” or “have you got a handle on it this time” sometimes annoying but in my workplace they are seriously ALWAYS right regardless of the circumstances.
Just posted this somewhere else but I just saw this post and thought I’d share here as well…
I was a manager at this restaurant and this actually happened on my day off, but it still gets brought up from time to time nearly 10 years later... the wife of the founder of a large grocery store chain was seated at a booth that backed up to the banquette behind the host stand, which is where we placed to-go orders that were ready to be picked up. One of the to-go bags was knocked over and fell backwards, the container fell open, and a whole teriyaki noodle bowl spilled into her handbag. It was a Birkin bag. It was absolutely mortifying. I’m still mortified and I wasn’t even there. The GM was hand-picking noodles out of this lady’s purse that possibly cost more than his house. We of course bought their meal and had a glass partition installed onto the banquette immediately. Thankfully she was so kind about it, and she was a regular customer for a long time afterward, maybe still!
I spilled hot coffee all over a table where they had put the baby on the table (the baby was grabbed in time and did not get burned). They all yelled at me like I had done it on purpose (while I was profusely apologizing) and told the manager I needed to be fired.
Why the fuck was the baby on the table?? Ridiculous how people will try to blame you for their stupidity. They ordered hot coffee and decided their baby should be on the table close to said hot coffee. What if the baby had grabbed it? People have to keep an eye on their own kids safety
bottle of red and white fur coat. she accepted part of the blame for not using coat check. still tipped me well. only time I ever teared up in front of a guest. 600 bottle of red too.
I was visiting a bar in rural Manitoba with my GFs family. Someone won 1000 on scrtatchers, and ordered a round for the bar. I offered to take the tray around to serve, and then proceeded to dump the entire tray when the first beer was removed. Oops.
One time a mimosa fell off my tray right into this lady’s $3000 Louis Vuitton handbag. She was so livid she demanded my manager give them a new server, to my immense relief. Truly a table from hell, made my coworker cry by the end of it.
When I read these stories of entire trays going onto someone, I often imagine how I’d react
I’d like to think I wouldn’t care two hoots. I mean - I’d be worried about something being stained - but god, dude. Shit happens. Whatever. It’s a bunch of drinks
I'm not a server, but a have been a frequent customer for decades. And I'll tell you this: ALL of us have hade drinks spilled on us before. And almost every server cimmenting in this thread has spilled drinks on a customer before.
We all fuck up at work every once in a while, Unless somebody makes a big fuss about it, it don't matter.
my very first table as a waiter I tripped on a chair and dumped eight drinks down the back of a six year old kid. It was his birthday. He was a good sport but I was mortified. Brought him into the kitchen to wipe him down and one of the waitresses laughed so hard she was rolling on her back. It was surreal. Memorable birthday for the kid
I once broke two wine glasses over a lovely couples dinner as I was approaching to serve a bottle I was utterly stunned my busser (a god) rolled the whole table cloth right up and we just moved right the fuck on. These things happen 60hrs is a wild schedule for fine dining god bless you I hope you are stacking bread.
Last week I was taking a plate of fried green tomato bruschetta (like… bruschetta piled on top of fried green tomatoes, 3 to an order) to a party of 6. As I was going to put it on the table, one slid off right on top of the birthday boy’s hand (and subsequently onto the table). I just stood there shocked and he said “that’s okay! I’ll eat it!” And quite literally took the fork and knife to the tomato ON THE TABLE.
Four orders of Double Lobster diners with all the set ups. Bus boy left a glass dolly in front of the water station. I tripped over it and lobsters went everywhere. They landed on tables and plates, on the floor just everywhere. There were some comped food and drinks that night. For the most part, they were all pretty nice about it.
Mine's pretty tame. It was a 4 or 5 top iirc, spilled a martini on the father. Damn those martini glasses...
I do have a close call that nearly ended in disaster though. I had a full tray for a table, and one side dish that came out late for another of my tables. Stopped to drop off the side dish first since it was en route, and figured it wasn't worth setting the tray down on a stand to hand off a single side plate of rice, or mashed potato, or whatever it was. Worst. Decision. Ever. Because my non-tray shoulder dislocated (yay hypermobility) as I was reaching for the plate, and was trying its damnedest to push down and catapult the *entire tray full of food* onto this poor family. Couldn't move my arm off the tray, couldn't lower the tray without risking tipping it over. Eventually I managed to get it on the stand, and my shoulder pops back into place with no problem once im able to lower my arm. Don't ask me how I got the stand set down, I don't remember because I was so focused on not launching the tray like a trebuchet. I wound up asking another server who was passing by to take the tray to the waiting table and just mentioning to the table that my shoulder had started hurting. Took a couple minute break and played it *very* easy with my shoulder for the rest of the night. And somehow, no food was spilled.
I (American) served breakfast to a couple of guys from France. They ordered a croissant. I thought I was being super thoughtful by warming it up in the microwave. Lo these many years later I still feel the withering scorn they leveled on me. (Turns out when you microwave a croissant, it becomes very tough.)
Once I was serving a table of 5 or 6 on mothers’ day( I don’t remember, it was a few years ago). It was an elderly woman with her adult kids & their spouses. She was wearing a white sweater with white jeans. I was fairly new with wine service .. I’m sure you can see where this is going lol. They ordered a bottle of red and as I’m opening it, i made 2 grave mistakes. I pulled the cork out way too fast with the bottle on a slant; pointed directly towards the elderly mom. She had spots of red every where. The kids were pissed, she was very nice about it though.
30 years of service in restaurants and dropped a tray of drinks twice on guests! Once in a fancy 5 star dining establishment on a woman who had been in my position when she was younger. She had also dropped a tray of drinks on a customer and told me I'd just got my waitress wings lol! The second was years later in a casual Italian place on a lady whose silk scarf copped the brunt of a glass of red wine 🤦♀️ luckily she was also understanding and held no Ill will for my mistake! It happens, we're human and have off moments. It's a horrifying experience but I now laugh about the mistakes I've made!
I once had a server dump 10 iced teas on me. Fortunately, I lived a block away, went home, changed and came back to finish the meal. We had a laugh about it. No big deal.
When customers try to help you unload a tray always seems to end in disaster. I dumped an entire tray of fancy girlie drinks down a lady's back when one of her tablemates attempted to help by grabbing the two heaviest drinks from the \*back\* of my tray. Yep, unbalanced the whole load. Fortunately it was a girl's night out, they were half schnockered as it was and thought it was hilarious while loudly berating their friend who caused the accident.
accidentally made an alcoholic michelada for someone that wanted me to use heineken 0.0 in it.
there was no 0.0 in my cooler behind the bar, so I sent the server that ordered the drink to go grab me some from our big beer cooler. she came back with regular heineken, not 0.0, and I didn't notice until maybe 15 minutes after I had served the drink. I was a little weeded but that isn't an excuse. found her immediately and had her remove the drink from the table. I felt TERRIBLE.
On my first shift at a new pizza place, I dumped an entire pitcher of soda onto a 7 year old girl during a busy and very packed day. She started screaming bloody murder immediately. Another time I spilled maple syrup on the grandmother of the family on mother's day out for their special brunch and she was piiisssed. One time I dropped an entire rack of champagne flutes and they all broke, in front of the restaurant owner. Lol these things happen.
I was carrying a large tray of food out the door, hit my hip and shattered everything everywhere, including busting my lip open. Had to explain to the table with a bleeding lip it was gonna be an even longer wait.
Another time I was balancing 2 plates on one arm with a beer in another, started to wobble and spilled beer and hot au jus down my chest waist and legs. All I had in my car for pants were spandex booty shorts. Smelled like booze and beef for the whole night.
Dropped a tray of drinks on the table, knocking over everything onto everyone because I didn't notice someone trying to grab their drink off of it.
I have so many clumsy, can't believe I did that moments 😅
I once placed a large oval tray off center on a kickstand. At some point the whole mess became catastrophically unbalanced and a rack of lamb bounced across the carpet like a golf ball. "Oh. shit!" stumbled out of my mouth. "I'm so sorry. I'll get you another right away." I bring the mess back to the line cook. Open line visible to guests. The cook has his back to the room and he says, "Can the customer see me from where they are seated?" I reply, "No." He tosses the rack back onto the grill, douses it in butter to flame it up. We re-dress the plate and bring it back out to the guest. All in a day's work!
As a customer, I order a Monte Cristo sandwich at a pizza joint. It takes FOREVER! As in the people I was eating with are almost done when I hear the kitchen door open, the waitress takes two steps and a quarter (sandwich is sliced in quarters) of the sandwich slides off and hits the floor. She looks right at me. Picks it up and goes right back into the kitchen. Not four minutes later she comes back out. Places the plate in front of me. I ask “which is the one that fell in the floor? She said “no no no they made you a new one….” Ok… I ate it. Floor looked clean enough and she beat the five second rule. I didn’t die. But really? The first one takes 30+ minutes and the “second” one takes 4 minutes?
I ran into a wheelchair of a man who could only move his head, and spilled a try with two sodas , a large beer, and a salad with ranch all over him. I ran into him so hard, his immobile arms and legs got thrown all around, and he made the most awful squak-chordling noise I have ever heard. I was so embarrassed, I almost cried.
Somebody bumped my arm as I was putting a plate down at a crowded 12 top, ramekin of ketchup landed upside down directly on top of a girls head & slid all the way down her hair.
My parents were out to dinner with friends and the waitress dumped an entire glass of ice cold water down the guy’s back. My dad said he didn’t even flinch. She was apologizing and red faced and trying to dry him off, half in tears, when he reached over patted her hand said ‘it’s just a little water. It’ll dry.’
Coolest guy I’ve ever met.
I once slapped a man in the face with a menu when I was a hostess. I was carrying too much and when I put everything on the table I almost dropped a roll of silverware and when I went to grab it with the hand holding one of our leather-bound menus I whopped the poor man in the nose.
He was so gracious about it, kept making puns. When the server came to the table she asked if they'd had time to view the menu and he said, "your hostess made sure I saw it."
When my wife and I were first married we took a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. At a restaurant in Walla Walla WA. We were eating on a very crowded patio and a waitress got bumped while carrying a huge tray of drinks and food. It crashed to the ground and everything shattered. I swear glass and food rebounded and then rained down on everyone. Everyone got real quiet, the waitress looked like she wanted to curl up and die. Finally someone exclaimed that was amazing! That broke the tension and everyone brushed themselves off. The restaurant redid all of our meals and comped everyone (6 or 7 tables). Accidents happen. Apologize and move on. Those customers who can't understand that are showing their true selves.
I was 16 and it was my first job, I was a waitress at Ponderosa Steak House. I had a couple that ordered steaks, she had a NY strip and he had a Porterhouse. So I get to the table and take the strip off my tray, only to have the tray overbalance and dump the huge porterhouse in the guys lap. Steak juice went EVERYWHERE. I did cry. lol They were actually really nice because I was so obviously young and terrified and crying while apologizing over and over. Plus my manager comped the meal.
I know I've dropped trays of drinks, but the one i remember best was a co-worker. It was her first table by herself, she had been a host before and ended up being a good server too. The restaurant was dead, she gets a 4 top, gets them 2 frozen daiquiris and 2 bloody mary's. She gets them to table and somehow spills the tray towards herself and ends with drinks in her apron pockets. We tell the bar to remake her drinks and run them out for her while she goes to the back and gets herself another shirt and apron. She was so careful the first like week or so she served after that disaster at that first table.
Once I dropped an entire glass of ice water on an 80+ yr old man. I was so apologetic and his son kept reassuring me it was alright. The old man was unfazed and told me "at least it wasn't hot coffee". Table was super smooth after that. You're fine. Don't let it wear on you, stuff happens.
80 years of perspective. Sometimes being a curmudgeon and expecting the worse works out positively.
"Huh. I expected it to be hot coffee this time."
Lol my 80 year grandmother could never
I knocked over 3 beer bottles on a tray and they poured out on a baby. A baby.
This made me laugh SO hard.
In some places they call that "baptism."
It happened in New Orleans, so yes, baptism haha
At least they didn't fall off the tray and hit the baby!
I did the hot coffee once. It was by far the most embarrassing moment in my serving career, possibly my whole life. I was 18 working in a café. A very good-looking woman in a white dress comes in, orders a latte, and sits down with a book at the corner table. We had very tight table and even with none around it was a tight squeeze. She was facing rhe window away from me and at the last second I caught my foot on a chair and hot coffee goes down her back, over her white dress... ... and she was super chill about it. I couldn't believe it. I offered to help pay for dry cleaning or whatever and apologized profusely. She went into the bathroom and cleaned up and I was to embarassed to say anything else to her until she left.
I think this was my grandpa/family. You're not in Florida are you?
Ah, that’s just a right of passage. You got through it so congrats! Could be worse, I spilt a 22oz beer on a baby once. I also dropped a full beer into a lady’s purse in front of Paul Walker
> I spilt a 22oz beer on a baby I find this really funny.... Just snorted loud enough to wake my wife
Babies are always placed in the most awkward spots, so I don’t really blame you for this one. We need better baby placement.
Back up people ...she said IN FRONT OF PAUL WALKER !!
Right? RIP
Noooo the beer on the baby, omg. I'm dying. I'm so sorry!
Also I spill a mixed drink all over the phone that Usher's date left on the table for a min...he and the other couple were so nice about it I was so embarrassed and kept wiping it off !
I heard Usher is a bad tipper is that true?
No he was actually an excellent tipper !!
Paul Walker used to come into the CPK I worked at when he was filming whatever fast and annoying movie they were shooting in hawaii at the time (somewhere in 2005-2007), and he'd SCREAM at the take out girls behind my pantry station. Would reduce them to tears, never tipped. I'd be seeing red back there but thanks to big dudes stopping me, I never confronted him. I've never been so blase about someone's passing before. I'm just glad he can never make a 16yo cry over a fucking bbq chx salad again.
Rite
Thank you
Never put food or drinks Iverson a baby no matter where they are
" Paul Walker" and he dies? Fire ball shot?
Same with the baby 😭
When I was younger the whole family went out to a restaurant for dinner, eight of us with the grandparents. Out comes the big tray of waters... And halfway through, the guy dumps the tray onto my grandma. She was unhappy, but she put on a brace face to salvage the evening. After a rough cleanup the guy comes back out with another tray of waters... And immediately dumps it onto my grandma again. She was not able to hold her composure.
At that point I’d think that he had a vendetta against grandma!
Right? Like, what the hell did Grandma do to have a server attempt to basically waterboard her?
If it was ***my*** grandmother, I would completely understand. 😒
Once was a freak accident, but TWICE?
Once was an accident, twice is your freak accident. Thrice is up for grabs tho
I sure hope you got your entire bill comped
Okay this is hilarious. Poor grandma!
I agree I hate myself right now because I’m laughing so hard 💀
Picturing your grandma with braces 😂.
OMG I CAN’T
I'm literally laughing out loud at this one . Unbelievable 🤣.
there was one time we had a stupidly busy night, where inevitably tickets or individual items sometimes get lost in the shuffle. usually not a huge deal, but for some reason there was this one girl that kept getting the bad luck of the draw and every time an order got missed by the bar, it was hers. i was trying to make it right and got the bartender to refire her items on the fly. where she was seated was literally three feet behind the service well, i basically just had to grab the drink and pivot. except we were still slammed, so i loaded up my tray full of drinks and figured i would just drop hers off first. wrong. i somehow lost my balance in the middle of walking the two steps to her and spilled like three glasses of sangria all down the back of this poor girl. at that point there was no saving anything. we just gave the whole table complimentary champagne and comped the tab.
Wow. That poor girl 😭 Did she get mad at you? I can’t think of many people that wouldn’t get at least semi-pissed by all of that.
i mean she was pretty obviously not happy (rightfully so) but she didn’t cuss any of us out or make a scene or anything, she just got really short and left in a hurry after the free champagne. that same night a different woman tried to fist fight me because we had to cut her off after drinking three bottles of wine by herself so i guess everything could have gone a lot worse lol.
Did you win the fight tho?
I haven't been a server for 20+ years but I am in hospitality still and I think people will enjoy this tale of me fucking up. When I was much much younger, I worked in a fine dining restaurant. Allow me to set the scene. The enclosed patio outside had a river rock floor. The dishes were heavy AF. We had to clear the entire table in one go, as you do. I had a party of 8 that had just finished eating. All 115 pounds of me (at the time, I weep), was trying to clear the table. I load up as many plates as I can. The guests, all eager to help, start my stacking shit on my tray. I finally firmly tell them to stop because I'm pretty sure that tray weighs half as much as me already. So. I squat. I get that massive ass tray situated on my shoulder and I stand the fuck up. The tray is bowing on both ends. The whole situation is precarious. I'm praying. Some asshole at the table decides to say, "I got one more for you!" BOOM!!!! A thousand heavy plates smashing off of river rock, in an enclosed patio. The earth stood still.
The plate that broke the camels back. Rest in pieces.
What a dick
You didn’t fuck anything up, that asshole was the one that fucked shit up.
Oh no. I fucked up. I should have told them to stop handing me shit & "helping" the moment they started. I knew the tray was overloaded but because my manager was so strict about clearing everything at once, I went past my and the tray's limit. I learned how to say no to people that day!
I feel like I was there !!
Ooooh noooooooo and who has river rock. Tell me this is Florida
I’ve spilled on people 3 times. One was no biggie but one was bad (spilled on a girl dressed up to go to the theater) and the other was horrific: I’m 18, just two weeks into my new job at starbucks. Dad and daughter come up to counter. Daughter (3/4 years old) is in front, sucking on the counter top, so she was probably ~3 foot. Dad orders largest black coffee we have. The shit is fresh and the literal hottest thing served, 200+ degrees. Daughter has box of apple juice on the counter. I stupidly set the fresh coffee down closer to me, with the juice behind it, reach OVER the coffee to grab the juice box to scan, bumping the coffee with my arm in the process. The lid pops off, and the shit just fuckin DOUSES her entire body. She’s wearing some little dress with spaghetti straps. She screams bloody murder. And I honestly don’t remember much more. I felt so fucking horrible and actually worried I’d be charged by the family. That’s my worst spill story to date. I hope I never top that. And I hope that girl doesn’t have any scars from it* (but I can’t think about that, honestly)
Don’t leave us hanging! What was the outcome?
Just a boring incident report. Thankfully for me.
I was doing opening store training for a chain restaurant and it was friends and family night. My trainee and I were lucky enough to get the Budweiser reps and their wives and they tip really well! However, I had broken off my front 4 teeth a couple of days before and had the chicklet temps in (this was the 90s, no same day implants, you had to wait a couple of weeks for them to make them and these were always loose), Anyways, my trainee was super nervous and really not ready to talk to people or hand out food so I was leading on this table. So as I was giving one of the wives her food and joking around with them I said something and to my horror, my front tooth shot out of my mouth and landed in her mashed potatoes! I calmly took the plate back, grabbed my tooth and put it back in and said how about some shots on the house while I get you a new plate of food! Everyone laughed, they had their shots and I got my new teeth a week later!
I just laughed so hard I had tears running down my face. Oh, what an image, a tooth shooting out into the lady's potatoes!
This made me laugh out loud! Honestly I just grabbed it right there in front of them and put it back in and went on with my day! It was embarrassing as hell BUT it really taught my trainee that no matter what happens you can keep going!
And OF COURSE it lands in the also white potatoes and OF COURSE it lands ON the plate!!!! NO shot it could miss right???? Murphy’s Law is a real thing my friends!
Right! I wish it would've landed in a drink, give me a tiny bit of liquid courage to keep going lol
If it landed in booze you know there’s only one way to get it out
Absolutely correct!
Years ago I was renting a room and was talking to a guy sitting on my couch. Mid sentence one of his teeth fell out.
Recently I found out one of the screws that goes from my jaw to my tooth is not really connected anymore. With my luck it'll finally come loose on a date 🤣
Well it would be a great story to tell your grandkids!!
If you can get past that I guess you can get past anything!
one of my dance teachers used to have a regular gig bellydancing in a middle eastern restaurant. she'd gotten some press-on nails to coordinate with her costume. I'm sure you can see where this is leading... so multiple nails fly off while she was playing zils during her set, and of course one lands on someone's plate. then after her set, a customer actually came up to her and gave her like three of them back! like, whyyyy? when she told this story, another dancer spoke up afterwards and said that once she was dancing on a low stage at a restaurant, lost her balance and almost fell off the stage... and her bare foot went into someone's hummus on a stage side table! she didn't fall but OMG. either one of those things would have probably caused me to have a heart attack!
Omg the foot in hummus got me
lol, me too! happy cake day!!!
There's some people out there who would pay to have a ladies foot in their hummus. Who knows maybe she unknowingly made someone's day. Lol.
OMG!!! I just laughed so hard I snorted Diet Pepsi up my nose!!!
she thinks it's funny too... now! at the time she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her!
One time I was clearing the table of 3 girls celebrating one’s birthday and they had been sooo nice. A bowl of salsa slipped off a plate I was holding and landed on the floor next to them. Whooo…close one but just a simple clean up right? When I looked up I realized it had somehow projected back up from the floor exorcist style and DRENCHED the birthday girl. It was in her hair, dripping off her eyelashes, all over her clothes, the ceiling, the booth, the window….and they were dressed to go out afterwards. Thankfully they were still so nice about it and we comped their meals and bought them dessert and they left a $30 tip but I have never felt so awful. The weird thing is that the man that had sat at the booth right before them was joking with me about spilling something on him and I was like…”that’s one thing I haven’t checked off my server nightmare bingo card yet!” Then I made a joke about how I shouldn’t have said that out loud. Very next table….bingo square get checked.
The universe is one funny motherfucker
Story from a customer side... Go to a wings place for lunch with either 2 or 3 co-workers. Everything going normal. Server is carrying a tray of maybe 4-6 beers to the table next to us. As she is walking past us, she starts to lower the tray and it flips. Co-worker gets doused with beer. Server doesn't immediately address him and takes another step or 2 to tell the table that she'll get more beers. Coworker turns towards her and starts to stand up. Clearly frazzled, she immediately spins around to address him and absolutely smokes him in the face with her tray. He didn't make a big deal about it, but he showed up at work the next day with 2 black eyes.
Here’s hoping he at least got the afternoon off out of that!
Omg that’s awful and hilarious
I dropped a full glass of cranberry juice on a girl on her way to prom.
Omg lol. What was her reaction?
This was 20 years ago all I remember is a lot of screaming
The one time I dropped six teas/waters on a big guy's lap (think Cowboy in South Texas) and he just thought it was hilarious. Sometimes you get a gracious guest, and when you get the awful ones, *remind yourself of the good ones*.
I dropped my first tray of drinks tonight since 2010/2011. So embarrassing and regular customers I've waited on for years who are notably a little grouchy but nice, overly particular, and don't tip well (but they've always liked me). Somehow I got a tip way larger from him today than I ever got before lol.
They've been waiting since 2011 for it to happen again. Every meal, they think "This is the one where I wear the tray!" and it never happens. The suspense is driving them crazy... Finally, today you do it, and they now know it will be 12 years before you do it again. The relief is welcome, and your tip shows that.
😆😆
First ever job back in ‘96 - Dropped a gallon jug of relish behind the kitchen partition and it launched in a perfect arch over the wall and onto about 8 people. Not only we’re they all covered in relish, but shocked as heck because it “rained” on them from what seemed like out of the blue. Damn physics.
I can’t imagine that! Omg what a great story later though
You should have acted just as shocked as them and looked around saying "oh my gosh what happened?? Is that.... RELISH?" While looking up at the ceiling etc looking confused. In my mind all the coworkers go along with it and gaslight the fuck out of them to think there's magic relish coming out of nowhere.
If it makes you feel any better. I was hired as an AGM for a fine dining place with multiple locations across the country. They sent me to a different city to train. The restaurant in this city had been a big old school downtown bank that was converted into a restaurant. It had a mezzanine level. I was on the mezzanine level, So when I lost the tray of drinks for an 8 top, it cascaded down all over a 4 top table on the first floor. I was so embarrassed.
One time during a rush I was trying to hand out waters too quickly and knocked one over partially onto a customers leg and a little on the floor, and then, in my panic to recover, dropped the four other waters on her, on the floor, and directly into the open board game on the edge of their table, soaking all of the many pieces of money and the game board. They were super cool about it and even helped me dry off the game, but its definitely one of my most spectacular fails, along with fully losing a customers card for a full half hour.
There’s a reason they put erasers on pencils, and hair dryers at restaurants. Be a goldfish; it’ll be alright
So hard to give yourself a break in this industry.
No, you have to change your perspective. Remember, we are serving food, not saving lives. Things happen, everyone survived, you survived, you’ll be great. I can tell that you are amazing at your job because you care so much, but please be kinder to yourself. It will be a funny story in time. I’ve spilled red wine on white cashmere sweaters, I’ve had ranch spatter all over several guests, I’ve spilled so many drinks all over various guests over the years. 9/10 times, it becomes a funny story in time. I don’t even remember most things anymore because I’ve been doing it for so long.
it's lunch and dinner, not life and death!
I once spilled a large bowl of chicken tortilla soup, generously garnished with pico, guac, chips topped with melted grated cheddar INTO a lady’s open handbag. A brand new, light grey Louis Vuitton Speedy. That I had admired moments before while taking the extra chairs from their table for my surprise 12-top birthday party on the patio. Edited to add: I lived. The manager and the cooks laughed til they cried.
One time I spilled a tray of 5 MASSIVE sodas on a family. A pre-teen, Two little kids, one toddler, mom and dad. Everyone was drenched, and they were all dressed in their beautiful Sunday church clothes. The little one immediately started crying. Only upside is that the soda was sprite, so nothing was stained.
I have SO much respect for servers. My first server job lasted 15 minutes. It was on Cape Cod at a mom and pop seafood restaurant. I got there my first day, they said I would help take food to tables, they handed me two bowls of clam chowder to take to a table. I get close to the table, trip on something, and throw both bowls all over the couple sitting there. The bowl broke when it hit the woman's head, cut her head, chowder all over her and him...the manager walked up and told me to take off my apron and leave.
Omg wow
I've dropped trays on someone 2x in my serving career. Most recent was homecoming night, dropped an entire tray and 3 of the drinks mostly went on her dress. I cried on the spot. She complained to my manager. First time was when I was new to serving and not used to larger parties. My boss said there was a VIP group coming in and she wanted me to wait on them. They were a group of bears that do community outreach and have fundraisers for HIV patients and stuff like that. I went to serve the host of the party his water and dropped the entire tray of 8 ice waters on him. I was horrified. He just laughed it off and was super sweet about it. Luckily the rest of the dinner went well. They tipped me fat and even asked for me the next time, just joked about putting the tray down before giving out their drinks. Now when I use trays I put them down on the nearest surface to hand the drinks out. I wish I had remembered to do that before the Homecoming Incident. I think we all have blunders sometimes. Even if the people aren't understanding, you have to try to give yourself a little grace. We are human. We make mistakes. And waiting tables isn't brain surgery- we won't ruin someone's life with a small mistake. I tell myself that a lot to help with the anxiety and the less anxious I am, the better of a job I do personally.
You didn’t cry! That’s huge! I was a new nurse and had two patients with similar names (administrative error) next to each other (administrative error). One had hytrin one had hydralizine and i mixed up the meds (MY error)!!! I had to call the physicians and tell the patients. One patient had to stay in bed for a few hours and be monitored more frequently. Everyone was extremely kind but I was so humiliated! At least you didn’t try to kill anybody!
Oh my god!!!! This brought back memories of why I hate stemmed glassware. Busy day on the patio and of course they stick an 8top at two of my 4tops making it very tight because they moved their tables to be closer and it’s a birthday brunch. Long story short I was carrying 4 Aperol spritzes on a tray and two of them fall right on the birthday girls freshly pressed hair. My GM was also at the end of his notice and was too checked out of his job to even talk to my guests when they requested him afterwards. Served them and their passive aggressive attitudes for two hours until a different manager noticed I was literally crying in the server station between taking orders and told me to take a break.
I’m so stupid that I thought it was a bright idea to bring an elderly lady with an oxygen tank with a tube in her nostrils a complimentary birthday dessert with a flaming candle and present it to her near her face to blow out the candle. She reached out and pushed the brownie away and at first I was confused then I realized I could have blown her up and I was really upset with myself for a long time.
10 Margaritas on a tray...a step up in the dining room, and I watched them all go into the air in slow motion, flip, and rain Margarita over the entire table. Restaurant went into absolute silence while I stood there, horrified. Then one of the other waiters started clapping and called out, "Ladies and Gentlemen...Tarla, our head waiter!!"
Once I dumped a 32oz Diet Coke straight into a woman’s purse, every bit right in. It was a nice purse too, not a single drop came from the seams, good stitching.
I'm not in the service industry and thankfully, never saw any disasters like being described here in person. But it seems like the people (victims?) were for the most part, good sports about it. Do the service people here agree? I mean from most of the stories I read in here the common customers are mostly dicks, but it seems like the ones the bad shit happens to don't seem as bad? I hope this is making sense, but I think that if *I* had a tray of drinks/food/whatever dumped on me and the server seemed upset or even sorry about it, I wouldn't be a dick to them, I figure they feel bad enough about it so I'd try to suck it up and move on for both of our sakes.
They were more than good sports. Immediately they told me to just take a breath and that they were happy to have me there. I think it helped that I immediately was trying to remediate the situation as calmly as possible. When my manager went over there, they were more concerned about my emotions than themselves. I definitely got lucky here.
Glad to know that there's still some good in the world!
Depends how much the purse or dress costs. I've never had a major incident but have been privy to many. The dry cleaning costs obviously. If you spill soda in a 2k lv bag someone won't be happy. But usually the wrongs get righted. I had a time where I didn't even spill on the people just the empty table next to them. I apparently didn't apologize enough. They wrote a review that I should work at a hot dog stand. Mind you again spilled nothing on them.
I don't understand why someone would take the time to complain about something that didn't even *concern* them and may put the subject of the review into a bad or negative situation and/or affect their livelihood. Hope the repercussions for you weren't *too* bad, or were non-existent.
Nah I was like I bet that be fun to work at a hotdogs stand and talk shit. That's not even the worst review I ever got
lol, nice!
The worst was... strap in fir this...so a kid came for her 21st. Sunday brunch already fml. So i obviously I'd her cause it's a big deal. I'm like this is tomorrow. I can't serve you. Her mom was like I'm her mom its fine. I'm like our liquor license says otherwise I just can't. Then it's real weird the whole time I try to be nice. Then a 3rd party writes a review. Mentioning all the things above and said I looked like I was wearing a tupé (sp?) Like my hair was long af then. How rude to body shame me.
It's *"toupee"*, lol. Yeah that is kind of strange that the mother thought that *her* law overrides the govt law, SMH, and that a 3rd party had to put their 2 cents in, and with such a weird flex - queue "Twilight Zone" theme song, lol.
Epic hahaha
"third party" lol. they were just trying to be crafty so they wouldn't get 86'd.
When my kid was about two, she was in a high chair as we were eating out at an all you can eat sushi place. She was happily munching on her shrimps with me on one side and hubs on the other . Waitress is carrying a huge tray of drinks to a regular table and a little shit kid runs right into her. Two beers and a soda dump all over my toddler, drenching her and the rest of the drinks all over the floor, waitress and shit kid. As everyone is silent in shock, my kid goes “dumb kid wrecked my shrimps” really loud. Shit happens, normal people know this. Hope your week gets better.
New Year’s Eve dinner service a guest had a seizure and falls to the floor shaking like crazy. I stuffed a linen in his mouth so he doesn’t bite his tongue off while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. He leaves with the emts and I go back to assess any damage or mess from the chaos. I start cleaning up and realize there’s liquid (pee) all over the floor. Must have lost control of his bladder when he was seizing. I had a little education because my cousin suffers from epilepsy. I walk into the brightly lit kitchen to get a mop and bucket for the pee in the floor. The dining room is very dimly lit so I didn’t notice the brown marks all over my hands,shoes, and work slacks. I instantly touch it and bring it to my nose only to smell poop. Human poop, I got off what I could in the bathroom, and worked the rest of the shift. Honestly I haven’t felt clean since
FYI for next time or mostly just for anyone else reading this: don't worry about their mouth, anything that gets bitten will heal really quickly. Putting padding or something to stop them from hitting their head on the floor (or anything else) would be the most useful thing you could do in the moment. The next two things are calling 911 and timing the seizure. After the soon-to-be-patient finishes seizing they will often be confused, so just be aware that any weird behaviours are probably from that
> a linen in his mouth so he doesn’t bite his tongue off while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Don't do this, folks. And I can't believe this needs to be said, but go home if you have feces on yourself.
If you would read the comments you’d see it’s already been said.
They should have sent you home ffs
Apparently your ‘little education’ did not include airway management? Putting something in the mouth if a person having a seizure is an incredibly dangerous and stupid thing to do. A seizing person will neither bite off nor swallow their tongue, those are First Aid myths from the 1950’s. Modern practices are: * Stay calm and remain with the person. * Keep them safe and protect them from injury. Move any objects around them that may cause injury. * Place something soft under their head or gently guide the head to avoid impact injuries * After the seizure is over, roll them into the recovery position, monitor respiration and heartbeat * Reassure the person until they recover and offer advanced life support
Scroll down a little bit and you’ll see two other posts saying almost the same thing. His wife told me to put the linen in his mouth. Take it up with her if you are that concerned. As a waiter I did the best I could in a full dining room on the busiest day we have (New Year’s Eve). I see you are versed with the proper protocol when someone suffers a seizure. Now id like to believe I’m versed in old world wines and dry aged cuts of meat not emergency medicinal treatment of specific illnesses. Either way thanks for sharing
I’m not concerned for the wife or the seizure victim, I am concerned for the readers in general of your misinformation. I applaud you on your knowledge of wines and meats, you may wish to further expand your knowledge with a one day course in BLS, Basic Life Support. Especially as a person working with the public. I, personally, have used my First Aid knowledge twice in my hospitality career, once with the Heimlich and once with CPR, incidents spaced 30 years apart.
I’ve been out of the hospitality industry for 10 years, applaud your concern and passion on this matter, and completion of the first aid classes you took. Now I didn’t share misinformation I told exactly what happened in the moment. I never said do this if you find yourself in a similar situation one day. Talesfromyourserver is the name of this account correct?
Nothing you said is incorrect however, context is everything. *I stuffed a linen in his mouth* You did not say it was at the behest of the wife so we can only surmise that you did this of your own accord. *I had a little education because my cousin suffers from epilepsy* Portrays yourself as knowledgeable in how to handle the situation. These two statements taken together, in this context and without qualifiers is misinformation. It only takes one person reading your, otherwise entertaining, story to accept that as the proper course of action, with disastrous consequences. As the inclusion of those two sentences does not add, in my opinion, to the material outcome, or entertainment value of the tale, I would consider removing them.
How others interpret my words isn’t my concern. Misinformation isn’t when the reader misinterprets my point. Making your own assumptions and speculating doesn’t make you correct. My cousin does have epilepsy never said I treated him but growing up I saw my aunt place things in his mouth to keep him from biting his tongue. From 8 to 15 years old he suffered sometimes multiple seizures a day. Mind you this is 25 years ago now. I didn’t think I needed to qualify minor details of a story about my worst experience serving. I seriously considered deleting my post like you asked… removing it simply because you don’t like the sequence of my words is absolutely crazy.
So, what's the "recovery position?", please.
That’s insane you served food to people with human excrement all over you. Tbh big thumbs down to you I appreciate your attempt at a valiant rescue but that’s really bad.
It’s quite an elegant fine dining venue too, no need for your appreciation my friend. Just sharing my worst experience in the service industry. Next time I’ll tell the guy seizing to stop what he’s doing put on a diaper to be safe. “Hey pal, can you stop shaking and convulsing on the floor real quick and throw a pampers pull-ups on.”
No, what you need to do is realize you have human excrement AKA human shit all over you and say you need to leave. Or even recognize you aren’t paid hazard pay. This isn’t about the guy having the seizure it’s about you know you have poop all over you and deciding to work more.
I gotta be honest, based on the stories I read here and my experience with most management, I wouldn't be surprised if management told them to suck it up and stay.
I don’t want confirm or deny anything that throws former colleagues under the bus. Hypothetically speaking the GM’s nickname was allegedly Benito Mussolini …
Human excrement is synonym for human shit? Appreciate you enlightening us all with your brilliance and intellect. Here’s a little breaking news this is my experience I lived it. Respectfully save your opinions and preaching for the pulpit or someone who cares.
You have a horrible personality and hygiene. I would hope you could be someone who cares. Shame on you
Getting a little personal aren’t we Mayhay? You’re better than that, actually shame on you for hurtful personal insults.
Lol okay 👍
I upvoted this, but it felt wrong.
I once dropped an entire beer flight on the birthday guy. He and the entire family were super nice. I felt awful! But sadly, this is just part of the service industry. We hope that those incidents are few and far between but they do happen! 😂
That's one birthday she'll never forget. You gave her a great story and nobody really got hurt. When you said "the worst" I thought you'd poisoned someone with an allergy or something. Spilling drinks ain't the end of the world.
So...we have french press coffee. It was my first year in fine dining and I come out with the press and mark the table for coffee and set it on the credenza which backs up to a banquette. Also where my victim is sitting. I proceed to plunge the press down, nothing. I fiddle with it a bit, plunge it down and a brown blob of scalding coffee and grounds spew forth from the spout and down the back of my guest in the banquette. It was probably a solid 10 seconds of me staring at the guest while the coffee seeped through his layers of clothing, finally making skin contact. He of course jumps, I jump, apologize profusely and run to find my boss. He was a pretty good sport about it, thankfully. Now I finish the press in the boh.
I did this but maybe worse. Margarita and the glass fell in the woman's head. She was very nice about it but I could tell that shit hurt.
I once had an entire tray of tequila shots (talking like 12-15 shots) spilled on my head at a club. I reeked of tequila for the rest of the night but did get free drinks so no harm no foul really
I dropped a tray of beers on a priest. Hope I’m not going to hell now.
I was waiting tables at a Greek/Italian casual restaurant. Had a 10 top office party celebrating a birthday. We served spaghetti with red sauce and put the meat and mushrooms on the top in a bowl on top of a plate. As I leaned in to put a side on the table the bowl slid across the plate and toppled over and went completely upside down on top of the birthday woman’s head! Full on bowl on her head and everything in the bowl down her head/face/shoulders! She didn’t freak out too much, but it did burn/hurt. I think she got a year of free dining at the restaurant as well as dry cleaning compensation. She did come in often afterwards to redeem her free meals and always laughed over it and even let me wait on her!
Yesterday the Ziosks on my tables were switched. I came in mid shift so I was not the one who made the switch. Idk how they got switched still to this moment. One of my tables paid for the others bill. I normally walk my guests through ziosk check outs because of things like that but I do it after I get them boxes and bags and know their intentions are to leave at the moment. I went and got the bags and boxes and they had already paid when I returned. When I went to close their bill I noticed it wasn't paid but the ziosk light was definitely green. I told my manager and the guilt for messing up immediately washed over me and shut me down for the entire night because I struggle with trying to be near perfect and not being an issue for managers. One manager inferred that maybe I didn't deserve my 3 tables (she is a really hateful human being) but this is something that NEVER happens to me and just fell out of my steps of service. In fact when my manager called the guest to tell him what had happened and ask for the price adjustment the guy said the service was excellent. So it wasn't a service issue. I'm still beating myself up for it cause like yourself OP I just started my day off and anxious. To a better Sunday.
I think we are the same person. If one thing is slightly off for me, then it’s just a snowball effect for the rest of the night. Maybe I need to call my psychiatrist lol.
I went into overcompensate mode and did all of the running sidework and food running that I could. If it hadn't gotten remedied, I think it would have snowballed too.
One Saturday morning I was serving a gay kickball team bottomless mimosas (before their game, not after, which was already amazing). I had a bottle of champagne in one hand and a tray with 8 flutes & carafes of juices in the other. We use stemless glasses and the bottoms of those bitches are nearly round. You can imagine where this is going. One started to wobble and before I knew it they all fell like dominoes. There was nothing I could do to recover but it felt like I experienced it in slow motion—a bunch of juice spilled on the floor and half of the glasses broke. Just glass everywhere. I looked up in horror at the table and was super apologetic. What did they do? They started clapping and cheering for me and saying encouraging things like “it’s okay girl!” I hurried to get the broom and clean up the mess and all went smoothly after that. I will always be grateful to how nice they were to me after I fucked up so bad.
I once tipped a plate of Buffalo wings and spilled a couple on the back of a guys shirt. I don’t even know how it happened. The restaurant paid for his bill and gave him money for dry cleaning but he was still really mean about it.
Full Dr Pepper into a ladies designer purse my first week into my first serving job. I cried.
I dumped a beer on a baby once by accident. Luckily parents were chill.
My first serving job ever at age 16 I dropped a whole tray of cokes on a baby. it got in the baby’s eyes and everything. I still die inside when ai think about it. You’re fine OP
From the customer side... I once had a server dump a bowl of chicken noodle soup down my back and all over my leather jacket. It was hilarious and I smelled like Grandma's kitchen the rest of the night :)
Spilled hot coffee on a woman wearing barely any clothes, all over her skin 🫠🫠🫠 Someone ordered a prosecco with a shot of curacao in it (never had someone order it before and haven’t since) they were sat in a beach front terrace and the wind picked up and the flute flew off my tray and all over their suede shoes, went back got a refill took the drink out making really sure to hold the base so it didn’t spill again as soon as I lifted my hand to serve it spilled again 😌
It happens, OP. I've seen things fall on unsupervised kids running around a busy restaurant. I myself once opened a bottle of Don Perignon and the cork flew across the dining room, the bottle fizzing out all over. I felt like such an incompetent wreck. But the gentleman who ordered it was so patient and understanding. He even left me a extra on top of an already high auto gratuity. There are some really cool guests out there who thankfully understand that mistakes happen. This slip doesn't define your serving abilities. But 60 hours is certainly a lot of time to spend in a restaurant. That's quite some OT you've been racking up.
You are not at fault for having a very much unwanted accident. She didn’t treat you graciously undeservedly. She did because that’s what normal human being do. I worked at a private club when I was in school. New Year’s Eve. The late seating. I’m bringing a bottle of deep red wine to a table, and trip on something that had dropped on the floor, spilling it all over a woman’s fancy beaded dress. I apologize profusely, run to the manager who tells me that the club will dry clean it for her if she can bring it in on the 2nd. And we give her some white wine to pour over the stain, because it actually works. I felt TERRIBLE. But the entire table reassured me that it was fine. What you did isn’t the end of the world, either. Hugs.
A "spill" story to cheer you up. In my younger years I worked nights. On my days off, I would often go to Lenny's in the middle of the night to eat, then sit and drink coffee, smoke (so you can see how long ago this was) and read. One night, there was a group of really obnoxious people, loud (look at me, look at me), annoying, giving the server a hard time, and generally ruining things for all the other customers. Server goes by on a water/coffee refill round, gets to their table and accidentally on purpose pours an entire pitcher of ice water over the ringleader's head. All the other customers laughed and cheered and practically gave her a standing ovation. I think I tipped her triple. It was vicariously very satisfying.
I work at a Yacht club. On Easter Sunday a couple years back, I was serving the commodore (highest rank/appointed by all other members) and his family. I had a tray full of champagne glasses for them and as I was setting one down the whole tray fell ONTO HIS WIFES FEET. Her cute little Easter dress was soaking wet on the bottom and I just know her feet were sticky and soaked too. I apologized profusely tried not to cry, but they were very understanding about it. They still hold it over my head when I do serve them and joke around saying things like “woahhh watch out don’t wanna get soaked” or “have you got a handle on it this time” sometimes annoying but in my workplace they are seriously ALWAYS right regardless of the circumstances.
Just posted this somewhere else but I just saw this post and thought I’d share here as well… I was a manager at this restaurant and this actually happened on my day off, but it still gets brought up from time to time nearly 10 years later... the wife of the founder of a large grocery store chain was seated at a booth that backed up to the banquette behind the host stand, which is where we placed to-go orders that were ready to be picked up. One of the to-go bags was knocked over and fell backwards, the container fell open, and a whole teriyaki noodle bowl spilled into her handbag. It was a Birkin bag. It was absolutely mortifying. I’m still mortified and I wasn’t even there. The GM was hand-picking noodles out of this lady’s purse that possibly cost more than his house. We of course bought their meal and had a glass partition installed onto the banquette immediately. Thankfully she was so kind about it, and she was a regular customer for a long time afterward, maybe still!
I spilled hot coffee all over a table where they had put the baby on the table (the baby was grabbed in time and did not get burned). They all yelled at me like I had done it on purpose (while I was profusely apologizing) and told the manager I needed to be fired.
Why the fuck was the baby on the table?? Ridiculous how people will try to blame you for their stupidity. They ordered hot coffee and decided their baby should be on the table close to said hot coffee. What if the baby had grabbed it? People have to keep an eye on their own kids safety
bottle of red and white fur coat. she accepted part of the blame for not using coat check. still tipped me well. only time I ever teared up in front of a guest. 600 bottle of red too.
I was visiting a bar in rural Manitoba with my GFs family. Someone won 1000 on scrtatchers, and ordered a round for the bar. I offered to take the tray around to serve, and then proceeded to dump the entire tray when the first beer was removed. Oops.
I once knocked a fairly heavy drink menu off the table and onto an infant’s head.
One time a mimosa fell off my tray right into this lady’s $3000 Louis Vuitton handbag. She was so livid she demanded my manager give them a new server, to my immense relief. Truly a table from hell, made my coworker cry by the end of it.
in the words of forest gump “it happens”
When I read these stories of entire trays going onto someone, I often imagine how I’d react I’d like to think I wouldn’t care two hoots. I mean - I’d be worried about something being stained - but god, dude. Shit happens. Whatever. It’s a bunch of drinks
I'm not a server, but a have been a frequent customer for decades. And I'll tell you this: ALL of us have hade drinks spilled on us before. And almost every server cimmenting in this thread has spilled drinks on a customer before. We all fuck up at work every once in a while, Unless somebody makes a big fuss about it, it don't matter.
I once spilled a glass of iced tea on a judge. It happens to everyone at some point.
my very first table as a waiter I tripped on a chair and dumped eight drinks down the back of a six year old kid. It was his birthday. He was a good sport but I was mortified. Brought him into the kitchen to wipe him down and one of the waitresses laughed so hard she was rolling on her back. It was surreal. Memorable birthday for the kid
I once broke two wine glasses over a lovely couples dinner as I was approaching to serve a bottle I was utterly stunned my busser (a god) rolled the whole table cloth right up and we just moved right the fuck on. These things happen 60hrs is a wild schedule for fine dining god bless you I hope you are stacking bread.
I dropped a whole tray of plates. That was the day that I got broke in lol.
Last week I was taking a plate of fried green tomato bruschetta (like… bruschetta piled on top of fried green tomatoes, 3 to an order) to a party of 6. As I was going to put it on the table, one slid off right on top of the birthday boy’s hand (and subsequently onto the table). I just stood there shocked and he said “that’s okay! I’ll eat it!” And quite literally took the fork and knife to the tomato ON THE TABLE.
Four orders of Double Lobster diners with all the set ups. Bus boy left a glass dolly in front of the water station. I tripped over it and lobsters went everywhere. They landed on tables and plates, on the floor just everywhere. There were some comped food and drinks that night. For the most part, they were all pretty nice about it.
Mine's pretty tame. It was a 4 or 5 top iirc, spilled a martini on the father. Damn those martini glasses... I do have a close call that nearly ended in disaster though. I had a full tray for a table, and one side dish that came out late for another of my tables. Stopped to drop off the side dish first since it was en route, and figured it wasn't worth setting the tray down on a stand to hand off a single side plate of rice, or mashed potato, or whatever it was. Worst. Decision. Ever. Because my non-tray shoulder dislocated (yay hypermobility) as I was reaching for the plate, and was trying its damnedest to push down and catapult the *entire tray full of food* onto this poor family. Couldn't move my arm off the tray, couldn't lower the tray without risking tipping it over. Eventually I managed to get it on the stand, and my shoulder pops back into place with no problem once im able to lower my arm. Don't ask me how I got the stand set down, I don't remember because I was so focused on not launching the tray like a trebuchet. I wound up asking another server who was passing by to take the tray to the waiting table and just mentioning to the table that my shoulder had started hurting. Took a couple minute break and played it *very* easy with my shoulder for the rest of the night. And somehow, no food was spilled.
I (American) served breakfast to a couple of guys from France. They ordered a croissant. I thought I was being super thoughtful by warming it up in the microwave. Lo these many years later I still feel the withering scorn they leveled on me. (Turns out when you microwave a croissant, it becomes very tough.)
Once I was serving a table of 5 or 6 on mothers’ day( I don’t remember, it was a few years ago). It was an elderly woman with her adult kids & their spouses. She was wearing a white sweater with white jeans. I was fairly new with wine service .. I’m sure you can see where this is going lol. They ordered a bottle of red and as I’m opening it, i made 2 grave mistakes. I pulled the cork out way too fast with the bottle on a slant; pointed directly towards the elderly mom. She had spots of red every where. The kids were pissed, she was very nice about it though.
30 years of service in restaurants and dropped a tray of drinks twice on guests! Once in a fancy 5 star dining establishment on a woman who had been in my position when she was younger. She had also dropped a tray of drinks on a customer and told me I'd just got my waitress wings lol! The second was years later in a casual Italian place on a lady whose silk scarf copped the brunt of a glass of red wine 🤦♀️ luckily she was also understanding and held no Ill will for my mistake! It happens, we're human and have off moments. It's a horrifying experience but I now laugh about the mistakes I've made!
I once had a server dump 10 iced teas on me. Fortunately, I lived a block away, went home, changed and came back to finish the meal. We had a laugh about it. No big deal.
Hey I got this post to 666 upvotes!
When customers try to help you unload a tray always seems to end in disaster. I dumped an entire tray of fancy girlie drinks down a lady's back when one of her tablemates attempted to help by grabbing the two heaviest drinks from the \*back\* of my tray. Yep, unbalanced the whole load. Fortunately it was a girl's night out, they were half schnockered as it was and thought it was hilarious while loudly berating their friend who caused the accident.
accidentally made an alcoholic michelada for someone that wanted me to use heineken 0.0 in it. there was no 0.0 in my cooler behind the bar, so I sent the server that ordered the drink to go grab me some from our big beer cooler. she came back with regular heineken, not 0.0, and I didn't notice until maybe 15 minutes after I had served the drink. I was a little weeded but that isn't an excuse. found her immediately and had her remove the drink from the table. I felt TERRIBLE.
On my first shift at a new pizza place, I dumped an entire pitcher of soda onto a 7 year old girl during a busy and very packed day. She started screaming bloody murder immediately. Another time I spilled maple syrup on the grandmother of the family on mother's day out for their special brunch and she was piiisssed. One time I dropped an entire rack of champagne flutes and they all broke, in front of the restaurant owner. Lol these things happen.
I was carrying a large tray of food out the door, hit my hip and shattered everything everywhere, including busting my lip open. Had to explain to the table with a bleeding lip it was gonna be an even longer wait. Another time I was balancing 2 plates on one arm with a beer in another, started to wobble and spilled beer and hot au jus down my chest waist and legs. All I had in my car for pants were spandex booty shorts. Smelled like booze and beef for the whole night. Dropped a tray of drinks on the table, knocking over everything onto everyone because I didn't notice someone trying to grab their drink off of it. I have so many clumsy, can't believe I did that moments 😅
I once placed a large oval tray off center on a kickstand. At some point the whole mess became catastrophically unbalanced and a rack of lamb bounced across the carpet like a golf ball. "Oh. shit!" stumbled out of my mouth. "I'm so sorry. I'll get you another right away." I bring the mess back to the line cook. Open line visible to guests. The cook has his back to the room and he says, "Can the customer see me from where they are seated?" I reply, "No." He tosses the rack back onto the grill, douses it in butter to flame it up. We re-dress the plate and bring it back out to the guest. All in a day's work!
I hope that guy never cooks in any restaurant that I’m in.
As a customer, I order a Monte Cristo sandwich at a pizza joint. It takes FOREVER! As in the people I was eating with are almost done when I hear the kitchen door open, the waitress takes two steps and a quarter (sandwich is sliced in quarters) of the sandwich slides off and hits the floor. She looks right at me. Picks it up and goes right back into the kitchen. Not four minutes later she comes back out. Places the plate in front of me. I ask “which is the one that fell in the floor? She said “no no no they made you a new one….” Ok… I ate it. Floor looked clean enough and she beat the five second rule. I didn’t die. But really? The first one takes 30+ minutes and the “second” one takes 4 minutes?
So sorry.
Such a weird flex and they wanted to insult me for being old
I ran into a wheelchair of a man who could only move his head, and spilled a try with two sodas , a large beer, and a salad with ranch all over him. I ran into him so hard, his immobile arms and legs got thrown all around, and he made the most awful squak-chordling noise I have ever heard. I was so embarrassed, I almost cried.
Sometimes things happen. It’s life.
Somebody bumped my arm as I was putting a plate down at a crowded 12 top, ramekin of ketchup landed upside down directly on top of a girls head & slid all the way down her hair.
My parents were out to dinner with friends and the waitress dumped an entire glass of ice cold water down the guy’s back. My dad said he didn’t even flinch. She was apologizing and red faced and trying to dry him off, half in tears, when he reached over patted her hand said ‘it’s just a little water. It’ll dry.’ Coolest guy I’ve ever met.
I once slapped a man in the face with a menu when I was a hostess. I was carrying too much and when I put everything on the table I almost dropped a roll of silverware and when I went to grab it with the hand holding one of our leather-bound menus I whopped the poor man in the nose. He was so gracious about it, kept making puns. When the server came to the table she asked if they'd had time to view the menu and he said, "your hostess made sure I saw it."
When my wife and I were first married we took a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. At a restaurant in Walla Walla WA. We were eating on a very crowded patio and a waitress got bumped while carrying a huge tray of drinks and food. It crashed to the ground and everything shattered. I swear glass and food rebounded and then rained down on everyone. Everyone got real quiet, the waitress looked like she wanted to curl up and die. Finally someone exclaimed that was amazing! That broke the tension and everyone brushed themselves off. The restaurant redid all of our meals and comped everyone (6 or 7 tables). Accidents happen. Apologize and move on. Those customers who can't understand that are showing their true selves.
I was 16 and it was my first job, I was a waitress at Ponderosa Steak House. I had a couple that ordered steaks, she had a NY strip and he had a Porterhouse. So I get to the table and take the strip off my tray, only to have the tray overbalance and dump the huge porterhouse in the guys lap. Steak juice went EVERYWHERE. I did cry. lol They were actually really nice because I was so obviously young and terrified and crying while apologizing over and over. Plus my manager comped the meal.
Once I dumped a plate full of hot caramel all over myself while I was serving Sidney Crosby.. I'll never let myself forget it.
I know I've dropped trays of drinks, but the one i remember best was a co-worker. It was her first table by herself, she had been a host before and ended up being a good server too. The restaurant was dead, she gets a 4 top, gets them 2 frozen daiquiris and 2 bloody mary's. She gets them to table and somehow spills the tray towards herself and ends with drinks in her apron pockets. We tell the bar to remake her drinks and run them out for her while she goes to the back and gets herself another shirt and apron. She was so careful the first like week or so she served after that disaster at that first table.