Recently after a long day at work, I decided to hit happy hour with a few friends at Weiland's Brewery in downtown Los Angeles (the 6th and Flower underground location). A couple of glasses of wine, some $2 deep fried appetizers and a little catching is a pretty good prescription for a stressful day.
From the very beginning, our waitress was clearly in a foul mood. When she carded two of my friends and not me, I joked, "What? No I.D. from me?" to which she dryly replied, "Well if you want to show it to me, you're more than welcome." Ohhhhhhhhkay. Never mind, then. We'll just order some onion rings with a side of a sense of HUMOR, if you can manage it.
She continued to be curt and somewhat irritable with us but we didn't really mind that much; maybe she had a bad day or her dog died or something. Sure, it was annoying, but what are you going to do? We just smiled and and tried to be polite.
Toward the end of our evening, said waitress came over and started clearing some plates. In her haste, she dropped a plate onto my full glass of wine, sending shards of glass and wine all over my hands and lap. Naturally she was horrified. I just stood up, said it wasn't a problem and picked bits of glass off of my fingers and clothing. Luckily I didn't get cut, though my jeans and shirt were covered in red wine and glass splinters.
Though I was nice about the whole thing, I will admit that I expected her to comp at least one of my glasses of wine. Yes, she replaced the broken one, and it was an accident, but it put a bit of a glitch in our evening and left me with stained clothes. When we got our check, there was not a single comp. I am not a spoiled brat or a mooch of any sort, but I think that the restaurant should have paid for at least one drink. My dry cleaning bill is going to cost more than a glass of wine, but I would have considered a free glass a fair trade.
I ended up leaving her a 10% tip and a note that said, "Next time you spill a glass of wine on somebody, you may want to consider comping it." Mean? Maybe a little. Unwarranted? I think not. In retrospect, I probably should have spoken to a manager there but I was too pissed and caught up in the moment. In any case, I think she got the message.
What do you think?
2 comments:
I think you put up with more than you should have. It's one thing if someone spills water on you, but wine? AND glass? The LEAST she could have done was offer to pay for your dry-cleaning while replacing the wine.
You're far more forgiving than me, apparently.
Ahhh, you were much too kind. I would have calmly asked to see the manager, well ... maybe not *calmly* :-) You deserved both a comp and payment for your dry cleaning bill.
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