A friend of mine once said "brunch is like throwing a wedding for your breakfast." Good point, nameless friend. It takes a hefty sense of self importance and entitlement to go through with either one, neither of them are ever as fun as you expect they're going to be, and they always end up smelling like egg farts. At least the ones I go to.
I hate to generalize, because I'm nothing if not precise in my assessment of petty social grievances, but if you go out to brunch, ever again, even once, then you are an asshole. Also, you're probably an alcoholic tricking yourself into thinking it's ok to drink in the morning. Also you're fat. I'm not judging though, I'm just reporting, like a reporter.
I asked Patrick Maguire, who runs the entertaining (and informative) blog Server Not Servant whether or not he thought brunch attracts more despicable human beings than dinner time at a restaurant. Then I asked some of my industry friends to tell me why brunch sucks. Get that boy to come over and refill your coffee for the fifth time in ten minutes, then meet me over on the other side of the cut.
"I don't think brunch attracts any more assholes than any other meal," Maguire said, ruining the entire premise of my post here. "According to the 200+ current or former customer service industry workers who have completed my questionnaire, 19% of customers are impolite, disrespectful, or downright rude. You get some of the '19% factor' every shift if your job involves interaction with customers anywhere. 'Entitlemania' is alive and well."
What are some of the particular ways he thinks people take out their miserable neuroses on servers at brunch then?
"#1 The people with the double-wide, SUV-like strollers (with shock absorbers), who think that the seas should part for them because they have a stroller and a child. I was at brunch one morning and a customer insisted that she hang her childrens' coats (instead of the hostess who offered) because the coats "are very expensive and need to be hung a certain way." The woman also stated that the stroller had to come to the table, despite the manager's request that the stroller be stored in the foyer. The woman got her way and the restaurant gave up a table to make room for the stroller.
"#2 Large groups of women celebrating bridal showers or birthdays at brunch. It's as if they're the only people in the restaurant, screaming, cackling and shrieking. They have no regard for anyone else in the restaurant, and it's the last thing I want to hear on a weekend morning."
Good call on the laughing too loud bit. I put that shit on the List a long time ago.
Here's a few other quotes from restaurant saps who got sucked into working the shittiest shift imaginable:
- Working brunch is pretty much the pinnacle of suck when it comes to working in the restaurant industry. People assume that their shitty ass $2.50 tip is going to make or break you, when in reality, every server in the world would rather tip them to stay home and save him/her from having to foam the crema on their latte and refille their decaf coffee every five seconds.
- If you work in the restaurant industry, 99% of your shifts are at night, and that's the way you like it. Who the fuck wants to wake up at 9 am to go to work? If I wanted to do that I'd work in an office and spend my coffee breaks debating whether or not Baby Gap has better deals than Babies R Us. And speaking of coffee breaks...fuck coffee. It's $2.25 and requires me to carry a saucer, a spoon, a coffee cup full of hot bean juice, a container of milk/cream (sometimes both), and a sugar caddy. The only thing douchier than ordering a coffee is ordering a decaf coffee, any coffee drink that requires foam, or tea. This isn't england, and Starbucks right around the corner.
- It's hard enough to pretend to care about how someone wants his/her steak cooked or listen to him/her make the same lame joke you've heard 1000 times (pointing at empty plate - looks like i didn't like it!) when the sun is down and the lights are low. Having to wake up early and see daylight only serves to magnify one's hatred of the everyman.
- Just because you're hungover from going to Tommy Doyles last night doesn't mean you have to order (either all at once or throughout the meal) a water, an orange juice, a coffee and a bloody mary, and then proceed to leave all of them half drank.
- Jazz brunch is just about the worst idea ever. Jazz sucks and I don't want to hear it while I'm eating a twelve dollar plate of eggs.
- Brunch people usually want to pay before their asses hit the seat, have no idea that it's going to take a minute before you can come around with more coffee, and tend to be habitual about where they want to sit and what they want to order. If their favorite menu item is removed or a particular substitution isn't available, this can be more than a little disappointing. The worst kind of brunchees aren't the families or the hens, but rather the single brunchite who comes with his paper and stares at you the whole time because he has no one to talk to. Yes, I can smell you looking at me.
- Here's a good example of how clueless brunch people are. I was setting up for a private party, taking every single booth out of the restaurant through the front. After about two hours, we were almost finished. The six of us were exhausted and drenched in sweat. The restaurant was nearly empty. A middle aged couple came up to me and goes "We'd like a table for two for brunch today."
-
This was during a huge rainstorm when the entire block flooded. Out outside patio was still open at this point. A father and son came in for brunch, and asked to sit outside to watch the rain. They refused a table right next to the open window. They then rearranged their table outside so it was horizontal and flush up against the restaurant, so that in order for me to wait on them, I had to stand out in the torrential downpour, which I did while they ate their eggs and stayed dry.
brought to you by
27 comments:
Brunch has no place on the list. It's your friends who suck. And you suck too!
- a vegan
hey now, i am a vegan and do enjoy brunch from time to time i will admit but that has nothing to do with it!! there's barely anything i can eat at brunch. i have to make due with salad and a biscuit and perhaps overlook the potential animal fat in the potatoes.
how many people go to brunch alone? i have never seen it! dont believe it!
tons of people go to brunch alone. here's the deal on that: going out to eat alone is great. but sit at the bar like a normal person.
I feel that your brunch experience has been marred by one undeniable fact of life: people in and around Harvard Square are the most pretentious fuckheads in the entire world.
That's a pretty solid point. Sometimes it's easy to forget that this isn't the real world.
My post on Boston Band Crush today starts with "There's nothing quite as awesome as Sunday brunch..."
but I'm fat, and an asshole, so whatever.
None taken buddy. I'm a ridiculously insecure narcissist if that makes you feel any better.
Luke O'Neil drinks a bucket of boneless wings while he's watching SNL at 1am FFS
Eating mass amounts of calories that you don't have to cook yourself whenever you roll out of bed is awesome. Going out to eat with large groups of people can be pretty shit.
BONESLESS WINGS?! Sacrilege.
Getting a group of people together to do anything is so on the list that it might as well be whatever parchment scroll the list is writ upon.
People over the age of 23 should not be going out to eat with more than like 6 people tops.
let's get the band back together
Ha. The band is together dude, you're just being a total Steve Perry about it.
You forgot people requesting separate checks. Fuck that.
Either bring cash, or be prepared to pay a little more than you think you actually owe. HOW IT WORKS.
Yes, just split the fuckin bill if it's a big group FFS. Oh, you don't drink? Great. Well thanks for paying for some of mine anyway, dickhead.
I just had the best brunch ever
Server not servant. I get it. Now get me my whatever. Service industry types, the biggest whiners ever, amirite? Maybe cyclists are a close second. Everyone who works deals with assholes. Same goes for anyone who goes anywhere. Dad would throw in a "If you don't like it, get one of the many other jobs that requires no specialized skill."
Servers are whiners, but usually only the second biggest group of such in any restaurant.
>>>Yes, just split the fuckin bill if it's a big group FFS. Oh, you don't drink? Great. Well thanks for paying for some of mine anyway, dickhead.<<<
Yeah, that's cool. That's why I order the crab cakes and maybe an extra lobster omelette to bring home.
@justin Slippery slope. "Well.... I just had a few bites of your appetizer, so I'm gonna throw in $3.75, because that's fair." Maybe you shouldn't be out to eat with people then?
I think that's what this whole thing is about, no? I stopped going to eat with people when I was getting stuck paying for $11 mimosas I didn't drink.
As a former server, I love this shit. I gotta say, to those of you who say servers are whiners, I consent we are. But really, there is a startling lack of respect for severs. I'm not talking about being treated special, just like human beings rather than automotons. And if you're dissatisfied, ask a question. Servers will help you. It's their job. But just like everyone else we appreciate being asked, not told. We already have an asshole boss, just like yours, who tells us what to do. And for the record, customers are worse at brunch. It's just the nature of the time of day, the type of meal (how many variations on eggs?) and the percentage of drunks. At least working nights you're making a decent percentage so the reward is worth the aggravation. I'm not trying to turn this into a tipping debate, but it's the only reason any does this shitty job. In bars and restaurants you see people at their drunken worst. It's just a little easier in the evening.
@Strontius Pretty much agree with everything there. He's another nightmare restaurant story from the Server Not Servant blog I just read.
http://www.servernotservant.com/2010/12/20/the-perfect-restaurant-storm/
Classic. So true. Fuck Brunch.
Post a Comment