Restaurant vs Patron - Who was in the wrong?

In My Humble Opinion
1

First, here’s the link (apologies for linking to a Facebook mobile page, but I had to access the story on my phone, as I’m currently at work.) For the sake of the story, please read the narrative before clicking it.

So, this has flooded my newsfeed for the past two days. Here’s the story as I understand it.

There’s a burger joint in Dallas that is fairly popular. It’s been featured on several Food Network shows and consistently places in various “Best Burgers in the Metroplex” lists. The owner is known for being, at best, “quirky”, and at worst, “rude.” Some have called him prejudiced / homophobic / etc., but I’ve never seen it. It’s a pretty good burger at a pretty good price, and I’ve found the owner to be amusing.

It’s a small place and as such, seating is limited. Due to the high volume of traffic, he’s instituted rules to help minimize inconvenience. One such rule is that you can’t grab a table until you’ve placed your order, presumably to eliminate “squatting.” Another is that you can’t call ahead to place a “dine-in” order.

Apparently, the guy in the link was visiting from Austin and wanted to do the latter. He was told that it was against the restaurant’s policy to allow phone orders for dining in. This upset the customer who then said (and this is a quote from the customer’s version of the story), “Fine, then, I won’t eat in your f***ing restaurant.” The customer admits that, after hanging up, a friend called again to see why that was the policy and was hung up on by the employee. The customer later received a phone call from the restaurant instructing him to stop calling and harassing the employees.

Seems pretty cut and dry, right? Customer wanted a service that the restaurant wouldn’t offer, spewed profanity at the employee, and then kept calling (it is alluded that there might have been more than one follow-up call). Customer was clearly in the wrong.

Later on, the restaurant’s Facebook page (operated by the owner) posted the above link, containing the customer’s business page, saying that this person threatened to put the restaurant out of business and so people had better come by while they can. The thread has since devolved into childish / petty antics, with name-calling from people on both sides.

Now, up until the owner’s post, I sided with him 100%. You want me to do “x?” Well, sorry, that’s not our policy, regardless of how much you curse at me. But, now that he made that post, I can’t help but lose a lot of respect for the restaurant and owner.

Obviously, I feel both sides are in the wrong, but if I had to say who I felt behaved worse, I’m now looking to the owner. What say the rest of you?

2

ah… the perfect response form the owner. and at the same time completely petty.

3

Who flips out at a burger dude? The customer called ahead. Why? Because he already knew seating was an issue and there would be wait times. But entitled asshole wants to cut ahead of other customers and gets pissy when he is shot down. Pissy enough to call back repeatedly. If it escalated to the owner calling back with a cease and desist, you can bet it was more than twice. If you are an asshole in public, and you make yourself well known enough that the person you offended can ID you, you deserve what you get.

But then, I’d be happy with a public flogging or putting someone in stocks for an hour. YMMV.

4

Surely the last post on the OP’s link says it all.

5

I’d eat at the restaurant. I wouldn’t give my glamour (sic) business to Michael Moran though.

6

#1: don’t make enemies.

#2: failing that, don’t escalate.

The restaurant owner escalated. It could have been over and done with then and there, but he chose to retaliate, in public. Does this customer, douchebag or not, really have a “powerful social presence,” and even if he does, so the fuck what? Shut the fuck up and just let it go.

7

Burgers are gonna sell burgers. Owner’s got nothing to worry about. Entitles asshole customer get his coming to him.

8

I have no idea. This was just “shared / linked” and I had to track down other information to flesh out the details. I’m just disappointed (yet somewhat amused) by the owner, because he definitely had the unequivocal moral high ground before that post. That being said, the resulting comments and discussions are quite amusing. I always do enjoy a good train wreck.

On the customer’s personal Facebook page, people from other states are saying that they’ll never eat at the restaurant and other things such as that. Way to make a difference, guys. :rolleyes:

9

Just looking at the title, I decided “patron.” Reading the Op has done nothing to change my opinion.

Childish to get into a fight afterward, but the patron started it.

10

Sounds like Primadonna meets Burger Nazi. I think I’ll hate them both.

11

One of that guy’s friends completely personified his entitled attitude in the Facebook comments… people repeatedly explaining to her that calling in orders were not honored and her blustering on and on and on about “Why not?” and “But we’re customers and you always have to cater to us, even if it’s against your policies, because our reasons for why you must do X is more important than why you say you shouldn’t!” Geesh.

Yeah, I think the owner didn’t take the high road here, but occasionally (after dealing with probably one too many entitled assholes in business) one can understand the impetus to figuratively smack them down, certainly after they’ve called you out in social media first.

And what’s doubly hilarious is that that chick claimed her friend was “just hungry and in a hurry.” Well, hon, for many a decade now, most people handle that by going through some fast good drive-in, not expecting others at a busy, popular restaurant to bend to your will. Guess he wasn’t hungry enough, although I’m sure the multiple harassing phone calls from Ms. Innocent helped plead his case.

End result: next time I’m in Dallas, I think I’ll go check them out.

12

It sounds like the customer threatened to “ruin” the burger joint’s business and the owner of the burger place called his bluff and showed the customer that he had something to lose too. That’s pretty funny.

13

This is like a 5 year old playground fight. Adults shouldn’t need to figure out who was right or wrong, they were both stupid and need to go to timeout.

14

Everyone involved sounds like an asshole.

15

I was in a similar situation once . . .

Was at a fundraising night at a local restaurant for an organization I’m involved with (10% of all sales for the evening went to said organization). So, naturally, there were a lot of members from that organization there spending money.

Well, one person at one table was unhappy with her meal, and wrote a nastygram on the paper tablecloth, or a napkin or something and left it on the table. Something stupid, detailing everything she disliked/found lacking in the meal (too salty, not hot enough, etc etc etc) . . . very, very rude. Particularly considering she was there in a small capacity representing the organization receiving a portion of the night’s proceeds.

Anyway, the owner ended up posting a picture of her note on facebook, and lashing out publicly and loudly against the organization, saying he’d never work with us again, etc etc.

He’s totally right, and the customer was an ass, but it just seems that throwing a public tantrum, as a restaurant owner, is a poor business choice. It certainly left a bad taste in my mouth, and I don’t go back to the place much, because the owner seems like such a petty baby, who is unable to control his temper, and thinks that making a scene and a big deal out of one jerkish customer is a wise way to run a business.

16

There was no reason to turn a private dispute into a public one.

17

Yep.

I had the opposite reaction. Owner is “quirky”? Red flag, red flag, red flag. I’d rather go somewhere where I’m assured a seat and no shenanigans.

18

Both wrong but the customer is more wrong. Instead of trying to rally support, the restaurant owner should have just issued one post explaining the situation and defending the policy and left it at that.

19

I would have left it at, “Please stop calling.” The owner justifying things in facebook posts about incidents no one reading the facebook was a part of gets a little too close to Amy’s Baking Company histrionics for my taste.

20

Yeah, I don’t need a tongue bath from any restauranteur, but I don’t have much patience for the rudeness-as-shtick thing. Just be a halfway decent person and make good food.