They’re serving up attitude.
A clip of two wait staffers discussing customer habits has sparked a debate on social media, after a restaurant rage bait post went viral on X.
Right-wing shock jockey Royce Lopez reposted the clip from another account that allegedly featured fed-up food servers discussing the frustrating FOH (“front of house”) lifestyle.
In the clip, one apparent wait staffer asked another, “What is your biggest ick in customers?”
“Modifying any of the food,” she answered. “I understand, you go out to a restaurant and there’s tomatoes in something, and oh ‘I don’t really like tomatoes. Can I get it without tomatoes?” She goes on to describe the many ways a customer could take care of this request on their own (by eating around the unwanted ingredient) instead of clogging up restaurant channels.
“Also, maybe grow up,” she suggested.
Invoking the great tipping culture debate of our time, Lopez wrote in his re-post on X, “I see these waitresses posting if you can’t afford a 20% tip, you shouldn’t go out, while at the same time having this attitude. If I don’t want tomatoes on my sandwich, I’m going to ask for no tomatoes because I’m an adult and you’re dating the short-order cook drug dealer.”
The service industry is a sensitive subject for residents of the US, where a 20% additional charge — going directly to the servers and staff to supplement their hourly wages — is implied on many restaurant, bar and coffee shop checks. While many diners accept it as part of the deal, a recent survey revealed that 64% of American consumers say they feel “guilted” into tipping, even when service is poor, leading them to spend an estimated $150 per week on “unnecessary” tips.
Responses to the incisive post included fans of “Revenge of the Cis” radio, a podcast co-hosted by Lopez and Mersh Schiele, who were quick to rebuff the “wench[es].”
“They want to be paid the equivalent of $40 an hour to carry plates of food a distance of 12 feet without any thinking involved. They usually don’t even remember who got what and let the customers figure it out,” one X user scoffed.
Another user lambasted wait staffers for having “zero skills” to warrant higher pay. “They write down what you want while someone else does all the work making the food. Why do they deserve anything above minimum wage?”
Not everyone looked spitefully on the sassy servers.
Said one supporter on X, “I agree with her. Be a man and take the tomatoes off yourself. What are you? A child who can’t eat something if icky tomatoes touched it? Do you refuse to eat if your eggs touch your hash browns too?”
It’s not the first time social media users and restaurant workers have found themselves embroiled in a heated culinary clash over customer requests.
In a recent tell-all report, servers revealed to Reader’s Digest their biggest customer pet peeves — and one of which most customers are guilty.
They agree that too many requests were cramping their already tight shift schedule.
“I felt like people were being too needy, and it stressed me out,” said Utah-based server says Stephanie S.
“I’ll admit, it kind of makes me hate people if they do this at peak dinner rush,”said Sarah S., from Florida. “When we’re slammed, it turns into a logistical nightmare.”