What Did You Do The Last Time A Restaurant Got Your Order Wrong? This Guy Doused The Place In Gasoline And Lit It On Fire. Service Industry War Stories Volume 3
NBC- A man allegedly set fire to a Bangladeshi restaurant in Queens, New York on Oct. 2 for not giving him the chicken biryani he ordered and serving him something else instead, according to court documents.
Video posted on Twitter by the FDNY allegedly shows Choephel Norbu, 49, pouring a flammable substance at the entrance of Ittadi Garden & Grill before crouching down and igniting a fire. The video also shows the man catching fire for a brief period before putting himself out.
According to court documents, Norbu said he bought what he thought was a chicken biryani from the Bangladeshi restaurant. When he realized that it wasn't, he got upset, threw it away and allegedly bought a gas can that he threw at the restaurant.
Norbu was arrested on Oct. 14 and charged with one count of arson in the third degree and one count of criminal mischief in the second degree, according to the Queens District Attorney's office.
Holy shit man take it easy will you? How bad was your day that you decided to go nuclear over an incorrect order of chicken biryani? This is like in Falling Down when Michael Douglas just wanted to order breakfast at 11:02 but the manager informs him they stopped serving it at 11, and he whips out an uzi.
Totally uncalled for.
99% sure you could have got that meal replaced, and probably comped, had you gone back inside, politely explained the mistake like a civil human being, and waited 5 extra minutes.
But no, you had to go all Copacabanna from Goodfellas on them.
You fucking psycho.
Lock this guy up and throw away the key. He's a danger to society. If he's gonna try to burn a place to the ground over some messed up street food, imagine what he's capable of trying to do if something that actually matters went wrong.
NOW ON TO VOLUME 3 OF SERVICE INDUSTRY WAR STORIES
These are all submitted from you guys, the readers. Keep them coming over to dante@barstoolsports.com
Dante,
Love your stuff, man! Spent nearly 20 years in restaurants/bars/retail/wine distribution only to get out and decide to become a nurse which is an awesome job but a whole other level of service industry nightmare!
Anyway, my favorite story is I’m working at a pretty large restaurant/beer bar in Charlotte, NC and have a reservation for like 12 on the books that is due in at 8 on a Saturday night. I’m working my tables getting ready for this group and of course getting sat a bit less than the rest of my crew just based on the fact that this big table is taking up most of my section. So 8 o’clock comes and nobody shows. I keep on waiting and trying to negotiate with my boss to let me start working the bar since I’m making ‘0’ bucks. While I’m working on him these motherfuckers start trickling in near 9 o’clock (mind you they didn’t call to say they were running late). Okay whatever get my shit together and start selling and get the gist that these are 6 young couples (like early 20’s) all out eating together. This is Charlotte, NC which is big banking culture and in my experience this could be very good (a lot of these folks make like 150k at BofA or Wells Fargo coming out of school) or very bad (as most of these guys never had to work a service job before). Anyway I anticipate split checks and organize myself for it (super pain in the ass as I’m sure you know but rather get ahead of the game). They ask for the wine list and recommendations and I get rolling trying to sell. One girl specifically asks me if one of the more expensive wines on the list is good and I say I really think you’ll enjoy it, so she orders (mind you the price is printed on the menu). Plus these guys are hammering mixed drinks, shots, appetizers, really getting after it so I’m thinking I’m going to make out just fine.
We get to check time and sure enough they do want it split: An individual check for each couple. No worries already prepped for that and drop their checks in just a few minutes. Go to collect and the girl that had ordered that decent wine and her boyfriend are just staring at the bill in disbelief. I ask is anything wrong and she looks up at me and says something like “you didn’t tell me that wine was so expensive, you should’ve told me I wouldn’t have bought it if I’d known” (remember the wine had price listed on the menu that she referenced when she asked if I’d recommend it). So I politely explain that I’m sorry for any miscommunication but that the wine price was clearly listed (I think it was around $120). They begrudgingly pay all the while calling me an asshole and this and that. I suck it up, run their card, drop the check, and apologize again.
I go back to break down the table and then later on I’m inputting tips and I see just a bunch of scratch marks in the tip line and the total of the bill, right, no fucking tip. So I’m bitching to my co-workers and one of them is looking at the check trying to figure out what all the scratch marks in the tip line are. She goes,”did you not see this?”…The girl had drawn a picture of a dick in the tip line with veins and all and I guess her boyfriend probably scratched it out. Just an unbelievable move but so fucking hilarious that I wasn’t even mad about no tip.
Anyway thanks so much man for all you’re doing. I truly love all of your stuff!
Dante -
Well played.
What's up Dante? This went down at my brewery in Michigan a couple weeks ago. People like this lady are exactly whats wrong with this world. She fucked up, yet we're the ones paying the price and apologizing over and over.
Hi Dante,
Here's mine. I worked as a waiter at a male strip club YEARS ago. The misconception was that we got great tips - women don't know how to tip! One night I noticed one "woman" stealing a tip off a table that just left. She then had the stones to ask me for drinks. After I told her "sure, just give me back what you just stole". She denied it, and went to complain about me. I then got fired for refusing to serve someone. LOL. I ran into the useless manager that fired me a few years later (we had mutual friends). She clearly didn't remember me, so I refreshed her memory and let her know what a useless moron that she was/is.
Not sure if this is what you are looking for but your blog reminded me of it.
Mark
FYI - This is one of TWO Male Strip Club submissions in this blog. I honestly had no idea they were that common. I thought Chippendale's was the only show in the game.
Dante:
I work at an Audi dealership as a service advisor and one of the most egregious acts I've ever seen happened on a rainy day. A woman asks us to wash her car after the oil change; no big deal since a vacuum is included so why not? After everything is said and done and her car pulls up, she starts yelling at the poor valet as he gets out of the car demanding to know why her car is wet. He stares at her for a second and tells her well of course it is wet since it is raining out. She starts going off on him and another about how she can't leave with a wet car. So what does the team do? They take a few minutes out of their day to dry it off. Maybe 10 minutes later she hops in and drives away in the storm. Sometimes you just can't win.
Side note: I bought tickets to see The Killers for the first time in Houston in March; stoked to see them after watching the entire live concert you posted on the blog. Also have tickets to see Springsteen for the 6th time in February (The Boss is the best live performer). Keep up all the good work; appreciate all you do!
These poor people had to be thinking they were being trolled. It's crazy how braindead some people can be.
Some backstory, and sorry for the rant: My last bartending gig was basically the worst, but the money was too good to pass up. Especially for me; someone working full time, going to school full time, and living alone. All I needed to do was hold on a little longer, that’s what I always thought to myself, but in retrospect I should have walked away a few months in.
I was lead bartender all week, covered any shift (because outside of one full time guy we had the laziest fly by night staff ever) if I didn’t, or wanted a night off to see a concert or my friends or family I was told I would get fired or knocked down to part time so someone else could cover my shifts. This one got to me the most - I did everything imaginable, even the work of my managers (we had three in the time that I was there and none of them did their jobs, on top of incorrectly order beer and liquor they would show up for a total of two hours - maybe?) Everyone around me got to go on vacations, dictate when they worked, pick up and drop whatever they liked.. but not me. I was destine to do all the jobs all the time and have no life. I also got all of the phone calls and text messages first thing in the morning (after closing a bar), as well as pre shift, or on my weekends, about what went wrong with what employee and how it was blatantly my job - no my managers - not the owners. Keep in mind I was just a bartender and going to school full time…
I consistently set up my bar every shift when I started, and every night for the day shift (Why are day shift bartenders treated like gold and everyone else gets shit on?! WHY?)
I did try to talk to the owner about getting one Saturday night a month off and trading for a Sunday or Monday (less money, but more sanity) of course, no one wanted to help me out so that was out the window.
So after that long winded rant to get you up to speed on my thought process: I loved what I did. I loved the connection with my customers, loved flying around like a crazy person all night, loved how I could multitask and make however many drinks at once while getting the entire bar in on one conversation. I loved what I did, but that place and those people wrecked it for me.
I’ve never in my life had so many people deliberately try to work against me, for reasons I still don’t understand. I showed up, did everything and more than what my job actually entailed (as if i didn’t have enough to do already) and tried to be as friendly and easy to work with as possible. Instead I got used and walked over.
At the end I was let go via a phone call - the insubordinate act of smoking a cigarette in my allotted time (because that was a thing, allowed time slots to smoke) got me canned. Hired the guy that assaulted me the month before. The other full timer walked out. Biggest shit show of my life.
Four months later the guy that owned it got bought out by the silent partners.
Brutal.
Great series Dante. Love the blogs. I worked at a fine dining restaurant once. A customer asked me for my recommendation on a Sangiovese. I went into our cellar and found one that I loved but was sure to shoot for a bottle that wasn't outrageously expensive. The wine I picked was a Chianti that was a particularly good vintage at a fair price point. I brought it to him and he read it and said "I asked for a Sangiovese and this is a Chianti." And I explained to him that a Chianti is a Sangiovese made in the Chianti region of Italy and although it may be made from as much as 20 percent other veriatles this particular wine was 95% Sangiovese and was superbly balanced. He then asked for my manager and complained that I was incompetent and should be bartending at "an Applebee's."
Wine snobs are THE fucking worst.
This one was honestly new for me. I work at a (let’s call it 4 star) place in Central FL and had a guy come in with two European women who clearly haven’t known for very long, he was definitely still in the “trying to impress them” stage. My guy tells me tip “whatever I want”. I reply “don’t do this to me man” and laugh. He says “no I’m serious”. I say “are you sure?”. He goes “yeah yeah I’m sure”. Me choosing to be rather safe than sorry, I ask again “are you sure?”. He gives me a face that he seems to be annoyed and replies “It’s an AMEX Black card, of course I’m sure!”…
Needless to say I hooked the guy up on the bill quite generously, and he already acknowledged this and reassured me that he was “in the industry”.
So I put a $200 tip and hand it to him and he goes “WOAH my check wasn’t even that high!”
At first I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not because I hooked the guy up AND obviously it seemed like he was trying to flex.
He then says he’s doesn’t like feeling like he’s being taken advantage of, to which I obviously tell him that was not my intention.
I inform him the last time someone told us to “tip whatever we want” we put $500 and the guy told us had we put $1000, he would’ve tipped that. So I’m here thinking I’ve got another opportunity “I have to take advantage, this can really help me out!”.
To make a long story short, he tips me less than the amount I saved him on his bill, $40. I genuinely saved him somewhere in the vicinity of $70ish only because he seemed so adamant about “hooking me up”.
I don’t normally hook people up anywhere near what I did for this guy and I can assure you guys I won’t be again lol, but I am curious as to whether or not I was in the wrong for asking for that amount of money.
This one comes from our good friend Chris Carson of famous Carson’s Ribs in Chicago-
Imagine being that big of a piece of shit that you invoke a dead family member in your yelp review? Dave T if you’re reading this you’re a fucking loser.
I'll keep this short. TLDR; Boomer dude screamed at me for trying to fix his problem that I was in no way responsible for or responsible to fix.
Working Sunday lunch at the corporate spot I'm at, relatively chill day, as most Sundays are for the bar. Things pick up later, between 1:30 and 3:00, depending on football games on, weather, etc.. I like the slow start before getting slammed, which I do eventually. Anyways…
I'm starting to pick up, well and bar top, and an older dude walks in our to-go door. He comes up saying he's been waiting in his car for 30 minutes for us to bring his food out for carside, "Hmmm, thats odd. Well, I'm not doing to-gos, sir, but let me see what I can find out for you."
Step into the kitchen, see he has one salad, with a pick up time 20 minutes from now. It's 3:15, pick up is 3:35. I box it up real quick, run it out, explain the situation, "Well, ive got your food here, sir. I dont have all of the information, but your pick up time wasn't until 3:35."
Dude loses it. Screaming about how his wife called AND they put it in online (why they did both, idk). I cut him off, "Sir, as I said, I'm bartending and had nothing to do with this. I went out of my way to help you, boxed up your food and got it to. I'm trying to help."
He pauses for second, as I threw him off by pointing out he was yelling at a dude who was trying to solve his problem by doing extra work that wasn't their own, but then he immediately popped right back into screaming, "Get your GM!"
"Sir, she's not here."
"I just saw her walk in!!"
"I've been behind the bar all day, as I said, and since she just walked in, and I've been here, then she's probably here and I didn't know, but I can get you someone."
GM was on a conference call, so our service manager helped. Long story short, he was further ENRAGED that she wouldn't hang up on her bosses to fix his problem, even though the other manager could take care of whatever he needed. He headed out the door, screamed at both of us on the way out, "Fine, well I'm never coming back here again!!"
To which my manager said, "Alright sounds good, sir, have a good day!"
The boomer audacity to think you're special at a big ass chain because the GM talked to you a few times and you ordered a 14 dollar salad… don't come back. We're on a wait for seven hours every Saturday and Sunday, no one is gonna miss your 14 dollars of sales or your jank ass attitude.
Kick rocks bozo.
Whats up Dante? I recently got a job bussing tables at a small mom-and-pop restaurant near my house. The job is awesome. I get paid amazingly and everyone there treats me with dignity and respect. When I applied, I was told my responsibilities included bussing tables, bringing guests drinks, and checking that the bathrooms were clean once or twice a shift (this includes cleaning the mirror, making sure toilet paper is stocked, checking soap levels, cleaning wet floors, etc, etc).
Three days ago, a mother and father with two boys, one aged around 5 and the other 10, came in to eat. They were very respectful and polite to the waitstaff and didn't seem to be a problem at all. Halfway through their visit, my manager requested I check the bathrooms and as I entered, I saw the 10-year-old straight up shitting in the urinal. To be honest, I was flabbergasted and had no idea what to do at the moment. I just kinda made eye contact with him, turned around, and walked right out. I went directly to my manager in the kitchen and told him what I saw.
My manager was less than amused and told me to go clean it. I protested that I didn't want to but he told me it was my responsibility to clean and handed me some cleaning supplies. As I walked back to the dining area, I saw the little shitter walking back to his family. He made direct eye contact with me and had a sly grin on his face. This was it for me.
I was like "fuck this. I'm not cleaning this mess. I'm telling this kid's parents what he did"
I started walking to his family's table and his grin turned to absolute mortification. I reached his mom and said "Your son just pooped in the urinal and my manager is telling me to go clean it. Would it be possible for him to do it himself"?
The kid literally burst into tears but his mother had none of it.
His parents were outright humiliated and their faces turned bright red. She yanked him to the arm and I lead her to the bathroom where she made him clean the shit on his own. She apologized profoundly and they left a huge tip on their bill.
I suppose she called the restaurant later to apologize again and a different manager picked up the phone and called me absolutely livid that I would make a guest clean the urinal. She told the boss and today I got a message telling me to not bother coming back.
I responded with: "Ok. I'll be sure to visit soon and take a nice big shit in the urinal. Have fun cleaning it up :)".
(No matter how tempting, I'm obviously not going to do that. I just thought it would be a funny retaliation).
Fucking BARBARIC.
Now for some great Yelp review submissions. Keep these coming.
Your poor husband.
LOL.
This owner is a savage. Kind of respect it.
These types of people need to be locked up.
Hater.
Mad because you can't bring your 1-year-old in with you to a sex shop? Nice.
Deshaun?
Fierce.
A+.
This review was left for a Goth Bar…
Here's your reminder to treat service industry workers with a little respect and civility. There are a lot of shitty people out there.
Let's keep these stories coming. Send them in on social or shoot over in email to dante@barstoolsports.com. Don't worry about needing to stay anonymous. Nobody's name will be used unless you ask.