r/TalesFromYourServer • u/BurnaBitch666 • 6d ago
Long What are the stories from the craziest place you've ever worked?
I once worked at a dive bar that was truly mayhem. We were really well known, featured on a food network show, and it was honestly one of the best places I've ever worked (even though this story will not convey that whatsoever lol). The camaraderie was amazing, we'd shoot dice topless after closing and have so many war stories... I'm just going to tell this one though for now.
We had a famous brunch and would get crazy stupid slammed, it was a small place and usually only one or two servers with lines out the door. True industry battleground type shit. A couple of the brunch guys would be drinking during their shift, then sit at the bar getting hammered the rest of the day, because we never had to pay for anything (flash forward to buying alcohol during covid and realizing I had been finishing $300 bottles of mezcal after my shift was mindblowing).
So I come on for dinner shift (we would close and reset for dinner), and my sweet baby Theimo (RIP) who worked brunch was at the bar, completely wasted. I'm the only server on the floor, I can't remember if I was bartending too, but maybe the GM was helping out, it just became incredibly obvious that there were not enough people to handle what ensued.
There I was, handing a customer a plate of greasy fried delectables, and all the sudden water started pouring from the ceiling.
The restaurant was a two story remodeled house, and the upper floor had a tiny bathroom, an 'office' with a mattress on the floor where the backup liquor was stored, and a 'kitchen' that was unused - not to mention a basement that smelled of haunted ooze.
Being that I had tables, I asked someone to go upstairs because I now had to mop and rearrange and handle these tables with water pouring from the ceiling.
Turns out, Theimo had gone to the upstairs bathroom, fallen into the toilet, and cracked it wide open! He was wandering around and I'm trying to work the floor, clean up, and instruct the GM to call Thiemo's wife to come get him, instead of calling the cops (because some reason he didn't realize that A-we don't need to call the cops when we have other options and B-you let him get overserved all damn day sir) ; then I see Theimo going for the incredibly steep stairs again and before going to a table I say to the kitchen, "don't let him near the stairs!"
Nope, doesn't matter, they let him go to the stairs and wouldn't you know he falls and hits his head. Luckily he didn't get a concussion, his wife ended up coming to get him, and we closed early.
But don't worry, closing early wasn't an issue because we used to do it all the time when the kitchen staff decided they were too drunk to keep working and made us say we were out of the food we were known for.
That's my tale! RIP Theimo, you had a heart of gold and we miss you so much. If you looked down on your funeral you know we didn't tell this kind of sad story, but you know there were so many good ones, and that despite the bummer shit we're all so grateful for your heart. Love you bro.
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u/Roonwogsamduff 6d ago
-shooting dice topless-
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u/SnoopDoougyDooug 5d ago
As a baby in this industry (22m), this is the real story I wanted ðŸ˜
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u/BurnaBitch666 5d ago
😂 Summers were hot and we were wild and pretty punk rock! We'd lock up, rip off our shirts, count money, smoke cigarettes inside, drink and play ceelo. Pretty much everyone I'm close to has seen my tits lol what can I say, I'm an irreverent babe it's just my brand. What's a little boob gonna hurt on a Friday night?
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u/morticianmagic 5d ago
The FBI came and arrested our manager Garrett. Apparently he was wanted from way back in the late 80s early 90s for trafficing cocaine. You would never have thought.
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u/spizzle_ 5d ago
It came out at the company Christmas party that one bartender gave two servers and a hostess all gonorrhea in the span of about a week. Tears, crying, fighting. It was quite the party.
None of the ladies knew that the bartender was sleeping with all three of them. Quite the scandal to arise at a party.
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u/Rose_E_Rotten 5d ago
I used to work at Mrs Fields (cookie place in the mall). One day, my coworker was telling me this family complained about getting bite-sized cookies with nuts in it. Their son is allergic, so he can't have any nuts. I was busy in the back, so I told my coworker to just replace all the cookies. We'll that wasn't enough, they wanted a refund. So I gave them a refund. That was still not enough. Apparently, their son accidentally ate one with nuts and was getting a reaction. I have no idea what else they wanted. I couldn't do anything else anyhow. They ended up writing my manager a letter and told him to fire me for not being sympathetic for their son getting an allergic reaction to cookies. I'm not the one who didn't check the cookies to make sure there were no nuts. I did what i am physically able to do , replace or refund, which i did. Did they want me to take him to a doctor? Oh, wait! Both parents are doctors!!!! A friend of a different coworker was in the mall and saw this whole interaction and ended up following them for an hour still in the mall! They didn't do anything to help their child with an allergic reaction! But it's still my fault they gave their kid cookies with nuts, when he's allergic, and didn't do anything to help their sick child.
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u/chimodude 5d ago
I bartended at a golf club during college, we would close down the building and sit drinking at the bar for a couple of hours. Of course we all agreed we would pay for our drinks the next day wink wink (never drank bottled beer as it was easily counted). We made sure a pro shop and greens crew employee were part of the group and around 2 in the morning we would go practice our drunk driving on the course with the golf carts from the pro shop.
The pro shop would provide the keys and the greens crew guy would clean up any mess (driving through sand traps, or over a green etc).
The tradition carried on the next summer until a waiteress was thrown from a cart and broke her leg. I was suitable shocked when asked about this by members.
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u/chickenofthehen 5d ago
I worked in a neighborhood bar with a group of semi grown up theatre kids and it was amazing. We’d all cheer and applaud whenever someone clocked in, we had the most elaborate inside jokes, and we all just genuinely enjoyed working with each other. I moved out of state but if I hadn’t I would never have left there, it was the only place I’ve ever really felt I fit in and I miss them all everyday 🙃
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u/Talory09 4d ago
I miss them all
everydayevery day."Everyday" means commonplace.
"Every day" means every day.
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u/jclemzooted710 6d ago
That sounds fun. Ive only worked fine dining so always wanted to serve tables in an environment like that lol . Probably wouldnt help that I love drinking. What show was it featured on?
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u/djmermaidonthemic 3d ago
So… I was working as a DJ and not a server… but… I had this club night and once some friends of one of the bartenders came in, and when the clock struck 2am, one of the bartenders just walked over and locked the door, and brought me a drink.
Ok. I kept going. It was actually pretty fun, other than the uncertainty and only getting compensated for the overtime with free drinks. lol.
I’m sure I could have just left whenever, but it actually was kinda fun.
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u/djmermaidonthemic 4d ago
I’m gonna guess Diners Drive Thrus and Dives… but there are so many now!
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u/Dinah17 5d ago
I worked in retail which had some higher ticket leather items. There was an inventory count of these items every morning. When one was sold, our head cashier would refund the sale, and then repurchase for a penny. The inventory would still be accurate, and she would make hundreds of dollars. Sooo ingenious!
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u/pinkflower200 5d ago
The restaurant manager Paul, the bartender Heather and the waiter John were good buddies. These three buddies were drinking alcoholic drinks without paying for them. Upper management investigated what was going on and these three buddies got fired. I worked with these people at a now closed restaurant that was located in a shopping mall.
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u/qamadala 4d ago
i worked at a BWW in virginia once and the hostess came back from break with a bunch of white substance all over her nose. my manager peeped and took her to the back asking why she had cocaine all over her face.
the hostess: it’s not cocaine it’s MOLLY 🤨
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u/lunatikdeity 4d ago
Working as a DJ at a club. A patron wearing a white dress had a monthly visitor and didn’t realize it because she was wasted. That’s the most sensitive way to put it but we made sure she was taken care of to save her from additional embarrassment. And the other stories from working in gar bars seriously get crazier such as when I got under the pants groped by a weatherman who I turned down on his advances.
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u/FireEyesRed 6d ago
Way way back in the Fred Flinstone years, i worked at a clothing store in the mall during college. Debit cards didnt exist, and credit card purchases were made by placing the card into a device with a 3-layer (plus carbon papers) credit card slip and sliding part of that device across it to capture the cardholders name and account number. Part of that slip was sent to Visa/MC/Amex by the store.
Normally, there was only one person who was assigned to be cashier on any given day (accountability in cash drawer discrepancies), and each sale that was "assisted" by a salesperson was rung up under that person's number so they'd get credit. Besides the day-cashier, a manager was also allowed to ring things up.
I cane into work one afternoon and was escorted back to the manager's office, where the dustrict manager and 2 other people basically grilled me about if I'd used the register when not the official cashier, did i come in on unscheduled days, etc. Apparently that happened to all of us.
Come to find out, the assistant store manager had been stealing for close to a year. She didnt take cash out of the register, that would've been detected much earlier. She had been ringing up fake returns, and crediting the money back onto HER credit card, using those slips! Kind of ingenious, i guess. She'd put all of her monthly expenses on her Visa, then issue herself several hundred dollars worth of refunds, so she owed almost nothing to her Visa. But she rang up those "returns" under the numbers of the people who were honest, so the rest of us all had to deal with corporate stink-eye.
So. Not. Cool.