Life on the Line #5

     Dealing with strange and/or very difficult customers in the food & beverage business is very common.  The severity of this can fluctuate but it still drives you a little crazy.  This has happened to me on several occasions but one in particular sticks out for me.
     It was your typical Spring Sunday brunch and service was proceeding very well.  We finally opened our patio and everyone was enjoying their spring inspired brunch in the comfortable, yet unreliable Georgia weather.  Service started at 10:30 and finishes around 3:00, depending on business.  This particular day we decided to stay open until 3:00 since the patio was still full. 
     Approximately an hour before closing, a customer sends back a hamburger he ordered saying that he found a hair.  Three of us looked for this hair and still couldn't find it.  We made a new order for him and sent it out on the linen lined plate that we typically did on Sundays.  A few minutes later, a guy comes back into the kitchen carrying the plate.  He drops it down on my prep table and says, "What do think this is"?  It took every bit of energy I had to not fly off the handle at this guy walking into our kitchen and getting an attitude. 
     He showed us the linen and how there were little hairs all over it.  We found out later that the linen company washed ours with a hair salon but that doesn't take care of the current problem.  We tried to apologize over and over to this person but he just wasn't interested.  He started to get a little loud saying,
     "What the hell kind of place are you running here, serving me food with hair, I can't......"
     Right then my boss walks in, cuts him short and rips into this guy.  I won't repeat to you all that she said but I can tell you the interaction ended in a way that the customer did not expect.
     "Who the &%@$ do you think you are," my boss yells.  "Get out of my restaurant and never come back".  Again, I'll spare you the extra expletives that came out of her mouth then.
     It all happened very fast but it's a good rule of thumb to not walk into a professional kitchen being disrespectful.  With the hours that we worked in that kitchen, we chef's were a little on edge and you never knew when we may snap.  That's an additional reason why I needed to find another, calmer side of the food business.