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A man is questioning whether he and his friends were in the wrong for showing up to one of their favorite restaurants an hour before it closed
In a post shared to Reddit’s “Am I The A——?” forum, a social media user wrote that he and a group of friends stopped by their favorite restaurant just for cocktails about one hour before they closed
The waiter serving them said he would only make an exception because they were regulars at the restaurant
A man is questioning whether he and his friends were in the wrong for showing up to one of their favorite restaurants for a drink, an hour before it closed.
In a post shared to Reddit’s “Am I The A——?” forum, a social media user wrote that he and a group of friends got a late-night dinner on Wednesday, July 30, and were rethinking their decision to grab some drinks afterwards.
“My friends and I had dinner on Wednesday night up until 11:40 p.m.,” the Reddit user writes. “Afterward, we wanted a cocktail at a different spot, a high-end Mexican-Italian fusion restaurant that makes amazing cocktails. It’s not a bar, but they do have a terrace where people can sit out after dinner to have drinks.”
The original poster wrote that he and his friends have been there “many times” for big events like birthday parties, and the staff there consider them regulars.
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“One of us said, ‘Hi, we know it’s late, is it okay if we just have a drink outside?'”
“When we walked in, one of the waiters (second in command) looked at us like ‘wtf,'” the user revealed, sharing that when the group arrived, there were still people eating dinner, and the official closing time was 1 a.m. “One of us said, ‘Hi, we know it’s late, is it okay if we just have a drink outside?'”
“The waiter immediately, kinda rudely, said: ‘Only because it’s you. This isn’t a drinks place, and as soon as the last table leaves, you’re out,'” the Redditor shared.
The group were taken aback by the waiter’s comment, as they believed that they hadn’t done anything wrong and weren’t planning on staying past closing.
In a comment sharing some further details, the Reddit user added that the waiter most likely gave the group “preferential treatment” because he knew them — “but I don’t know, I would much rather have them set a boundary and be polite, we wouldn’t have minded.”
“It felt unnecessarily hostile given that we’re loyal customers who always spend money there,” the user added, before posing the question to the Reddit community: “Am I the a——?”
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“You got there with over 60 minutes left before they closed,” one reply wrote, arguing in favor of the Redditor
Although the answer to OP’s question were slightly split, with many former waiters and restaurant staff sharing that they would feel annoyed at people coming in to order right before closing time, others argued that they were well within their right to order some drinks.
“Going [not the a——], because you got there with over 60 minutes left before they closed. Unless your group are slow drinkers, that means enough time for possibly two rounds of cocktails,” one commenter argued. “Why the server was in a bad [mood]? Who knows, but they need to realize when there’s 60 minutes or more left to closing, they need to be customer-ready.”
“If the terrace is, as you say, for people after they have had dinner, it’s not a bar to go for a drink after dinner elsewhere, however you feel about being a ‘loyal customer,'” another commenter replied.
“If you would have showed up 10 minutes before closing time then [you’re the a——], but it was more than an hour,” yet another reply argued. “As a bartender/waitress for 35+ years, [you’re not the a——], but that waiter was.”
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