User Kevin Minihane (@Kevinminihane), in a series of TikTok videos titled “Working in the Hospitality Industry,” enumerates the misbehavior of restaurant patrons, and his latest video highlights the error of claiming to know the owner.
@kevinminihane and they don’t even know their names #fyp #server #server life #Waiter ♬ Original song – Kevin Minihane
In the video, which has been viewed more than 103,000 times, Kevin acts out a scene in which he claims he knows the owner when a customer tries to get a seat early.
The skit begins with Kevin asking a customer, “Are you okay?” When the waiter explained that it was a Saturday night and that the restaurant was busy, there was a wait. i know the owner “
Kevin responds with the kind of bombastic response that most servers only dream of saying in real life situations. “Oh no! I know him too, he gave me the job, shut up.”
A TikToker skit about a customer who claimed to know the owner resonated with many restaurant workers in the comments.
“Yes, but does the owner know you?” one user asked a hypothetical customer.
Many servers shared their own similar experiences.
“I worked for a man named Gerald. ‘I know the owner, Gerald.’ you? ! “Someone joked.
“Somebody said this to me in front of my owner. After talking to him for 10 minutes, I said, ‘It’s good that we know each other so well.’ I am the owner,” another user added.
One viewer added that the owner of the restaurant in question is also not usually happy when customers use this tactic.
“Owners hate this,” they just wrote.
Restaurant employees witness people’s bad manners on a daily basis. However, since the new coronavirus infection (Covid-19), Inappropriate customer behavior is on the rise across the service and hospitality industry. In previous posts, Kevin pointed to other instances of customers engaging in malicious behavior, such as interrupting servers or grabbing items from trays.
One server shared a trick they used to weed out imposters. “He was always sitting at the table next to me, so I often asked him to point it out.”
Another shared a tactic his restaurant used against such customers. “At my job we made a work shirt that said ‘I know the owner too’ on the back.”
One server pointed out that customers who actually know the owner are often the worst tables to treat as a server. “The most entitled women ever. When they don’t get their way, they literally text my boss,” they wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Kevin for more information via a TikTok comment.
*First published: July 25, 2023, 1:23 AM CDT
Parkes Coogle
Parks Kugle is a San Antonio-based writer and reporter. His work has been published in the Lumina Literary Journal, Wicked Local News, and various publications throughout the United States. He enjoys cartoons and gardening.
