Who Picks up the Tab?
I realize this isn’t a “Miss Manners” blog, but nevertheless I present the following scenario for your consideration, my readers:
You and your fiance at are at family restaurant for a nice dinner after work. You are both well dressed, not because the restaurant commands such attire, but because that is how you like to appear. You place your coat, hat and scarf on the booth seat and take your place at the table next to your fiance. You are enjoying good conversation, and you joke with the waitress as she takes your order.
The waitress comes back with a glass of red wine which she spills all over your wool coat, your Stetson fedora, and your scarf. Fortunately, your clothes are dark so there are no stains apparent, but your clothes need a good cleaning because the smell of wine is unmistakable and pungent. You can’t even wear them out of the restaurant because it is cold and they are quite wet. Unfortunately, we’re not talking about a NASCAR T-shirt that can just be tossed in the washing machine along. The coat definitely needs to go to the dry-cleaner, and the hat…well, who cleans hats these days?
What should the waitress do? An apology is expected, of course. But should she go beyond that?
I think the appropriate reaction would have been to not charge for the dinners that evening, or offer a certificate for a meal free of charge at a later date. Alternately, offering to pay the dry cleaning bill would have been acceptable. A simple apology presented along with a full bill for the meal seemed lacking.
This isn’t a hypothetical, as this happened at a nice little family restaurant last night. I was very, very surprised that the waitress didn’t offer to do more than the, well, nothing that she did. The spill was entirely her fault, there was no question about that.
Am I wrong for thinking that? What was the appropriate response here?
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