Rude Gen Z Customers Handed A $4,352 Bill After Insulting A Restaurant Owner They Thought Was Just A ‘Minimum Wage’ Server
The owner decided to teach the entitled women an important lesson after their disrespectful behavior.
Nicoleta Ionescu | Shutterstock A group of entitled Gen Z women learned a very expensive lesson after treating the supposed staff of a high-end restaurant poorly.
The rude Gen Z customers were handed a $4,352 bill after insulting a restaurant owner they thought was just a ‘minimum wage’ server.
In the r/prorevenge subReddit, the restaurant owner provided some context about his restaurant, which he inherited from his grandparents.
“My grandparents immigrated to Canada from Italy in the '70s and opened up a restaurant,” he explained. “When they passed away, the restaurant went to my parents. Over the decades they grew and expanded it. I have been working at the restaurant since I was 15.”
His parents eventually retired and left the restaurant to him, at which point he initiated several upgrades, modernizing the restaurant, changing the logo, and inviting food critics and bloggers for exposure.
Mehmet Suat Gunerli | Pexels
After years of hard work and patience, the restaurant became incredibly successful. So much so, that it became a popular location during the holiday season, requiring reservations made six months in advance.
Despite being the owner, the humble man shared that he often helps out on the floor in whatever ways he can, greeting guests, bussing tables, and even mopping the floors at the end of the night. So when he greeted six young women in their 20s one night, they had no idea he was the owner, and their poor treatment towards him resulted in their self-imposed karma.
He explained the pack of girls was led by one woman who appeared to be the oldest of them all, likely in her mid-20s. He described her as their "Queen Bee Karen."
The women demanded to be given a table, despite not having a reservation.
“As they were walking up Queen Bee Karen was telling the baby Karens how this place is awesome, food is amazing, and there might even be celebrities here. When she came up to me, she told me she needed a table for 6,” the man wrote.
When he asked for the name of their reservation, she claimed she didn’t make one, but the owner was a “personal friend” of hers who saved them a table for the night.
“I had no clue who this woman was, and she definitely never spoke to me about any of this,” he asserted. “I did get she was trying to get in without a reservation but she literally picked the worst person she could possibly talk to and try this.”
Without disclosing his ownership of the restaurant, he informed the group that he couldn’t seat anyone without a reservation.
“She then went on and said out loud to one of the other girls to take a picture of me; she will speak to the owner and make sure I’m either cleaning the toilet or fired by the end of the week,” the man explained. “The other girls following her lead were like, ‘Yeah, kiss your minimum wage job goodbye.’”
The woman then threatened to make his life “very difficult” if he didn't give her a table, belittling and insulting him in the process.
At that moment, the man contemplated between revealing that he was the owner, giving the women a table, or teaching them all a lesson. He chose the latter.
The owner offered the women a VIP table with three complimentary rounds of drinks, resulting in a $4,352 bill.
Still concealing his true position, the man played the role of a minimum wage server, apologizing for the inconvenience and seemingly granting them what they demanded.
He gave them one of the three VIP tables they keep open for celebrities and generously didn't charge them the usual fee of over $1000. Serving the group personally, he asked for an ID and credit card to keep on file, and ‘Queen Bee Karen’ stated that their dinner would be on her.
Not including their complimentary drinks, the women ordered multiple rounds of "super expensive cocktails," appetizers, and meals, all while having no idea the price of each item.
Throughout the meal, they continued to make insulting and offensive comments about the owner, asking if he felt like his life was “worthless,” plotting how to mess with him, and calling him a “pushover.”
Monkey Business Images | Shutterstock
“By the end of the night, each girl racked up a bill in the range of $500-600 per girl,” he revealed. “When I handed Queen Karen the bill of $4,232.23 with tax and tip included, of course, I have never seen anyone sober up so quickly."
"She went from laughing and giggling with her friends to nearly in tears," he admitted. "She called me over instantly and asked if this was some kind of joke.”
He then realized he forgot to add their eighth $120 order of oysters and mindfully added it to their bill, now totaling about $4,352.
The woman proceeded to “flip out,” and each woman began calculating the order themselves, dumbfounded by their indulgent consumption. Refusing to pay for what they factually ordered, the ‘Queen Bee’ woman attempted to formulate a plan.
The woman attempted to threaten her way into a smaller bill, claiming the food was "awful" and even fabricating text messages with the owner. The man cleverly suggested she call the number and receive his verbal approval that they could pay for 50% of the bill — which she obviously couldn't do. The woman then resorted to childishly screaming and yelling, drawing attention from the other customers, at which point the owner knew it was time to end the charade.
The man finally revealed he was the restaurant owner.
"I told her already in a less accommodating voice, "Cut the crap, little girl, you don't know the owner, you have never been here before, and if you keep yelling, I will call the police," he recalled.
He informed the group that he was "the one and only owner of this restaurant," and certainly didn't know the woman and never made any promises to her.
"The mini Karens were just frozen and didn't even know how to react. Queen Bee Karen was in tears," he wrote. "I said, 'Now I gave you the table you wanted ... if you don't pay your bill, I will call the cops and hand them your ID."
Finally, realizing there was no escape, the woman tearfully paid the bill, and her friends contributed as much as they could. But that didn't stop her from making one final scene.
Revenge, regardless of the circumstances, can backfire.
Looking at your screen, you likely cheered when the young Karen was humbled by the irate restaurant owner. We all did; unfortunately, revenge isn't always a black-and-white, cut-and-dry scenario.
In the movies, there are good guys and bad guys, and there is right and wrong. Real life is a whole lot messier, however.
According to Psychology Today, revenge might feel good in the moment, but the long-term effects can make you feel pretty bad about yourself. Before acting, the outlet noted that you should always step back and "Ask yourself how you contributed to the problems. How did you set up the situation in ways you acted or did not act? You will feel like less of a victim if you see your own hand in what happened."
Although this restaurant owner seemed perfectly justified in his deception, maybe his revenge-based justice made the situation worse. After all, we have no knowledge of why this young woman felt like she needed to behave the way she did. And while it doesn't excuse her antics, the fact remains that things in real life are always a lot more complex than just one person being bad and another being good.
"Two days later, a man walks into my restaurant fuming and asks one of my bartenders to speak to me. I was in the back office for a bit working, so he waited a good half hour for me. He was Queen Bee Karen's father," the owner detailed. "She was with him, too, keeping her head down. I took them both to my office [and] showed him highlights of the security cameras."
"When all was said and done he stormed out with her and was screaming at her the whole time they were walking away," he added. "Haven't seen or heard from either of them since."
Hopefully, the women learned to always be respectful to their servers.
While some might find the owner's actions unnecessary and excessive, it was ultimately the result of the women's actions, and he surely felt justified for giving them the reality check they needed.
There are far too many cases of entitled customers truly believing they can get their way by disrespecting others — because, more often than not, they do.
If anything, the owner's lesson may have offered the women an invaluable, albeit expensive, learning experience about respecting others and taking accountability.
Francesca Duarte is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team based in Orlando, FL. She covers lifestyle, human-interest, adventure, and spirituality topics.