Restaurant Guests Start Physical Brawl After Closing, Owners Don't Support Staff Members
Published Dec. 5 2023, 2:42 p.m. ET
There are a lot of unspoken rules about going out to eat at a restaurant — one of those rules is respecting the staff and their time. Usually, when I'm at a restaurant until closing and I’m part of the last party there, I know that it’s time to leave. But every so often, a server will have to deal with a rowdy table who doesn’t want to leave despite the restaurant being closed. On TikTok, that’s exactly what Marianne Faith (@its.marianne.faith) had to deal with.
Marianne shared a story on TikTok with her millions of followers about how one night at a Mexican restaurant she used to work at, the last table of the night complained when the servers started cleaning. While Marianne tried to keep them satisfied, the situation escalated so badly that she quit her job there. But now, the owners who didn’t have her back, have gotten their comeuppance.
Marianne Faith had to deal with an unruly table after the restaurant she worked at closed for the night.
Marianne painted the picture for us in her TikTok video — the Mexican restaurant she was working at for the night had closed and the servers were doing their side work before they could clock out. (Side work is essentially non-tipped work servers do before, after, and sometimes during their shift to keep the restaurant clean, up to health code, and stocked up for guests.)
Marianne had the last table of the night, a party of 11, who were still sitting at their table after the restaurant officially closed. However, Marianne wasn’t trying to shoo them out. As her co-workers did their side work, one started to vacuum. This upset one of the guests at Marianne’s table, who walked right over to the manager and abruptly asked them to not vacuum.
After waiting 30 minutes, the manager told Marianne to go over to her table and tell them to just sit tight while her co-worker vacuumed so that the other staff members could clock out and go home. Even still, Marianne didn’t rush them out at all and told them they could continue sitting in the restaurant even though it had closed.
But at this point, the same man went over to Marianne, “toe to toe,” she described, and started verbally assaulting her. At this point, the manager jumped in, and the altercation quickly went from verbal to physical as the party of 11 started assaulting the restaurant's staff members, simply because the staff just wanted to clean.
It’s pretty ridiculous, but it gets even worse. Some of the guests threatened to brandish a knife, so the staff called the cops. Two of the party members got arrested, so you’d think that would be the end of the story. But as the manager went to press charges, the guests called the owners, who they happened to be friends with.
Not only were they not able to press charges, but the owner welcomed the guests back to the restaurant, even though they physically assaulted the staff. That’s what set Marianne over the edge to quit — if the owners don’t support their staff, that isn't a good place to work. Any restaurant worker knows that support among the staff is the first rule of working in hospitality.
It’s hard enough to deal with drunk guests on your own but without the support of the owners and managers, it’s nearly impossible. And it can be even more emotionally draining.
The restaurant owners rightfully got their comeuppance when Marianne’s followers review bombed them.
The story that Marianne told actually happened in 2018, but it went viral years later thanks to Marianne’s large TikTok following. Although she kept her hometown and the restaurant anonymous, people who went to school with her and knew her were able to put the pieces together and call out the restaurant.
Because of this, many of Marianne’s followers went on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and other websites to drag the restaurant. Some might call it petty, but if you’re a business owner who doesn’t support your staff, then you deserve every bit of online hate that’s thrown your way. This is especially true if your staff is physically assaulted by a guest and you don’t intervene.
The moral of the story is whether you’re a restaurant guest or an owner, treat your restaurant staff with respect. You never know what could come back to bite you years down the line.
