Addendum addendum.

Quite interestingly, the very next shift that I worked, *another* group of four people came in at like *exactly* the same time quite late at night, and although I didn't handle the entire table, it went smoothly, despite one mild misunderstanding, as can happen.

It was basically some (middle-aged) (white) guy, his (Latina) wife, their little little kid (a small boy), and the old (pretty monolingual) (Latina) (mother-in-law), and my one (older) (Thai) coworker who's a whiz at the phones seated them and I'm not sure of everything she told them then, but right before I went over like 1-2 minutes later to go check in on that table for their entree orders, I look at the computer monitor, and there's already 2 appetizer orders placed -- presumably, my coworker had gotten that order as soon as they sat down, and sent it to the kitchen right away.

So, I go to the table, apologize because it's late, and the guy has already organized the table and gives me two orders, but I notice his (extremely tired looking) wife is looking at the curry section of the menu, so I'm like, "I'm very sorry, but it's late and because of cooking times curries are very hard to make for dine-in right now," and I direct her attention to noodles, fried rices, and stir fries.

And, she looks a bit braindead, so I'm like, "Do you need a minute?", and I ask if I can go send in the other 2 orders right then so the kitchen can get them started, and they're like yes of course, so I do, and when I return like 1 minute later, she had made up her mind (a fried rice), and so I go and send that in too.

And, as the entrees come out starting like 9:40pm, they all just kind of devour the food because they're starving but had wanted to sit down in a restaurant to eat (my hunch is that they were in the middle of moving), and most of the food is gone when it's just turning 10pm, at which point the guy looks around and asks for boxes for takeout for what's left (two entrees for 3 people in 20 minutes!).

They also stacked plates for us to clean up the table quicker.

Just quick, easy, smooth. No delay of order or extended haggling among themselves about the shared entrees (both groups did shared entrees!), an attempt to listen to what we were telling them, no special requests even though the kitchen is closing, no chaotic multiple additions to order made through unexpected interruptions outside of the normal order process, but rather quick staging and getting in orders ASAP as soon as they knew them, and most of all no attempt to have a normal leisurely meal instead of "the quick bite" that is appropriate for a closing restaurant.

My hunch is that the four (South Asian) customers on that previous shift probably have a nice list of degrees and these other people from the next night may not have even gone to college, but these people have manners and consideration for others, rather than a default stance of being served and not even having to listen to what people in "the servant caste" tell you, however clearly or respectfully.