So, mid-winter this past winter, two (grad student-age) (casually-dressed but well-dressed) (South Asian) customers came in at like 9:12pm to the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now, and I was just getting ready to clean the bathrooms, and so I hustled over to the table and let them know that if they wanted curry, we needed their order for curry right then, and the (shrimpy) (darker-skinned) guy with glasses is like, "Oh no, we only want fried rice," as his (lighter-skinned) (blank-eyed) (nicely-coiffed) girl looks up at me, blankly, and that's cool, so I go to clean the bathroom and do whatever, because there's plenty of time for them to order and eat fried rice, but not something like curry, it's already getting a little late for curry.
And, they dally a bit -- again, no big deal, they're just ordering fried rice -- and it's like almost 9:20pm, and I see out of the corner of my eye that my one (Chinese from China) coworker is going back into the kitchen about something, and then he goes back to the table, and then he places the order, and then they call him over, and then he goes to place another order, and it's getting to be like 9:22pm or 9:23pm or so, if not a few minutes later.
And, as it turns out, the (blank-eyed) woman had decided that she wanted curry, and she put the order in very late, as the last thing she did, like a full 15 minutes after I had asked if they had wanted curry, and they had said no, and even a number of minutes after they had placed their full and long-intended order of fried rice.
And, like right around then, they call my (Chinese from China) coworker over again, and he brings them a couple of beers.
And, shortly after that, I stop by and ask them if they will be wanting a dessert order, since "the kitchen is closing soon and we are closing that station," and they each say no.
Then, a few minutes later, when their water is getting a bit low, I bring some over, and I (nicely) apologize for badgering them as customers, but "it's getting late," and really, we are open, but we recommend that if people want a typical full meal experience, that they come in and place their orders by around 9pm, except on Sundays, when it's 8pm, because we close an hour earlier.
And, they nod, and the guy says "Thank you," pleasantly enough.
And, when their food comes out -- we hustle their two fried rices over -- they just pick at it and lollygag around and eat very slowly, and at one point she pulls out her phone and props it up and they watch a video together, and at another point he pulls out his phone and makes some call on speakerphone some, pausing every once in a while to take a bite, as they poke at their three entrees for two people -- we hustled that curry out as soon as we could, too! -- and it's getting late, and it's like almost 9:45pm and we're going to close the doors as soon as the last take-out order is picked up, and so I print out the bill, bring it to the table, and set it there, and I say very apologetically that the bill is ready and we need to close it up so we can close out the register, since it's the end of the night.
And, the guy nods, and they just continue to eat slowly, and he never makes any move towards his credit card, though at some point he does talk with my one (Chinese from China) coworker.
And, at some point right around then, my one (chubby) (Thai) coworker goes over, and she comes back and says they don't want boxes, and then she goes over a few minutes later and talks to them again, and finally he goes to pay the bill, and he gives her cash, being like, "Keep the change," as he hands her $62 for a bill that's like just over $61.
"He tipped us ninety cents," she was like, as she comes back to the back counter to cash out the bill.
And, the neon sign was already off and the ambient music was already off, and it was like right around then that the final take-out order person came and paid up, and we were five or ten minutes past the point where the kitchen was closed and the staff was coming out of the kitchen and gathering at the back before leaving and these two people were the only table left, so, I calmed myself, and I went over there, and I was like, "Hi, I'm very sorry, but the restaurant is now closed. Would you two like take-out boxes?".
And, the guy was like, "Oh no, can we have five more minutes?".
And, I was like, "I'm very sorry, but the restaurant is now closed. Would you two like take-out boxes?"
And, the guy was like, "This is our first time here and we are enjoying the food, can we have five more minutes?"
And, I was like, firmly, "I'm sorry, sir, but the entire staff is waiting on your table. We told you multiple times in multiple ways throughout the night that it is getting late. We told you that you needed to order curry right away, and somehow a curry order got placed later. We also told you that we needed your dessert order because it was late, and that you need to come earlier in the night for a typical full meal experience. The restaurant is now closed. Would you like take-out boxes?".
And, they looked at each other and said no, and they got up to go and I walked back to where we were all gathered, and we could see them chug their beers before they left.
And, I was talking with my coworkers, and I learned two more things about their visit from my one (Chinese from China) coworker.
First, after they had said that they only wanted fried rice and had spent like ten to twelve minutes looking at the 6 or 7 fried rice options, they had asked him if they could take the rice with 3 meats in it and make it vegetarian.
(Like, what the fuck -- you've never been to this restaurant before and you don't know any of the items, and you've already been effectively told that it's late, and yet you try to get a special dish ordered up that makes no sense, combining some sauce with other stuff in a way that would not even have clear pricing on the menu, and where you're not even sure if the sauce is vegetarian, and you need that to get checked?)
Second, at some point someone must have told them that the kitchen closes at 9:45pm, because at 9:44pm or 9:45pm they called him over to put in a to-go order for more fried rice (he said no, it was too late).
"It is a cultural thing," my one (Chinese from China) coworker said, when we talked afterwards, and he explained that some restaurants in China are so desperate for money and the people who run the restaurant live right there, so they will stay open for anyone and take any late orders like that, just to make a little more money.
"Probably," I was like, "But what do you do with people when you explicitly tell them something about the way the restaurant operates here like we need curry orders now, and they explicitly say that they understand, and then ten minutes later they turn around and do something different from what they had explicitly said that they they had understood, just ten minutes before?"
And, I didn't say that then, but I should have, "Because something like that is truly fucked behavior."
Later that night, I was texting a(n Indian-American) friend about this, and he said his hunch was that it was a class and cultural thing as well, and then he asked if it ever manifested in like first generation people born here (no, it does not -- sometimes they are sh*tty tippers maybe because all they've ever seen is their parent tipping, presumably, but the only people who want us to hold the entire restaurant open for them are [younger] [South Asian from South Asia] people, any [South Asian-American] college students who come in late at night get the signals and menu restrictions and try to work with them).
I think my new strategy in the future is to be even more hyper-explicit about this stuff in the future, with this type of late customer -- that is, I'll be like, "You still have some time to order and eat, but there have been misunderstandings in the past, and if you want a long and leisurely meal, it's already too late for that..."
I mean, I had already been incorporating in my spiel with this type of late customer that it's too late for a long and leisurely meal and some stuff like curry has to be ordered right away, etc., but, even then, I may have been a little too polite and indirect about it, in a way that perhaps did not get picked up on (especially if the customers are used to class dynamics where they can just do whatever they want and other people are forced to just eat it up and tolerate it)... Like, I think a way that I could be even more explicit is to flag the potential for misunderstandings, and say that they have occurred in the past, when I give that type of spiel.
That way, even if the customers say they understand but then still want to keep the restaurant open, you can apologize and say that there must have been a misunderstanding again, which is why we tell people that misunderstandings can occur at this time of night, etc. etc. etc.
