Blunders at Diners in the New Normal

A few of us were seated and having a chat one afternoon at a well known cake shop in Colombo, when the wait staff descended upon us to prematurely clear the table. There were only two other patrons at the cafe, so there was no need to signal us to leave. While the wait staff barging in on our conversation was inconvenient enough, my friend was called upon to clear up her tissue from the table in the most ungracious manner. I suppose the wait staff did not want to touch the tissue due to prevalent health concerns; which is understandable. However, gloves have been in existence for a few centuries now!

Let’s take a pragmatic approach to this issue from the point of view of the owner of the cafe. S/he would certainly want to make sure that the staff members are safe and that they minimise any exposure to the virus. At the same time, the customers’ safety and satisfaction are both important if the cafe plans to continue to be in business.

If the management of the cafe wishes to have the customers do a bit of clearing up, that is not a big deal, but it should be notified and facilitated. All of us clear our trays when we go to Mc Donalds and never have I heard a complaint – the process is simple, the bins are large and clearly labelled and there is a place to leave the plastic trays once the dumping is done.

Place a notice on each table and near the counter requesting customers politely to clear up and show where the bins are located. Get the wait staff to wear shields on top of their masks when they come to the tables and have them use gloves. If they need to make a special request to a guest, please do train them on how to make such requests without coming across as arrogant. It could be a simple line such as ‘Sir/ Madam, I am awfully sorry to disturb you while you are enjoying yourselves, but due to health concerns we have been asked to minimise our contact with patrons. Would you mind kindly placing what you used on this tray, we then send it for sterilising to the kitchen for the safety of all.’ A very clear message communicated professionally makes the difference between good etiquette and poor etiquette – honestly, it is how you come across and how others feel. Be mindful to get it right.

To top all of this off, the wait staff took an empty cold macchiato glass into her hand and turned the saucer that held it upside down, let the water on it trickle on to the table and walked away leaving water droplets on our table which was bone dry until then. We were speechless for a moment as we had not encountered such crude customer handling.

Let’s just say that we are a bunch of disappointed customers who are unlikely to return for a slice of cake or coffee. However, from Full of Etiquette, I only hope that these blunders are addressed and fixed sooner rather than later to ensure that both customers and wait staff have an enjoyable experience while they dine and work. Nevertheless, we soon forgot about these two incidents as we continued our rapturous pow wow which lasted till almost twilight and then continued under the stars a few kilometres away. Kudos to those who were dining with me for holding their cool and carrying themselves with the utmost dignity that afternoon and more so for not allowing it to dampen our spirits.

Photo by Paul Einerhand on Unsplash