‘CAKE CUTTING FEE???’: Los Angeles restaurant server spills red wine all over customers. Then they take a look at their bill
When a company wrongs a customer in some way, the typical procedure is to make amends in order to retain the customer and foster brand loyalty. However, one customer says a restaurant permanently lost his business after a paltry attempt to make amends for a “huge incident.”
William Seremetis (@willyumgregory) says he already knew that Los Angeles has “the worst hospitality of any restaurant scene in the entire world,” but he and his friends recently experienced something truly shocking. “We could not believe it was that bad,” he says.
‘It looked like he was about to start crying’
Seremetis explains that he and his friends went to a restaurant on the west side of the city (he declined to name names) to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The server was “super nice” and the group ordered wine for the table, as they usually do.
However, when the server comes back with the tray of wine glasses, he has an accident and the tray comes tumbling down, splashing wine on the diners and ruining their clothes.
The server was mortified and apologetic. “It looked like he was about to start crying,” Seremetis says. The table took the situation in stride and decided to extend the server grace. “We started comforting the server because he was so distraught at the situation.”
The manager then comes over and apologizes, offering to get napkins and soda water for the diners to clean their clothes. He pours soda water on them in the middle of the restaurant.
When the bill arrived, the diners expected some portion of their meal to be comped—not all or even half of it, but something.
Seremetis says that in his time as a restaurant manager, he has “done full comps for a lot less.”
When Seremetis confronts the manager about the situation, he responds, “We took off the cake cutting fee.”
“And he said that as if he was proud,” Seremetis reports. The patron felt that wasn’t adequate, especially given that they had brought the cake. He says he and his party had “choice words” for the manager and would not be returning to the restaurant. To end his video, he questions whether he’s overreacting or the restaurant really handled the situation poorly.
‘They did not handle that correctly’
In the comments section, viewers agreed the restaurant handled the situation poorly.
A former self-described restaurant manager shared what they would have done instead. “Former restaurant manager in LA fine dining here: comped the wine, sent out a bottle of prosecco, no cake cutting fee and sent out dessert drinks to complement the cake. also dry cleaning vouchers,” they wrote.
“I work at a restaurant in West Hollywood that I can’t name but let’s just say it’s ‘exclusive’ let me tell you that bill would have been comped and we would have paid for dry cleaning at minimum,” another viewer said.
Several commenters said Seremetis should have named the restaurant.
What should I expect if this happens to me?
In an article delineating what you should expect if a server spills food on you, Philadelphia Magazine states, “if the server spills pasta all over your white pants, it’s safe to expect a little extra love — not all the love (definitely not a full-comp, unless the mistake was egregious) — but something, especially if you’re at a spot that’s a little more upscale.”
@willyumgregory charging us for the wine is crazy work lmfaoo
♬ original sound – William Seremetis
“If they’re really good, they’ll offer to pay for your dry-cleaning,” the site continues. However, it adds that if a restaurant fails to amend things to your liking after a spill, “woe is you.”
The Mary Sue contacted Seremetis via email and TikTok comment and direct message.
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