'Roid Rage Customer and the "Pool Pool"

Amazing scene at work last night as our patio was virtually held hostage by an absolute Asshole.

This guy is well known, and loathed, in Vancouver restaurant circles and is a former (failed) restaurateur who now peddles stocks and spurious "internet lottery/gambling" sites. Unfortunately he has money and so is pandered to by many establishments, ours included. Among his many attributes are a loud abrasive, aggressive personality couples with years of cocaine and steroid use to go along with an impressive physique, a violent temper and extensive martial arts training.

As I arrived at work last night around 4:30 he was showing up with a group of rounders to hold court on the Patio, generally the worst you have to put up with is mild to medium abusive language, lots of "advice"( "at my restaurants we used to ....", to which I always want to reply "And is that why your restaurants went broke?" but never do), the occasional noise complaint from surrounding tables and a 20% tip. Last night however things went sideways as an inexperienced server tugged on Superman's cape.

In the vicinity of "The Asshole" was a group that included an attractive woman dining with her husband, this woman apparently struck A-Hole's fancy and his leers were less than subtle. Around 9 pm the woman mentioned to her server that AssHole's unwanted attention was making her uncomfortable ........ and this is where it all unravels. The server, female, approached Asshole and commented to him that the woman was uncomfortable with his actions and would he please refrain.

Asshole leaps up and starts screaming at the server drops the "C" bomb and generally reduces her to a shambles in 30 seconds.

Now the "correct" course of action would have been to get a manager involved as soon as the woman complained, not talk directly to AssHole, that's what the suits get paid for. But you can't go back in time so the fuse was lit. This is doubly problematic as we have an inexperienced manager on the Patio and our General Manager doesn't immediately grasp AssHole's condition ( 5 hours of cocktails on top of his surly disposition and likely a line of blow or two) and thinks he can reason with him.

The upshoot is we have to stop seating our principle revenue source to let AssHole vent, leave him at his table, transfer waiters and piss off dozens of guests. Now don't get me wrong, our GM chose the correct course in "discretion is the better part of valour" , had we tried to remove AssHole or called authorities things would have been even worse and physical damage would have occurred but the scene was surreal to say the least.

What also amazed me was that the other people at AssHole's table, with one exception, just sat there continuing their evening including the women at the table. Now I'm sorry but if I'm a woman and some nutjob at the table I'm at stands up and calls our waitress a cunt loudly in public then I'm out of there, but these bimbos just sat there giggling and drinking the cocktails the "Broker boys' kept buying.

We all know that "AssHole" is past redemption but the women should've walked immediately and the "Men" at the table need to grow a pair and set "AssHole" straight.

On a happier note the sun is out again today so daughter and I will be going to the pool again, making it 7 days out of 8 for the summer holidays. "Slightly deranged expeditor" has suggested that I take bets on the pool visits so I will consider setting up an over/under line on Summer 2007 pool visits ........... my advice is take the over.