Cape Cod restaurant closes for 'day of kindness' after customers' rude behavior

[sheshe2]

Owners of the Brewster, Mass., restaurant Apt Cape Cod closed their doors for the morning to treat their employees to a "day of kindness" after receiving verbal abuse from customers.

Owners Regina and Brandi Felt Castellano announced via Facebook that they would be closed for the morning due to the "astronomical influx daily" of customers swearing, threatening to sue and making team members cry, the post said. They reminded customers that many of their employees — including the couple's two children — are young and working to pay off college, according to The New York Times.

The final straw for the owners came when a man scolded a young employee for telling him he could not order takeout because the restaurant was not open, the Times reports.

"This is an unacceptable way to treat any human," the Facebook post said.




More: //thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/562952-cape-cod-restaurant-closes-for-day-of-kindness-after-customers-rude

I spent my summers on Cape Cod and when I was 14 started to waitress. Thankless job as the 'tourists' thought they were so special. I can't even imagine what said 'tourists' since COVID are acting like.

Kudos to the owners:

This is an unacceptable way to treat any human

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Good to know American Exceptionalism has invaded high society

[NYC Liberal]

2. Not at all unique to the US.

I’ve worked in retail where a large portion of the customers were from other countries. Rudeness, nastiness, and all around shitty behavior transcends culture and country. It’s quite incredible to witness just how terrible one person can treat another over the most inane thing.

[sheshe2]

8. I got a 4 cent tip one time.

Two couples four cents and nothing wrong with their service.

[erronis]

3. Not sure that people working in restaurants are "high society"

I've lived in many tourist destinations as well as uppity neighborhoods. Those people that own and work in retail establishments are usually not the entitled high-society types. Workers especially have a hard time economically as well as having to deal with the "well-heeled" clientele. Perhaps it's this clientele that you refer to.

Like the American Exceptionist tourists who visited and ransacked the Capitol on Jan 6.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Perhaps it's this clientele that you refer to.

Yup, they're the one's doing the screaming.

[alfredo]

6. When I was a cab driver I found the poor tipped better than the rich.

Yes Sydney Sheldon, I’m talking about you. That asshole stiffed me after listening to him tell me what a rich and powerful guy. Shelly Berman was just an unpleasant red faced drunk. Didn’t tip. All those high paid GM execs are tight wad sons of bitches. Hookers and junkies, tipped well. I love you guys. Young priests from the Detroit seminary school tipped well. Each day I’d take them to a nearby gay bar, The Town Pump on Woodward ave

[erronis]

11. Wow! Sounds like you have a lot of stories to tell. Remember Studs Terkel?

I think being a "hack" (old-time definition) was one of the best ways of getting stories. People feel like they can open up since they (probably) won't see you again. Just like the bloke on the airplane next to you who spills far more than you ever want to know - over a 4+ hour flight.

Locally we had a driver who wrote about his rides every week. They were the highlight of the magazine (not bad - SevenDaysVT).

[alfredo]

36. Singer songwriter Harry Chapin drove hack

[JHB]

20. When I was delivering pizzas in college, the best tippers were...

...guys with work trucks in their driveways. Plumbers, electricians, etc.

The worst were the brats in the rich neighborhood whose parents had left them money to pay for a pizza while they were out. From the bills they were holding the parents had left enough for a tip, but the brats pocketed most of the extra.

[Woodwizard]

27. I had the same experience

When I was a paperboy the rich area of my route not only did not tip well but were a week or two behind quite often. The blue collar customers tipped well and knew me by name. Being a paperboy was a good early lesson on human behavior.

[cannabis_flower]

28. I remember working at a restaurant in Houston

A local celebrity Marvin Zindler (he had a spot on the news where he reported on which restaurants had “slime in the ice machine “), came to eat at our restaurant with 3 other guests back in 1983. He ran up a bill of over $60 and left a tip of $2.00 and his autograph on a napkin. His server was livid!

Also Harlon Ellison was a real jerk. Walked into the room and insulted me. Didn’t even know me.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

32. Harlen Ellison was a world class jerk.

He disgustingly groped Connie Willis at a World Con Those of you who don't know who she is, she's an amazing science fiction writer who has won more awards than any other three writers put together, an all around wonderful person, and someone I've become friends with in recent years. She should have decked him, but she's too classy for that.

[cannabis_flower]

33. There is a story about Harlen Ellison

I don’t know if it’s true:

Harlen gets onto an elevator with a tall beautiful woman. As soon as they are alone on the elevator, he says to her “How about a little fuck?”

They get to her floor and she turns to him and says “Goodbye, Little Fuck”

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

35. Probably apocryphal,

but appropriate.

He also, as an editor, purchased stories for a Dangerous Visions Volume II but in the end never published it. The authors involved started asking to get the rights to their stories back, but he refused. So major writers were left with stories in total limbo that they could not sell somewhere else.

For what it's worth, I recently edited a science fiction anthology. Small press, it's never going to sell a whole lot of copies, plus it came out right before the pandemic shut things down so I wasn't able to sell copies at cons. But I know something about the editing process, and especially now that I've done that I'm even more outraged at his perfidy than I was back when I'd merely had a couple of stories published.

[wryter2000]

29. I found that as a babysitter in my teens

The wealthy were often stingy. Teachers tipped better.

[Warpy]

5. Tourists used to come in waves

with the first two weeks of July bringing in a lot of New Yorkers. First two weeks of August were markedly better, the Canadians started to show up. I don't know if that holds true now, but it sure sounds like it.

[azureblue]

19. It's always the idiots

I wish all restaurants would deal with abusive customers by simply throwing them out.

[soldierant]

24. More probably would if they weren't (unfortunately, probably rightly)

concerned that someone might get physically hurt if they tried. Some innocent person.

[yardwork]

7. I stayed in Brewster MA long ago. I remember it as a magical place.

What is wrong with some people.

[3Hotdogs]

15. The entire cape is magical. Brewster. Chatham (light house), Orleans, the spice shop, national park,

Borne, P-Town and on and on. Nantucket in November, Martha's V.

I can't go anymore because I don't have Joyce to travel with and it would be too sad to go by myself - too many memories. We could go every November when N.J. schools were closed for the teachers' convention.

[soldierant]

25. I just finished thinking "What is wrong with some people"

and then saw your post.

The unanswerable question.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. That's the honest way to keep and retain staff: support them. . . . nt

[Chakaconcarne]

10. well, a little extra kindness from all of us will help..

it makes a difference, I believe.

[Jarqui]

12. We had a customer abuse policy

The employee was to try to avoid escalation. Try to be nice, helpful, civil and polite, etc. Try extra hard to listen. Offer to get a supervisor or manager, etc.

For anything over the top, the employee victim would receive monetary compensation and time off. We would encourage they use some of the money to spoil themselves during their time off. And we let them know in writing they were appreciated and shouldn't take anything said by the customer personally or as a reflection of how we valued them as an employee.

It did not happen very often. But it did happen.
The above seemed to help us get past it.

[Evolve Dammit]

13. Arrogant, entitled rich pricks that just want slaves to cater to every fucking whim. Fuck 'em all.

[tavernier]

14. My husband and I ran a resort in Key Largo in the Florida Keys

And often had to listen to tourists telling us how lucky we were that they deigned to visit us. We were often instructed on how they did things better up North.

[Javaman]

16. Tourists that act like this

Always act like this no matter where they are.

They are self entitled assholes

And it seems that is the other epidemic these days

[DFW]

17. It's not wise to generalize

My family and I have been making the 4,000 mile (for us) journey to Cape Cod for a ling time now. This is our 38th year in a row.

We have ALWAYS treated the locals and the summer Eastern European students that used to come every year (except last year), with respect. We’ve even made friends among some of them. I now ieven have my own guest spot every year on one of the local radio stations. One year, I got stopped on the street in Provincetown by a young woman speaking Russian. I asked how she knew I spoke Russian? She said she had been there the previous year, and all the Russian students knew “the summer tourist who spoke good Russian.” That was me. We always tip around 20%, too.

So yeah, there are always obnoxious people at summer vacation spots. They are not always rich, and they are not always American. In Croatia, the locals complain most about the obnoxious Italians. In Holland, it’s the Germans. In Spain, it’s the British. In Poland or Egypt, it’s the Russians. But those are all generalizations, too, and never true in most cases if you pick someone out at random.

There will always be assholes out there who think the world exists to kiss their feet. But wait until they start acting like assholes before you KNOW that they are. There are low-income boors from New England who are sometimes far worse than the wealthiest New Yorkers. After 38 Cape summers, there isn’t much we haven’t seen.

[sheshe2]

26. I am not generalizing anything.

I grew up all my summers there, my entire summer. Truro. Twenty years.

My grandparents lived and worked there in 1913. My dad was born there. The natives, local artists and fisherman were welcoming. It was like family.

There will always be assholes out there who think the world exists to kiss their feet. But wait until they start acting like assholes before you KNOW that they are. There are low-income boors from New England who are sometimes far worse than the wealthiest New Yorkers. After 38 Cape summers, there isn’t much we haven’t seen.

I have always liked your posts. However I do not need a lecture from you. I am well aware of who the assholes are.

[Marrah_Goodman]

38. We had a summer house in West Dennis

My folks have now been living in Mashpee for 20+ years. I totally back what you said.

[sheshe2]

39. Imagine that...

There are low-income boors from New England who are sometimes far worse than the wealthiest New Yorkers."

Unbelievable don't you think? I was on the tip of the Cape with the fishermen that struggled for decades as did the artists, starving artists. They were and still are the heart of Cape Cod.

Thank you Marrah.

[ripcord]

18. I always remember

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[FakeNoose]

21. The restaurant managers (or owners) need to step in

... to shield employees from the arrogant or rude behavior of customers. It shouldn't be the job of employees - even waitstaff - to deal with such rudeness. It's not their job, but it is the responsibility of the management. They can even ask the rude customers to leave, if necessary.

So yeah, it's nice that the employees got a day off, but it's not so great if their bosses aren't dealing with the original problem.

[sheshe2]

22. Yet we don't know that they aren't. nt

[BannonsLiver]

31. They're already going doing that.

It says so in the OP.

[Blue Owl]

23. I hope karma has something special in store for the rude assholes

[VGNonly]

30. Whats the difference

between a republican and a canoe?

Canoes sometimes tip.

[Bettie]

34. And this is why we usually tip "too much" and

make an effort to be as kind and friendly to servers as we can.

Why be an asshole when it costs nothing to be nice?

[Marrah_Goodman]

37. God damn vacationers

I love the cape. My folks live there. The people are wonderful.... but summers bring in a lot of rich entitled assholes.