If you’ve ever wondered why you hear stories of restaurant staff doing nasty things to your food before they serve it to you, this might be enlightening.

Over at Server Not Servant, they have the tale of a restaurant general manager whose staff bent over backward to accommodate a huge group of patrons who never alerted anyone that they would want separate checks or that they were each going to try to cash in a Groupon.

According to the post, some college students came into the restaurant and told the hostess that a large party of around 30 people would soon be arriving. The staff said okay and made it happen. Within 45 minutes, that number had swollen to 47 diners.

But when it came time to get the bill, that’s when they dropped down the “can we have separate checks?” hammer on the restaurant, explaining that most of them had Groupons that entitled them to $35 in food and beverages for $15.

Only problem is, that offer is only good for one person per table per visit.

What ensued was a debate over what constitutes a “table.” The large group had effectively been seated at and treated like one large table. The students argued that separate checks equals separate tables.

By way of compromise, since many of the students were going to remain at the restaurant’s bar for post-food drinks, the GM offered to honor the Groupons on bar tabs and allowed two people per tab.

Now back to the matter of sorting out those 47 separate checks.

In the end, the diners agreed to go through the check and sort out who ordered what. The GM then processed each amount separately. But even after running 31 credit cards and collecting a pile of cash, the students were still $60 short. Luckily for everyone, one scholar was generous enough to step up and make up the difference.

FYI, to show his thanks, the GM picked up that guy’s bar tab.

Should the students have just told the restaurant before they ordered that they were hoping to use Groupons and would also want separate checks?

The Perfect Restaurant Storm [ServerNotServant.com]

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