What happened to the other 4 people? Did they do a "Dine & Dash" on the couple and leave them with the bill?
How come the cops didn't arrest all 6 folks? Isn't everyone at that table, at least, particially responsible for making sure the "tip" was covered?
There's some holes in this...or the cops were meeting quota for the day...
As for "table/group minimums" - they suck. The way around that (assuming you like the place to begin with...) is tell the wait-staff you're "doing Dutch" and get a split bill. 4-2, 3-3, anything not close to table mins...
Three months back, I popped for lunch for our group of 8 people...went to a self-serve pizza-buffet place...they had a "disclaimer" on the bottom of the table-cards, not the menu or the bill, of 20% Grats on groups of 6 or more.
For what? Someone to walk over and see if you forgot to grab a napkin or water and they POINTED YOU to where the stuff was located???? You have to get up and bring it to your table anyways? Essentially, the place was wanting you to pay for the bus-service AFTER you left. After paying out $62.62 for the food before even getting to the line, everyone serving themselves, getting your own water and paper...I left $2.00...I didn't see anyone else leave anything. I put that place on my "never again" list.
I'd rather go to Che' McKette Dees and pour my own tap water and suck on 15-minute-old fries...at least I'd know what the bottom line of the meal would be before I finished eating/gackking...
Bad publicity about service gets around...now, with the Internet, your screwup in the
PR area can break you faster than a rat in a NY KFC...anyone remember that little story a few months back? Hell, it's not so much the service you have to bi*ch about, but if you bi*ch, you're not so sure you want any of the food after bi*ching...didn't the High and Almight Jesse Jackson say that he spit on food 'cause he didn't care for the color of the customers? He was "pro-dissing" the folks even before they had a chance to decide if they were leaving a tip or not...
Man, I hate stories like this...it makes you wonder about the quality of every place you've been to...and God help you if you get a little ill after visiting these places...you don't even WANT TO THINK about what went wrong behind the counter...
