How do you feel about be refusing to bow down to a vegan in my own restaurant?

Question

Some vegan was in my restaurant and was giving my wait staff a hard time about how her meal was prepared. After practicially causing a scene, I went out and kindly asked this woman to leave my restaurant and never come back. Comments?

Cat, I'm been in business for 25 years. Try again.

Answer 1

Although you have the right to refuse buisness to anyone... you shouldn't assume that your food is right for everyone... meat eater or not... You could look at it either way... (1) It's your buisness... (2) The customer is right and if it weren't for them... you'd be working for someone else.

Answer 2

There's no excuse for what she did but from your tone it sounds like you would have labeled her the same way even if she was being polite. You're phrase, "bow down to a vegan in my own restaurant" says that you are prejudice towards vegans and not that you were mad at an unreasonable customer. If that person were complaining about a steak being cooked poorly you wouldn't replace vegan with meat eater would you. I see no reason why this womans diet has anything to do with this situation. She was an angry customer plain and simple. I don't feel you should have bowed down to this customer but if they had a particular way they wanted the meal prepared and you made an attempt to prepare it that way and she still got extremely upset and out of control then you did the right thing.

Answer 3

I believe you can run your business however you want. Heck, if you wanted to not serve people of a certain race, I'd say you have that right. You can kick out whoever you want.

Personally, I think it is bad business decision to not serve groups of people. I use to work in customer service, and I never told someone to leave like that.

Also, as a vegan I would recommend that my friends and families do not go to such a restaurant.

Anyway, it would make sense to kick someone out if they were bothering other customers, regardless of whether they were a vegan or not. Was that what happened?

Answer 4

Some people who choose to live their lives in a certain way expect everyone around them to bow down to what they want.

Vegan may be becoming more common but is still far from being something every restaurant is prepared to accomodate unless they advertise as such. Unless the customer is completely out of touch with reality she should realize that most restaurants aren't tailored to prepare foods by vegan standards.

I work in retail and deal with difficult people on a daily basis and agree that normally the customer is always right, but...

When they start insulting your staff, being mean or nasty, you have to decide whether their business is worth you losing employees. That is what is going to happen if you cater to difficult people once, they are going to come back and cause the same problems again.

I have escorted many people to the front of my store and told them they could come back when they could discuss their issues without insulting me or my employees.

Answer 5

Now you'll know that when a vegan comes in and asks, before ordering or anything, "Do you accomodate vegans?" your staff can say "No." and vegans can go somewhere else. Interesting that you don't say why she caused a scene-- I've had my beans prepared with ham (which makes them not even vegetarian) and my pasta cooked in a pan that was coated with animal fat. I probably gave the wait staff a "hard time about how [my] meal was prepared" because it was prepared in a way that I couldn't eat it. I think your language is clear-- you don't want to "bow down" to vegans, so I think you owe them the courtesy of telling them that you cannot or will not accomodate them in your restaurant. I think also you probably didn't need to bother asking her to never come back-- I doubt there was much risk of that.
I think it's fine for restaurants, or any other business, to target their specific customers. I just think they they should make it clear.

Answer 6

Its clear that you judged this woman BECAUSE she was vegan, and not because she complained. If a diabetic or other omnivore with food allergies questioned the preparation of their food, would you have been so closed minded and judgemental? I doubt it. I was in the restaurant business and often had to deal with ignorant omnivores who ordered a steak "very well done:", then complained that is was tough, or ordered it "rare" and complained that it was still cold in the middle-both of which are the proper way of cooking the steak as requested. I doubt you would post about any issue like that with an omnivore in the other sections of answers. Its clear that since this woman doesnt share YOUR views on food, that you judged her as being difficult, weird, etc., and by "refusing to bow down to her", you make it obvious that you are very closed minded to anyone who doesnt think exactly like you do. Its a wonder you have remained in business for so long with an attitude like that. The patrons of your establishment pay good money for their food, and should be allowed SOME opinion on how its prepared. Again, there is little doubt in my mind that you cater to the requests of omnivores many times a day, but simply because this woman labeled herself as a vegan, you blew her off.

Answer 7

That is your right of course.
I am a cautious eater as I have a 50+ food allergy list. I believe in being as polite as possible to the wait staff & I have rarely had bad service or food I couldn't eat. But if looked at it from the other side I do ask for "special" treatment but I never am rude to them if they can not do what I need. Sometimes I just end up with a fresh Salad, sans cheese, meat, croutons etc. salad dressing on the side. ;-}

Answer 8

I would not expect to be accomodated at a fine dining restaurant with a chef. A chef's creations are an art form in my mind. Just like I wouldn't ask a fine artist to alter the colors he/she was using to make a painting more palatable to me personally, (nor would I appreciate such suggestions if it was my work), I wouldn't ask a real chef to alter their ingredients. For that reason, I don't patronize fine dining restaurants unless I know there are vegan selections already on the menu.

On the other hand, if I went to a family/chain restaurant, I would expect to be accomodated to the letter. After all, the recipes aren't the creation of the cook at places like that. Why should they care if you ask for something without cheese? It's not like it ruins their "vision" or anything.

You didn't say what kind of restaurant you have, but I'm guessing by your reaction that it is the former. For reasons I already mentioned, I can kind of understand why you did what you did. Instead of throwing people who don't appreciate your vision right out the door, though, you could always create a vegetarian and/or vegan entree in your own style for your menu. There are a lot more of us than you think :)

Answer 9

You worded this so that the majority of people will agree with you and you can go on your happy way feeling smug about doing the right thing. Diners have the right to complain if their meal wasn't prepared right. I use to work in restaurants and I know people who aren't vegans did much complaining, sometimes over trivial matters, are you sure you are not just against or mad at vegans and this is your way of getting even?

Answer 10

Bad idea. I work in a restaurant that a few times a week has to come up with vegan entrees/amuse bouche/appetizers on the fly...don't look at them as a pain in the ***, look at them as a challenge to cook something delicious given a limited set of ingredients. Yes, vegans are usually pretty annoying, but now you've lost a customer because you didn't give them what they wanted, and everybody in the dining room got to see you throw somebody out because you weren't up to the challenge. On top of that, instead of walking away happy with their vegan meal, they're pissed off that you threw them out...guess how many friends they'll recommend your restaurant to?

Vegans might be really irritating, but they're customers just the same, and we're in the business of satisfying customers, no?

Answer 11

I agree that if the woman was causing a scene you were right to evict her for the sake of harmony among your employees and the the consideration of your other customers. It is tough to be a vegan (I was one for 5 years) and be on the road and try to find suitable food. Every time I had to be on the road I'd have to prepare 2 to 3 days worth of food to take with me because there simply are no places that cater to vegans that are accessible to travelers. Perhaps she was just very hungry and irritable. I don't know, but I don't blame you for asking her to leave.