The Myth about Napkins

Today I was told not to fold napkins in front of guests in a restaurant. When I thought about it, I found it funny. Do people think that a machine folds them and magically resets the tables?
Think about it.... How sterilized is your napkin? How many people touched it, and were their hands clean?

It was washed by a linen company, then pressed in half a put into a giant stack of around twenty-five, and folded in half. Four of these stacks get saran wrapped together. This is one or two people.
The saran wrapped stacks then get placed into large bags by someone.
Someone delivers these large bags to restaurants on a weekly basis.
Someone else unloads these bags at the restaurant.
Server usually them fold napkins in large stacks. That is right kids, the same person that cleans up your dirty tissues, glasses, and plates, is the same one who folds up your napkin.
They do this in groups of two or more when restaurants are outside their peek hours.
These stacks of pre-folded napkins (or cutlery rolls) go onto shelves, and can sit there for hours or days.
Another server, bartender, or bus-person, takes them from here and places them on the table.
Then you sit down.
So, how many people did the napkin go through before you?
Why is it such a hidden thing in restaurants that servers should not fold napkins or roll cutlery in front of guests?
Are guest really unaware?

(The napkin cycle finishes by you using it. The server or bus-person places it into a large linen bag. The linen bag goes back to the linen company and the cycle starts again.)

Worst Table EVER

After serving in restaurants for a couple years now, I thought I had experienced some very shitty tables. The most typical example is where the guests were very cheap, their bills were about $10 per person.
There have been incidences where they left you a very crappy tip, or sometimes no tip at all, and you (the server) had to pay (tip-out) to serve the table.
There have even been times where the table stayed all night, drinking water after their meal. "We’re fine" was their exclamation each time you approached to see about bringing the bill. Or maybe they are holding the bill, suddely refusing to pay or leave.
I even had a table where I had lost the host's credit card (it had fallen out of a broken billfold). The guests told me how stupid I was, and cancelled the card. Of course they didn't tip me, and the restaurant decided to take some things off of their cheque, to which I then had to purchase (and tip on). The other tables in my section didn't leave me much money either, agreeing with the ladies that I was "stupid". Net Sales that night: $800, tips made: $8.

I thought all of this to be horrible and painful until tonight...

For the first two hours of my shift I hadn't got a table. It wasn't that the restaurant wasn't busy; it's just that I wasn't getting sat. I was getting feed up, and at the point where I received my first table, I had mentally thrown in the towel and gone home.
Pulling myself back into the game I approached my table where one guy and one blonde girl, had been sat. They order drinks. Dropping of their drinks, I wait to get the attention of the new guest. After about fifteen seconds of being ignored I politely interrupt and offer this new women a drink. Let's call her Ms.Picky, and she orders a lime margarita on the rocks. When I Return with her the drink, she looks repulsed. I wait to hear some complaint. She takes a sip, says nothing so I smile and leave; now having other tables to tend to.
Upon returning she has flagged down a hostess, trying desperately to get rid of the drink. With the offer of something else, comes annoyance on her part. Everything she wants we do not carry, and our substitutions are not up to her standards.
With the backwards brushing of her hand, she waved me away "Bring me some ice water while I think about it."
The time doesn't help her decision, and with her water fixed as ammo, she settles on a cheap draft beer.
The three order some appetizers.
Another older woman joins them, and orders more appetizers, to which I verify that these will be coming after the ones already on the ways. She says no, they should be fine with just the original order.
After they eat their appetizers, she asks me what happened to the appetizers she had ordered. I explain that I was under the assumption that she had said that the original order would be enough food. I apologized, this was not my mistake, but I understand that you need to make the customer feel in the right.
By this point, at each trip to the table I feel I am fighting a wave of conversation and ignorance, to attain their attention, and keep it long enough for them to answer my simple questions (Another drink? May I remove this? Ready to order? May I bring you something else?)
At this point I tried to pawn the table off on another server, no deal! I can feel the black hole getting deeper each second, and this table swallowing me into it.I also knew at this point I would not be making any money off of this table.
The blonde girl orders her wine by pointing to her the almost empty glass, then pointing to me, and lifting her eyebrows in a challenge.
The guy seems nice, but really it's a mask for his underlying alter ego, that loves to tell me how to do my job. Some Examples?
Upon dropping off cutlery.... "You need to bring me a steak knife"
Upon taking drinks orders... "You can bring this drink with that one, (or) I'll take another when mine is done."
Upon trying to take the dinner order... "Come back in five minutes" (Four times!)
Upon clearing the table... "You can take this plate"
As I'm holding an empty plate... "We don't need that anymore." (REALLY?)

Before the food arrives, the guy flags down another server to order the table a round of shots.
When the food arrives, Ms. Picky takes one bite and flags someone down to tell him or her to get me immediately.
"This is the worst salad I've ever eaten, it's drenched in dressing! I can't even eat it. Where's the manager? Get them to come by, and his steak is not cooked enough," she blurts out all in one breath. I remove the salad, and asked the guy about his steak. He assures me it's fine. So I go to speak with the manager.
The manager tries to offer the girl something else. They take the salad, and an appetizer (just to be nice) off the bill. A drink was ordered by the manager for the table and I bring it to the older lady. Upon checking on them I was told, the drink was awful, and no one would drink it "remove it!"

When they were finally ready for the bill all my other tables had left (came after them and left before them). I asked and may sure that it was just 'one bill'.
Once I had printed it and left it on the table, I immediately tried to walk away. The older woman cried "wait!" and tapped her fake nails on the bill, "this is not right. We had an agreement with your manager, and it's not in here. Why don't you go get them?"
After ten minutes of speaking to the table, more drinks were taken off the bill. Let's recap shall we
One Lime margarita
One salad
One appetizer
One 'removed' cocktail
One cooler
One beer
Two glasses of wine
And the round of shots (4)

I went to process the bill. The guy once again told me how to do things, "Can you bring us separate cheques."
Our computer system is slightly older and once you have printed the original bill, you can not separate it. I tracked down the manager and got the cheques separated into what they had asked me for.
They then wanted items moved to other bills.
The pointing blonde yelled at another server to process her interact, and got very disgruntled when the server replied that they couldn't because they didn't know which server was assigned to their table.
Of course after all that trouble no one tipped a cent, and I had to pay to be treated like crap by those assholes.
Worst table ever. I hope so, if there can be worse, I wish you good luck, and patience.