Hospitality is a tough gig. Between long, unsociable hours and the ever-present possibility that a customer might cause unnecessary grief, it’s an endurance sport as much as a job.
One option for softening the day’s edges is to covertly moan about it with your colleagues, especially where customers are concerned.
Sometimes, however, those private comments find their way back to a customer’s ears, especially if they’re under the guise of a codeword.
‘86’ is one of them, and if you hear it said about you then it’s not a great sign.
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For customers, dining out can be a frustrating experience too. Sometimes it’s inevitable that the one thing you want from the menu is sold out, you might end up waiting a long time to get served, receive your food, or get the bill, and there’s always the potential for serving staff forgetting their Ps and Qs.
If you’ve heard ‘86’ said about you, then your behaviour definitely didn’t go unnoticed. In fact, it means you were a bit of a nightmare.
Cast your mind back to 2022 and the news that James Corden had been banned from Balthazar, a well-regarded restaurant in New York.
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Owner Keith McNally took to Instagram to call the TV presenter, comedian, and Gavin and Stacy co-creator as the “most abusive customer”, along with some other admonishing comments.
McNally alleged that there were two incidents where he was unusually “rude” to the serving staff, and said Corden had been “86’d”.
If you’re a fan of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, you’ll know that ‘86’ is a code word for getting rid of something, typically because a missing ingredient means a menu item needs to be struck off for the night.
If it’s aimed a customer, however, it means they’re no longer a welcome guest.
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TV star Corden addressed the incident during an episode of his talk show The Late Late Show, saying after seeing Mr McNally’s post he had “immediately” contacted him to “tell him how upset I was”.
“(I told him) how upset I was that anybody was hurt by anything that I had done and anything that I had said and we had a good talk,” he said.
McNally was softened by Corden’s apologies, and took to Instagram once more.
"LAST WORD," he wrote. "Last Night on his TV show, James Corden very graciously apologised for his outburst at Balthazar. It takes a real man to do this.
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"In the past, I’ve behaved much worse than Corden, but wasn’t man enough to apologise. For this reason, I’m going to lift the ban on Corden and impose one on myself instead. I’m going to ban myself from Balthazar for two weeks. People who live in Glass Houses."
Corden explained, however, that his wife has a serious food allergy and was mistakenly served a dish containing the allergen.
"But she hadn’t taken a bite of it or anything, no worries – we sent it back. All was good," he said.
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"As her meal came to the wrong table the third time - in the heat of the moment, I made a sarcastic, rude comment about cooking it myself, and it is a comment I deeply regret.
"But here’s the truth of it. Because I didn’t shout, or scream – I didn’t get up out of my seat, I didn’t call anyone names or use derogatory language – I’ve been walking around thinking I hadn’t done anything wrong… right?
"But the truth is I have. I made a rude comment, and it was wrong. It was an unnecessary comment. It was ungracious to the server."
We all slip up now and then, but you can’t argue with someone reflecting on their mistakes, coming clean and apologising.
Topics: US Food, Restaurants and bars
Rachael Davis