Fat Cat Customer Tries To Walk Out On His Tab – And I Helped Get Him Caught
A friend and I were having dinner at the long-standing, famous and highly regarded restaurant, the Sardine Factory, in Monterey, CA.
We were seated in the busy main dining room and across the room, a big and boastful man in his late 50s or early 60s was having the time of his life. He had two large-breasted, much younger blondes on either side of him and he was ordering as if he were a Saudi prince.
He ordered at least three rounds of appetizers, dinners (and this is not a cheap place; the swordfish fillet goes for $50) and bottle after bottle of champagne. The waiter was making so many trips to the table he was starting to leave scuff marks on the floor.
The man was laughing loud enough for everyone to hear him and kept pulling the two girls up against him. It was obvious that he wanted the attention of everyone in the restaurant. In an all-white outfit topped by a Panama Joe hat, he was hard to miss in the first place.
And my friend and I new something was amiss.
I recalled a time when I was in Greece and another friend was ordering pretty much eveything the waiter described off the menu. This friend could really put away the food so I though nothing of it, but as it arrived, I noticed the staff – the entire staff, it seemed – had formed a circle around the table.
So I leaned over to another friend and asked him what he made of it. “Oh,” he explained, “they think he’s going to walk out on the tab. People who do that always over-order because they know they are not going to pay for it, so they get way more food than they can eat.”
My friend in Greece would never do that (and he did eat everything they brought out to him, much to the astonishment of the staff) but this guy in Monterey would, I figured.
So with each next round of food and drinks at Sardine Factory, my friend Bruce and I started watching the guy. After about an hour and a half, the girls had obviously had enough of their company (hey, a free dinner and champagne can only go so far with a loser of a guy), were growing impatient and wanted to leave. The man, tho, wanted to milk the moment as long as possible. We could tell he relished the attention he was getting from the waiter and other diners.
Bruce and I could sense the guy was about to walk out on his tab. So we alerted our waiter, who then sent the manager over to talk with us. I recounted the story in Greece for him.
Sure enough, the girls got up and left and the guy headed to the restroom. And guess what – just like Elvis (fat Elvis, mind you) he left the building.
He did indeed walk out on his tab!
Bruce and I were wrapping up our dinner and after we paid our bill (hey we’re not like that guy!), the manager came over to us and asked us to hang out for a few moment. He even sat us down in the bar, got us a couple of drinks and invited us to enjoy the upcoming show.
And what a show it was, too.
A couple minutes later the door flung open and the Panama Joe guy burst back in, accompanied by a strong staffer who had the guy by the arm. Because Bruce and I had alerted the staff, they were able to track him down, as a regular customer happened to know where the guy was staying (Monterey is a pretty small town).
The manager confronted the guy, who eventually broke down and confessed his misdeed. He tried to beg for sympathy but it did not work. Reluctantly, he pulled out his wallet and his credit card took more than a $1,000 hit.
It was hilarious (for us anyway) and we had a front-row seat!
Bruce and I were glad we were able to help out the restaurant and what started out as a big and extravagant evening of entertainment for one person turned into a memorable night of entertainment for us.
Cheers!
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