When Covid restrictions started to ease up, allowing the public to engage one another and reenter businesses more freely, I worried about restaurants and bars. What potential chaos would ensue after a year of isolation? With an industry barely hanging on while simultaneously facing a reckoning that has called for immediate changes, I wondered how businesses with leaner staff and changes to their business models would pair with guests’ unexpected behaviors and unforgivingly high expectations.

Speaking to several industry leaders, restaurant and bar staff, and a combination of high-profile restaurants and mom-and-pop shops in Charlotte and across the country, I wanted to know what they were preparing themselves and their teams to face. Quickly, however, the concerns I heard one minute became reality the next as mandates were unexpectedly lifted. 

Just like when the pandemic started, little warning or preparation, heading into a post-pandemic reality is happening at the flick of a switch, with guests flooding restaurants and bars — many with no consideration for how the industry must now operate or how cautious other diners might be reemerging in public. 

On the operational side, the same concerns are shared across the industry. Will we have enough staff to operate our restaurants at full capacity? Will staff remember how to work during the dinner service rush on Friday and Saturday? Will our tailored-down menus and new operations work, and keep us in business? Those concerns are in the control of the restaurants, and can be adjusted and solved with creativity and resources spent wisely, redefining how the industry operates. 

The concerns regarding guests’ behavior, unfortunately, are out of the hands of businesses. Though it’s something the industry has always been prepared to handle, bad behavior seems heightened after a year of pandemic life. 

Unwelcome behavior is not new to restaurants. The industry has always had to manage unruly guests who have consumed too much alcohol or forgotten their celebration is in public and not in the privacy of their own home, or the guests who feel they are the center of attention and that every request and unrealistic accommodation should be met and catered to. The truth is, prior to the pandemic, there have always been difficult guests, the ones who, despite every best effort and professional steps of service, are just rude and unforgiving. Now, it seems those behaviors are more common, and the ones who have always been difficult are becoming more public and more empowered with online reviews and cancel culture.

There are also guests who can’t seem to understand that restaurants are not their playground, creating challenges during the middle of service that throw off staff and service, making the guests around them uncomfortable and questioning whether going out again is worth it. 

If we want our restaurants and bars to come back stronger than ever, the equation to their return must include both restaurants and diners. It is the diner’s responsibility to behave properly, it is the diner’s responsibility to respect both staff and fellow diners, and it is the diner’s responsibility to unlearn that service does not mean servants. Several industry professionals I spoke with said they are prepared to push back by responding to negative reviews and ending service to a table that is not respecting their establishment, staff, and fellow guests. The common agreement has been this: restaurants will only improve if both operations and guest relations change. 

As a former service manager, I have my own opinions regarding what diners can do to help improve our industry: Share more positive experiences (online reviews, social media posts, and word of mouth); take responsibility for the guests you’re with, and if someone has overindulged or is being rude to staff, kindly ask to close out and leave; and treat restaurant and bar staff as professionals, just like you would at any other place of business. Come to restaurants and bars with the understanding that as exhausted and unraveled as you are from the past year, so too are the businesses and staff. They didn’t avoid the pandemic, and their establishment is a place for respite and restoration — not a place for privilege to be exercised. 

All of this is not to say there have only been negative experiences. Those I spoke with also shared heartwarming stories of guests and identified moments where the environment during service was full of joy. We need more of those, because it only takes one disrespectful guest to ruin the night and tarnish an experience for everyone around them. Those working in restaurants and bars are exhausted, but still continue to open their doors to guests. As guests, we need to return the hospitality.

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