Nate’s grandparents want to have a fancy dinner at a nearby restaurant to celebrate their anniversary. His grandmother goes in to pick out what she wants to eat from the table. Then she does something wrong and knocks over a plate, which gets her kicked out. But Nate plans to get back at them.
It was meant to be a simple visit—a grandmother checking out a nearby restaurant to see how good the food was for her 50th wedding anniversary dinner with her husband and their close family.
What happened to my grandmother, on the other hand, was disrespectful and upsetting.
In just one week, my grandparents would have been married for 50 years. My grandma planned a big family dinner and wanted everything to go smoothly, so she went to the restaurant by herself to finalize the menu and try a few dishes, including meatloaf, which she had specifically asked for.
She said, “Meatloaf?” my mom asked. “Why would you want meatloaf for your fancy dinner?”
My grandma smiled and said, “Because it’s sentimental, Penny.” “Your father and I had meatloaf on our first date, and it’s been one of the constant things in our marriage.”
“Meatloaf Mondays,” my mom said with a laugh. “It’s been there throughout my childhood.”
“Do you want me to come with you, Gran?” Why did I ask her? I wasn’t sure if my 72-year-old grandmother could handle the world by herself. My grandma was very proud of her good health, but she did need help balancing from time to time.
“No, Nate,” she told him. “I’ll be okay!” There will also be a surprise for you at dinner.
As soon as my grandmother was ready to start her tour of the restaurant, I dropped her off and went back to work.
“You tell the restaurant to call me when you’re ready, okay?” I told her as I closed the passenger door.
After going about my day, my grandmother called me about two hours later. She was so upset that she was crying.
I drove right away to the restaurant.
It turned out that the table got pretty full when she went into the restaurant and ordered the things she wanted to try.
Gran was trying to get in place when her elbow hit the table. This made one of the plates fall off and break on the ground.
The waiter on duty got angry and yelled instead of helping. He told her she was a “old hag” and scolded my grandmother.
He picked up the bigger pieces of the broken plate and asked, “Who let an old hag like you into this restaurant?” “Look at this mess!” Also, the lunch rush is coming up soon.
My grandma was shaking and crying as she tried to tell me what had happened when she got to the car.
“I’ve never felt worse,” she slowly said. “Nate, it was just a mistake. The waiter laughed when I asked if they had to charge me for the plate. He told me to go.”
I couldn’t say anything as I drove. I had no idea what to say or how to make my grandmother feel better. She just wanted to throw my grandfather a big anniversary dinner with the whole family.
It was her wish to spoil us and have family stories and laughs around the table in return.
As I tried to deal with my anger, my ears got hot. I didn’t want to lose it in front of my grandmother, though. She had seen enough anger for the day.
When we got home, I made my grandma a cup of tea to calm her down.
I was angry but calm because I had a connection to the place that I hadn’t told my family about yet. I could use the obscurity to help myself, though. The waiter needed to learn how to be respectful and humble.
My grandma tried to cancel the anniversary dinner a few days before it happened while I was working on my laptop.
“Maybe we should do something at home,” she stated. “Maybe a home dinner is the way to go because we’ll all be comfortable and more carefree.”
“But you’ve been looking forward to this for such a long time,” I stated.
She told him, “Yes, but I don’t want to go back there.” “That waiter was a real jerk.” He knew his mom would be very upset.
We had to be at the restaurant for my plan to work. I kept telling my grandmother to just go with what she had planned for dinner.
She yelled, “You’re a chef!” “Nate, you can cook.”
“It’s too late, Gran,” I told her in a sad voice. “Let’s do this, I promise that you won’t have to put up with the waiter.”
A few days later, when our family got together at the restaurant for the party, the same waiter served us. When my grandma realized who it was, I saw her face drop.
Behind the flower arrangement I had bought for her, she tried to make herself look smaller.
It was clear that the waiter was confused when he saw my grandparents sitting next to me with pride. He looked pale and tried to calm down.
I put together the meals my grandma wanted for the table and wouldn’t talk to him anymore.
After setting out all of our food, he said, “Good evening, I hope you enjoy your meal.” He looked at my grandmother with a wary eye.
I didn’t want to talk about the big problem until late at night.
The truth is that I’ve been busy for the past few weeks making sure I own the restaurant. I worked in the restaurant business for years, starting as a dishwasher after school and working my way up to becoming a head cook.
My grandparents helped my mom pay for cooking school, so I told everyone that I was now the owner of the restaurant where we were sitting.
As soon as I saw that the property was for sale, I wanted to buy it and make it a place that would carry on our family history. With recipes that belonged to my grandma and had been passed down.
I got up to talk after cake, which was a variety of small dishes that woke me up.
Because they knew who I was, the workers gave me great service the whole night. So, when the waiter brought my grandfather’s coffee, I asked him what he thought about good customer service.
He wiped his hands on his apron and stumbled over words like “respect” and “courtesy.”
“You have to care for everyone that walks into the restaurant, Sir,” he stated. “You told us to treat them like they are a guest in our own homes.”
With a nod, I hoped that my family hadn’t noticed that the waiter knew who I was.
Then I gave the floor to my grandma. She spoke beautifully, not about her pain, but about how important it is to be kind and the memories that go with the meatloaf and other dishes she chose for the dinner.
“I worked hard to find something that my husband and I could connect with.” Like the chicken—at our wedding dinner, we had a dish like that with lemon chicken.
The waitress felt terrible, and everyone in the room could hear it. He truly apologized, and everyone could see how sorry he was.
My family found out the truth at that point. I told them I was now the owner of the business and could expect big changes.
After a long time, my grandma finally saw that I was on the right track: making a name for myself in the world of cooking.
The waiter had two options, which I gave him:
“You can leave with a month’s salary or you can stay and undergo a comprehensive customer service training program.”
He made the smart choice to stay and learn, which surprised all of us.
After a few months, his change became an important part of our restaurant’s image. He showed how powerful second chances can be, and our customers loved him.
He was also the first person to take care of my grandma when she came to the restaurant to help me work on a recipe. He was going to bring her breadsticks and cups of tea.
My grandmother went from being looked down upon to being admired at the restaurant. Now, all I want is for her to be respected, and for all the things she teaches me in the kitchen to be remembered.
What would you have done?
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This work is based on real people and events, but it has been made up for artistic reasons. To protect privacy and make the story better, names, characters, and circumstances have been changed. Any similarity to real people, living or dead, or real events is completely accidental and not on purpose by the author.
The author and publisher don’t promise that the events or people are true to life, and they’re not responsible for any wrong ideas that come up. This story is given “as is,” and any ideas shown are the characters’ alone and do not represent those of the author or publisher.
