What do you say in this situation?
I have to give an obligatory this didn't happen just now or last night...but Saturday night.
I had one of my usual customers come in. He'd always come in from an Uber, Lyft, or cab ride. Order food off the menu, drink tea or soda, graduate to beer, and repeat the cycle usually for a few hours over the course of a game.
Enter Saturday night...
Regular comes walking in and our hostess seats him. I come over and talk to him and get his order since it's kinda slow at the time but it would die later. He was being short with me and just jumped straight to drinking beer. This surprised me at first because he doesn't just jump to drinking beer. So after a little while, hes already two beers in with having no food. Normally, I let a person go a few beers deep without food before I start suggesting they take a short break from drinking beer and get some tea or water or something in them before I go flagging someone. I offer the other stuff to him first but he decides he wants another beer. So, I get it but I tell him that if he doesn't take a break soon, I'm going to have to flag him.
After about 20 minutes, I'm walking back over to check on him. 201
He has most of that beer drank and I ask him how he's doing. At this point, he decides to order some wings with blue cheese dressing and a tea. But here's the thing. Before I have a chance to walk away and put the order in, he grabs my attention and tells me he wants someone to talk to. Since the place is nearly deserted and my side work is nearly done, I sit down to listen to him. He tells me the story of how he discovered his wife was cheating on him and now she wants to leave him and he's all broken up about the whole situation. I know bartenders are kinda like therapists in this regard since they hear about people's problems but not us waitresses. I listened to him for about 10-15 minutes and then I apologized for not having any answers for him and then put his order in. He was there for a few more hours as the west coast baseball games were in full swing. He did tip well.
What would you have said if you were in my shoes? Did I do right by him? 670