Restaurant hostess builds rapport with older married couple. A week later, she gets a call from the husband—asking her out

Working in the food service industry is not for the faint of heart. But sometimes, the rapport servers build with regulars can be ultra-rewarding.

Other times, customers can get a little too friendly, with some even going as far as crossing inappropriate boundaries. A former restaurant worker is going viral for sharing her encounter with one such customer.

How did the server meet the customer?

Tylee (@tyleedb) posted a video that has more than 113,000 views. In it, she discussed her encounter with an overly friendly customer.

“Two months ago, when I was still working in the restaurant industry, a couple comes in, older couple, maybe almost 70s, full white hair,” Tylee said. “So cute. They come in, ‘Hey, we have a reservation, we're meeting another couple here, can we be seated now?'”

Tylee said she got the couple settled with menus at their table and was making “light conversation.” She made small talk about where the couple was from.

“They're cool,” Tylee said. “I'm like, okay, I like y'all.” 

Tylee said the husband's name was Dave and he seemed “super nice.” When Dave and his wife's friends, another couple, arrived at the restaurant to meet them, Tylee walked them to the table.

“We have another little conversation, ‘Oh, there you are,' whatever, it's like the playful restaurant banter that you have with the … regulars,” Tylee said. “You have to be some sort of loquacious if you're going to be working in the restaurant industry.”

What happened afterward?

But the story didn't end there.

One week later, the restaurant phone rang while Tylee was working at the reception. When Tylee answered, Dave was on the other end of the line. Tylee remembered him and greeted him accordingly, asking if he “and the missus” wanted a reservation for that evening.

“No, I actually called to get your number,” Tylee recalled Dave saying. Flabbergasted, she replied, “Okay, so to be clear, you're not calling for the restaurant to make a reservation?”

He responded and said that he “was calling to take [Tylee] on a date.”

“We sat on the phone, dead silence for 15 [expletive] seconds,” Tylee said. “To the point where he says, ‘Are you still there?' I say, ‘You came in with your wife.' it's silent again, no response. Even though he introduced to me, ‘Oh, this is my wife.'”

Tylee told him she was going to hang up the phone. According to her, the man seemed shocked by her decision. Tylee wrote “Hope he's doing absolutely terrible” in her caption. She finished her video with one final question for the man.

“What the [expletive] is wrong with you?” Tylee asked.

@tyleedb Hope he's doing absolutely terrible #fypシ #girls ♬ original sound – tylee

How should servers deal with overly friendly customers?

While no food service worker wants to find themselves in such a position, knowing how to handle situations like Tylee's is an important part of customer service. As one fellow restaurant hostess wrote in Tylee's comment section, “this happens SO OFTEN.”

The phenomenon of customers hitting on workers isn't exclusive to the food and beverage industry; a female Lowe's cashier took to the subreddit r/Lowes to ask for advice on “how to deal with creepy customers.” So what is the protocol?

One Redditor responded to the Lowe's cashier, advising her to ask her manager to “ban this person.” Others echoed this sentiment and stressed the importance of letting “people know this guy is creeping you out.”

On the restaurant side of things, Medium essayist Jules Will Think About It advises readers to “get your coworkers on your side” and “guard your own boundaries.” The writer recommends pulling back on friendliness, keeping a safe physical distance from a problem customer and not being afraid to repeat phrases such as, “This conversation is inappropriate, please stop.”

Bartending website A Bar Above outlines “4 pro tips for handling inappropriate customers (without involving security.” The tips are as follows: Be firm about boundaries from your first interaction with any given customer, and don't be afraid to come off as unfriendly; “stand your ground” when customers cross lines, and don't yield to them; “walk away if a conversation is making you uncomfortable”; and, when need be, bring in a coworker to take over.

However, if a problem customer escalates to full-on inappropriate harassment, A Bar Above says that workers should escalate in kind.

“If you feel you're being [inappropriately] harassed in any manner, you need to involve security or your manager immediately,” A Bar Above says. “[Inappropriate] harassment in the workplace is intolerable, and customers that choose to [inappropriately] harass staff or other patrons need to be removed immediately.”

Buzz News reached out to Tylee via email.