Saturday

It's Saturday and it's a s*** show. I was supposed to come in at 4 pm but was called in early because a coworker was having his baby. So here I am at 2, the only server in the restaurant until 430. I'm flying around the restaurant.
A table of two women comes in and asks for margaritas. One looks quite you d so I ask for her ID. She rummages around her bag and says she must have left it at home. I tell her I can't legally serve her alcohol without valid ID, and she becomes extremely defensive. I ask if she had a passport maybe, and she snaps that of course she didn't have her passport. I'm too busy to argue with this woman so I fill up her water and leave to get them chips and salsa.

This evening there is a wedding on the fancy part of the restaurant, so all patrons have to dine in the casual section. I help out the formal servers as much as I can because they're all overwhelmed, but all the patrons seem angry. Finally after asking one woman (who was irritated that we were out of bread) if there was anything else I can get her, she snaps "a fine dining experience away from these children!".
The mood of the restaurant patrons carries over to the staff on the kitchen. The serving staffs are snapping at each other, and we all seem crowded and irritated with one and other. Even the cooks snap at each other a few times.
The chef says there are three pieces of bread ready. I snatch them out of the hot pan and run them to the grumpy lady who wanted bread earlier (not even my table, mind you) and tell her that I stole the only rolls in the entire restaurant just for her table. She smiles at me and seems almost embarrassed for snapping earlier. The table thanks me and seems happier.

In general this evening I noticed that people were irritated by how busy we were, but not necessarily because of poor service: all the servers made an effort to pitch in for tables that weren't theirs. It appeared though, that having multiple servers didn't really make the customers happy, because they wanted to feel unique or special in some way