So I’m soaking my feet after going to NYC with the wrong shoes and walking 4 miles. Blisters! Noticing a scar on my right ankle; 2, ¾ inch long lines about a ½ inch apart. Looks like an equals sign. This is the only physical evidence from my accident at a restaurant in Merida Mexico this past February (2010).
Every restaurant has policies on what to do if something happens to a guest or an employee. Stuff happens; people get sick, kitchen staff get burned and cut, people fall, slip, faint, throw up, loose stuff, pass out……you have to deal with this. You train your staff to deal with emergencies. No restaurant trains their crew to deal with what to do if a large sliding glass door (say 4 or 5 feet wide and 12 or 14 feet tall) falls on a guest! That’s what happened to me. Really!
Back in February my friend Beth and I set out, on foot, to have dinner in Merida Mexico (my second home). It was Beth’s last night and we were headed to a seafood place that gets good press, La Pigua. It was day 6 of the week of Carnival festivities. Many of the streets were closed due to parades. Getting around was not easy (on foot or via car.) The restaurant we had our sights set on ended up being closed for carnival….route changed… we switched gears and went to a reliable second choice; Trotters. It was chilly (Tropical chilly is like 68 degrees.). Still, we opted for outside where there were some propane heaters to take the nip out of the air. It was perfect! Besides, Beth was going home the next morning to whatever below freezing with wind chill making it worse temperature was happening in NJ in February, so there was no way we were eating inside! We ordered; started with margaritas to toast to Beth’s last night before going home to freeze her butt off. Our appetizers were served. I forget what they were but remember enjoying mine. A largish group assembled inside which was about 6 feet from us, separated by just an opening that could be closed by pulling some sliding glass door/windows that were neatly tucked into a pocket on either end of the room, across on tracks near the ceiling and on the floor. My back was to them. A table of 2 guys was seated near us, adjacent to Beth’s chair, as well as a couple on the other side of our table. It was starting to get busy. People eat really late in Merida! The couple was chilly and asked to be moved inside. The largish group was chilly and asked to have the sliding glass room divider pulled over to break the breeze. A woman at the large table was not happy with how the server placed the sliding glass door/window and fiddled with it adjusting it a bit. Our main courses are served. I had some kind of pasta. The server has asked if I wanted cheese and or pepper. He never brought it. I felt some pressure on my back.
The next thing I remember is that I am on the floor next to the table and huge chunks of glass are falling. I feel remarkably calm… thinking this is it…. I had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer…my life was over…. There was nothing I could do…. Just be with it…. The crashing glass stopped. Several servers helped me up. The guys sitting behind Beth had pulled her away from the table as the glass was falling (it was to my back, I had no idea what was happening.). Seems the glass just fell! On the way down it hit the propane heater which broke the fall after the panel knocked me to the floor. The EMT’s arrived after a very long wait as Carnival was keeping them plenty busy, and making it difficult for them to get around. They treated the cuts; which were superficial. The owner, Paul Trotter, drove me home, stopping on the way to pick up bandages and first aid creams.
Throughout this the show must go on. The staff cleaned up the glass and relocated other guests to other areas of the restaurant. They managed the emergency remarkably! Without a doubt it was traumatic for them, but as service staff must always do, they take what comes and go on and handle what needs doing putting their own traumas and upsets on hold until the end of service. I was impressed! Management followed up with phone calls to ask about my well being, a cake delivered to my home and an invitation to bring a group to the restaurant for a special dinner, which I did do and it was special. They took good care of me. Their concern was genuine and thank God my injuries were minor. (And I have subsequently been treated for the breast cancer and am fine.)
In the USA a restaurant, or any business, where a guest is buried under a pile of non-safety glass, would be slapped with a law suit so big their chicken breast searing days would be over. In Mexico where it’s pretty much “stuff happens,” it’s not a litigious society, stuff happens and responsible people do the right thing and life goes on.
Has this changed me? Well yes. As a restaurateur I want everyone who comes to my restaurant to have a fabulous experience. We bend over backwards to provide that. When we miss the mark we sincerely try to make it up to people. However, I now get that we can’t please everyone. Some people are just miserable. When someone fires off an email typed all in caps that they are never coming back because we changed the fish on our menu and they walked out disgusted (yes disgusted!)…. Now I think….all that over a piece of fish! I apologize for their disappointment, but I don’t jump through hoops to win their loyalty. Life is too precious. Stuff happens and there are too many nice people to focus on. The mean people can go to the competition…sorry colleagues.
