'That's just a right of passage [in the restaurant biz]': Servers share their most embarrassing workplace slip ups and fails

Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor

Nov 14, 2023 10:00 AM EST

Everybody who has every worked in the service industry has had their own embarrassing story. Honestly, it's better to get your front of house fail out of the way early so you know you can get through it. Dropping a full tray is the classic one and might even get you applauds. Then there is the dropping of a tray directly onto a customer. That one is way harder to bounce back from, but if you have nice customers, it can also feel like a good lesson. Then there are whole other instances that just seem one in a million, like one of your teeth falling out of your mouth mid-sentence onto the plate of a customer. That one feels like it's straight out of sketch comedy act, but turns out it actually happened to someone IRL. Here, you will see many servers sharing their hilarious service industry fails and how they survived it.