Vegan restaurant employee faces backlash after ‘rude’ exchange with customers: ‘Weird and disrespectful’

A server told a parent she couldn’t feed her kid a ham sandwich at the vegan restaurant he worked at. 

The employee wondered if he was in the wrong and consulted Reddit’s “Am I the A******” forum. While the vegan restaurant usually allows parents to bring in outside food for their kids, it is usually baby food in containers. But when a customer wanted to feed her 4-year-old a ham sandwich, he had to intervene

“I was working in a vegan restaurant that offered a wide variety of vegan foods,” he said. “It had been a vegan cafe for years and all the branding made clear it was fully vegan. There is a general expectation in most places like this that you don’t eat food not bought on the premises, but obviously, we waive it for kids. We’ve seen people feeding yogurt-looking things and turned a blind eye. Also never specifically examined jars of baby food to check they are vegan, generally, these are in self-contained pots and the parents use their own little spoons.”

However, he felt one customer crossed a line when it came to the policy. 

“Some women came in for lunch and one had a child about four years old,” he explained. “They ordered and asked for a plate for the kid’s sandwich. When I take their food over I realize that the kid is eating a ham sandwich. I tell the women that meat can’t be eaten on the premises. They get upset and say the kid will go hungry and I say they’re welcome to order one of our vegan sandwiches or anything else. In the interests of our other customers, we cannot have ham eaten here, especially inside and especially using our plates. They get angrier and say they’ll take their meals to go and won’t be back. On the way out, they shout that I’m disgusting for depriving a child of its food.” 

Reddit users thought the server made the correct decision. 

“They were super rude,” one person said

“Weird and disrespectful to the eating establishment,” another wrote

“Bringing food into a restaurant is okay only when the kid eats from a jar or bottle,” a user commented

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