Michigan Restaurant Closes Early Due to ‘Rude’ Tourists Mistreating Staff

Twenty-seven-year-old Larah Moore has worked in the restaurant industry for over a decade, and she’s seen it all. So when the general manager of the East Park Tavern in Charlevoix, Michigan came across one of her servers crying as a result of rude customers, she decided enough was enough.

Despite being in the middle of the town’s Venetian Festival, an eight-day soiree of tourneys, regales and food concessions, Moore shut down the restaurants an hour early. The “fudgies” (Michigan-speak for tourists) were out of control so Moore took things into her own hands, leaving a note on the locked door of the restaurant. “Due to the mistreatment of our servers our kitchen is closed,” the note reads.

“No one gets to treat my staff like trash. They are the absolute shining stars in my life, and I love and appreciate the hell out of the few of them that I am lucky enough to have,” Moore captions the note on her Facebook page. “If you push your servers, watch them start to push back. We are here to ensure great food, drinks, and the quality of your time spent with us. We are not here to be abused. We will not tolerate that anymore.”

As parents, our first thought is to assume that there must have been some crazy kiddos driving people crazy at the restaurant. But truthfully, it was a week-long bout of entitled adults and rude demands that drove the general manager to call it quits for the day.

While we can’t imagine the stressful working environment and endless demands (ok we can, we’re parents), Moore’s staff are lucky to have such a caring manager who puts them first.

“It was a statement,” Moore says of the sign to TODAY. “The ‘professional’ choice probably would have been to simply have a sign that said: ‘Our kitchen is closed for the evening,’ but I felt like people needed to be aware of what was happening. People needed to be aware of their actions and how they impact others.”

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