Restaurant Offers Customer ‘Seen Rat’ Discount

Restaurant hospitality titan Danny Meyer once remarked: “A great restaurant doesn’t distinguish itself by how few mistakes it makes, but by how well they handle those mistakes.” It’s useful advice that you can apply to myriad situations. But what’s the best way, as a server, to handle a rat scurrying across the feet of your guests in a dining room? One waiter at Fat’s Asia Bistro in Folsom, CA learned the hard way that you shouldn’t simply do nothing about the rodent, and then put a $30 “SEEN RAT” discount on the bill at the end of the meal.

A friend of the customer who got tickled by the rodents posted the SEEN RAT bill to Facebook with a long note explaining that the situation. The post caught the attention of the local Department of Health, who stopped by later in the week but found no evidence of rats or rodents. Kevin Fat, the COO of Fat Family Restaurant Group, tells local news station ABC 13: “That is something that the manager at the time thought was appropriate, again, that is a learning lesson.” Apparently, the management called pest control after the incident, and nobody got fired. Fat also notes: “In our 14 years in Folsom, we have not experienced anything like this before.”

James Corden had some fun with this story on The Late Late Show last night:

• Diner Gets Rat-Spotting Discount [ABC13]
• The Late Late Show With James Corden [E]