I don't mind when a waitress calls me sweety or honey. In fact I sort of enjoy it.

Someone calling me bitch and yelling, I'm going to take my business elsewhere.

Wiener is spelled wiener, not weiner.

Ugh.

The good-natured, vulgar ribbing, fine. If I remember correctly, there's a fish restaurant near Faneuil Hall in Boston where the waitresses insult you (although I gotta say "motherfucker" and "bitch" are yawn-inducing).

The other, racial stuff directed at the black staff by the white customers? Not cool. Some of the crap at the end of the clip was uncomfortably close to a modern minstrel show.

Oh, come on. I lived in Chicago for years, and this place was known as the absolute best spot to end your night. Everyone that goes there understands what the deal is, and it's all in good fun for both sides. They aren't even open during the day' it's just a drunk stop on your way home.

Wow. It looks like fun, but wow.

Yeah, it's just like Mother's in N'awlins. "Git yo' own silvahwayah, sugah, and the coffee's ovah theyah". "Siddown ya big lunk, chef's got yo' plate almos' ready" and the like. Rarely did I hear swearing (I was there 3 times in the 5 days we were in NOLA), but since the place has become a kind of a tourist attraction now, I suppose they've had to tone it down. BF said it wasn't like it used to be when he went there in the 80s and 90s.

Check out The Varsity when you're in Atlanta. They have their own lingo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Varsity

I think part of the appeal is the honesty. When you go to a lot of restaurants, especially ones in cities, there's a totally unspoken drama going on in which the wait staff and the clientele are from completely different demographics and would normally have nothing to do with one another, but are forced to behave politely towards one another due to the setting. That causes tension and distrust and resentment. People are worried about what's happening to their food in the kitchen or feeling liberal guilt; and the staff is resenting the clientele. A restaurant like the hot dog place puts all that out in the open, erases the tensions. It's honest - people like honest.

A restaurant like the hot dog place puts all that out in the open, erases the tensions. It's honest - people like honest.

Yeah, that's why the African-American woman working in the stand said she hated it when the customers started calling her and her fellow workers "niggers" and "monkeys". She was just acting as if she didn't like being subject to racial insults, but white folk know she really meant she liked it, because it was so honest.

On second thought, I'll take her word for it.

When you go to a lot of restaurants, especially ones in cities, there's a totally unspoken drama going on in which the wait staff and the clientele are from completely different demographics and would normally have nothing to do with one another, but are forced to behave politely towards one another due to the setting. -- JDThompson at August 19, 2011 1:35 PM

I don't want to live in your world. And I don't think the majority of the restaurant staff live in that world either.

If you try to be nominally polite with the customer, they will try to be kind to you. If you are rude and act disapproving because you coffee cup was empty for 30 seconds, you get the treatment you deserve.