Speaking of restaurant etiquette, we’ve been collecting stories from servers on the frontlines, and among them comes this (albeit historical) tale of a lady who planted herself at one of the front window seats at Zuni Café and began, well, grooming. This comes to us from Shawn Vergara, now the owner of Blackbird up the street, who was a server at Zuni back in the mid-nineties. Take it away, Shawn:
“This was 1994. A woman was sitting having lunch on a very bright, sunny day around three o’clock, up front in the glass triangle. She had just finished eating, and she was wearing sandals and decided to kick them off and put her feet up on the banquette. A few of us were standing at the host stand talking and heard this clip, clip sound. We turned to see where the noise was coming from and there she was with her toenail clippers going at it. We were so mortified that we couldn’t even speak to each other. We didn’t say anything to her but just stood there with our mouths open, silently chuckling to ourselves because we all sorta had a sick sense of humor and wanted to see how this would really play out. We called more servers and bartenders over to watch her clip away at her feet, toenails flying here and there around the dining room. Well, she eventually looked up at us and then without even a flinch she went back to finishing up her pedicure. Eventually, she paid her bill and left us the best tip ever. It was a story we would never forget, the tips of her toenails all over the floor as she walked out. Disgusting, but true!”
Should we be saying “Only in San Francisco” here?
