Server brings $5K bottle to customer who ordered $290 bottle

By Allison Klein | Washington Post

Restaurant work is demanding and intense, and managers are not always known for their kindness and understanding. So when one steak house in Manchester, England, tweeted a “chin up” message to a server who made a very costly mistake, social media responded in a big way.

A server at Hawksmoor Manchester steakhouse and cocktail bar mistakenly poured a customer a bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001 worth more than $5,000, when the customer had ordered a bottle that cost about $290, according to the tweet. The two bottles had a similar look, if you kind of squint.

The restaurant tweeted: “To the customer who accidentally got given a bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001, which is £4500 on our menu, last night – hope you enjoyed your evening! To the member of staff who accidentally gave it away, chin up! One-off mistakes happen and we love you anyway.”

The tweet got more than 20,000 likes. But when a few people posted replies giving the server a hard time, the restaurant account again stood up for its server, this time IN ALL CAPS:

“THEY LOOK PRETTY SIMILAR OK?!”

Hawksmoor founder Will Beckett told BBC News that a manager from another Hawksmoor location was helping the waitress on a busy night, and erred when picking up the bottle. The customer apparently did not know of the mistake.

Beckett told BBC that the employee involved was “brilliant, and we know she is brilliant” so he thought forgiveness was the correct way to handle it.

“I am going to tease her for this when she stops being so mortified,” Beckett said.

Restaurant workers far and wide responded to the restaurant’s tweet, cheering on the management for a level-headed response, especially because it’s so easy for tempers to flare in the kitchen.

And in solidarity, lots of people confessed their own unrelated workplace slips ups, turning it into a bit of group therapy.