Exclusive: Man says receipt from Queens beer garden told cook to spit in cheeseburger
ASTORIA, Queens (WABC) -- On a scorching hot summer night, what is better than a cold brew? Pair it with a juicy burger - cheddar cheese, well done - and toast the bread. And please spit in it, too! Don't forget the mayo!
Wait...spit in it?
In an exclusive interview with Eyewitness News, Curtis Mays says it all started because his order got mixed up.
"I ate my burger already, I felt like I was gonna throw up," he said.
He asked his waitress for his receipt, and that is when he noticed that "extra" ingredient.
"I asked her, 'Why would you do this?' and she couldn't explain it," he said. "She said she didn't do it. So I was like, 'Who prints out the receipt?' So she said, 'I take it up there and print it myself.' 'So you did it? Why are you lying about it?' She just walked off."
The Sea Cliff man says he was being treated to a Father's Day dinner by his daughter and granddaughter at the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden in Astoria when it happened. He said the evening started off pleasant.
"She was very nice," he said. "She comes up to the table. 'Hi, how are you doing?'"
Mays said the manager fired the waitress immediately, and he got a refund.
"He was saying, 'How can we compensate you?'" Mays said. "I was like, 'How can you compensate somebody for spitting on your food? I ate this already.'"
The manager told Eyewitness News that he had never had a problem with this employee before. Food service, he said, is a stressful job, but it was unacceptable.
The manager added that is very unlikely a cook actually spit in the burger, but he understands why the customer is upset.
The Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden has an A rating from the Department of Health.
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