Restaurant culture cA ... aan be rough at times around here. There was for many years, a restaurant in downtown Cary, Melba's Kitchen, that served lunch and breakfast only and closed promptly at 2 PM/1400 hours. It was the only place that served fried shrimp in driving distance/time for my lunch hour. It was run by Melba herself and a small crew that had been with her for many years. Melba's closed a few years ago, probably because Melba aged out and retired.
The food was not fancy fare, but prepared with care, served hot and was always tasty and affordable with an emphasis on Southern American cuisine. The type of place where all the waitresses call everyone "Hon". This bothered me when I first moved back to the South, but it is not at all meant as condescension, but as camaraderie.
I found out about the place soon after I moved here when I was bemoaning the fact just before my lunch hour one day that there was no place that had fried shrimp where I could get to and back to work in an hour. This great old gal I used to work with, whose dad was foreman of Kildaire Farm,
" Kildaire Farm was started in the 1920s as a 1,000 acre dairy farm. By 1972 when it was sold for development, it had 10,000 laying hens and 550 head of cattle"
and she always took great care of me at work, called Melba's Kitchen where she knew everybody, and asked if they still had fried shrimp. They did, and so I went to get some and got there about 1:30 PM/1330 hours and ordered my fried shrimp plate, plus take out orders for the other two women I worked with. My fried to order shrimp came out piping hot with great veggie sides and a warm yeast roll with real butter about 20 minutes later. At 1:57/1357 hours, 7 minutes and only a few bites into my meal, my waitress came back out with the two styrofoam-boxed take out orders and an empty styrofoam box. For about 10 minutes while I waited for my shrimp order and was eating, people were cleaning tables and placing chairs upside down on the tables. I noticed I was the only diner in there. My waitress patted me on the shoulder when she delivered the boxes and said, ""Pack up your dinner and go eat with your friends, dahlin'. We're fixin' ta close."
So though Southerners are known for their hospitality, closin' time is a priority too. I went back many times over the years, but never after 1:00 PM/1300 hours. 
Closing times are pretty strict around here in general, and entitled snowflakes can be shocked if they aren't used to it. There are a lot of rants about this aspect on Yelp on local restaurants from folks coming in from out of town, and they almost always get relegated to the "not recommended" reviews.
I don't blame them, because I am so aware that is impossible to put forth your best effort exhaustlessly. I don't know how doctors and nurses do it working so many hours, but they are dealing with life and death or severe, long-lasting disability if they don't rise to their challenges. No one dies or get crippled or disabled because you can't get your order filled past closin' time, so get over it spoiled people. 
On 2/12/2017 at 0:23 PM, Chris Ward said:What you won't get is the mythical spitting-in-your-food treatment; I have never, ever witnessed this in all my years cooking.
Lucky France! Unfortunately, we are not quite as civilized on this side of the pond. Here is a Google link where you can see multiple other links to the incident, in case you can't believe it, like I didn't want to. It's one of the most disgusting examples. Eeeew! These happen more often than anyone would like to think about. And every body fluid you can imagine has been in the news here in relation to food tainting. Some jack-assing teenagers have even posted videos on social media of them contaminating restaurant food and been in the news and the wrong side of the law for it. Cops seems to be prominent targets, but that could be because those cases are the most prosecuted. As for me, I wouldn't piss off the kitchen or waitstaff for big money on a bet.
