A waiter has created a stir online after revealing that they served a pregnant woman a non-alcoholic drink despite the customer ordering otherwise.
There are certain things that are advised against while pregnant, and most health officials will agree that consuming alcohol is best left until after giving birth.
Some people choose to ignore this advice, and it turns out that waiters might be taking matters into their own hands.
Taking to Reddit, the waiter shared a now-viral post detailing the incident that unfolded during a dinner service. The server recounted encountering a group of women in their late 20s, among whom one revealed her pregnancy during conversation.
Drinking while pregnant isn't advised. Credit: Oscar Wong/Getty
In a move that has since sparked intense debate, the waiter decided to intervene, instructing the bartender to prepare virgin cocktails for the expecting woman without informing her of the switch.
"In the interest of caution, I asked the bartender to make one of the drinks a virgin cocktail," the waiter explained in the Reddit post. "A few cocktails later (hers strictly virgin) they started getting rowdy, and Mrs. Pregnant Woman was also getting into it. I figured that since she didn't notice, things were OK."
However, the situation took a turn when the check arrived. The pregnant woman discovered the word "(virgin)" marked next to her drinks on the receipt, leading to a confrontation with the waiter.
"Several minutes later Mrs. Pregnant Woman came back and asked what (virgin) on the receipt meant," the waiter recounted. "I fessed up that it meant non-alcoholic."
The fallout from the incident was swift. The pregnant woman demanded a refund of her portion of the tip and escalated the matter to the restaurant's management. Subsequently, the waiter found themselves under scrutiny and facing potential repercussions.
"My manager took me into her office and literally shrieked at me until hoarse," the waiter shared. "She also informed me that I could get the restaurant in serious trouble for discrimination."
The woman was served virgin cocktails without knowing. Credit: SimpleImages/Getty
The server defended their actions, citing concerns about fetal alcohol syndrome and asserting they acted in the best interest of the patron's health. However, opinions on the matter varied widely among Reddit users.
One person said: "OP (original poster) sucks because while it was a good thing to not serve her alcohol they should have sucked it up and said it to their face that she wasn't going to be served. Right to refuse service and all that but they handled it very poorly."
A second added: "Unless you saw the woman pee on a pregnancy test, you had no way of knowing for sure that she was pregnant. She could have been talking about someone else, a past pregnancy, or she could be planning to terminate the pregnancy. That wasn’t your call to make."
A third said: "You’d think one of her friends would have said something to her. You probably shouldn’t have made the call but your head was in the right place."