Imagine going to a restaurant where the owner expects you to take your own order and cook your own food. Would this be really cool or bizarre?

What if you went to a restaurant where another customer took your order and cooked your food?

That’s the type of restaurant the person in this story describes.

Keep reading to see how the owner runs the place and how this is super confusing for new customers.

When you’re here, you’re family… and staff apparently.

Down a couple of blocks from my old house is a Diner/Bar that is one of the most interesting restaurants there is in the US.

They serve the best deli and grilled Sandwiches known to man but the way its run will often leave new people scratching their head as to.. “Wait… who is running this place?”

The owner (Mac) is a takes-no-nonsense kind of guy and always ask “How did you hear about my place” to new customers.

Once he gets to know you and likes you, his place becomes your place. He will invite you into his “Family”. Gives you the tour behind the bar, tells you its ok to serve yourself drink, in fact its ok serve other customers if you feel like.

He will teach you the grill if you want to cook, how to tap kegs if a line runs dry, etc. Its an unspoken rule that when you’re part of his family, you’re an unpaid employee and you get free/discounted food and drinks. He’s that cool!

When a stranger wanders in, it gets interesting.

Its a local favorite mainly because only good people Mac likes hang out there. So the only real reason people find out about it is by word of mouth.

The rare times when a customer comes in blind from off the street do things become interesting.

The patrons will usually act like the Staff and be the ones to take orders.

This would be funny to witness.

Its funny as hell to watch new people just sit at a booth, look around for a Waiter/Waitress and one of the burly guys from the bar gets up and takes a notepad to go take the order.

Its even more funny to watch Mac just do nothing but continue talking from the stool he’s on as other patrons will get up and start cooking or grabbing pitchers for drinks, etc.

It looks like there is no staff but EVERYONE there is staff.

The other patrons/employees make it even funnier.

The funniest moment for me is when this new customer starts to raise a ruckus because his “waiter” (Bob) goes back to sit at his barstool after taking the order and giving it to Mac at the grill. “Highly unprofessional, disgrace to call yourself an employee, blah blah blah”

The banter played out by the rest of the patrons was laughable!

One by one, everyone there in on Mac’s Family would go over to the guy and apologize for Bob’s actions, in turn would make it a point to go behind the bar, do something only an employee would do so it just seemed like all 10+ bar patrons were in fact employees who worked there but everyone was taking a break.

The new customer was so confused.

Bob would play along.

Mac then leaned out from behind the grill, “Gosh Bob! you messing with my customers?!?!?, I augha fire your butt! Take your paycheck and go!”

Mac served Bob’s freshly made burger out for him to eat.

“Sorry Boss… will happen again” as he bites down.

I miss Mac’s place. I can’t find any good sandwich places where I’m at now.

That does sound like a really weird way to run a restaurant. I would be so confused if I were a customer there.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person thinks this is a great business model.

Another person wonders how this business can stay in business.

This person shares a somewhat similar story.

This person is curious about Mac’s business.

It’s not very easy to find a place like this.

That would be a unique dining experience!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.