Was working at this place doing morning prep. I walk in the building and go to clock in before turning on the lights and I notice a faint blue glow from the kitchen. Come to find out the torch had somehow been left lit on a shelf overnight. The last crème brûlée was an hour before close as well. I want someone to show me something that’ll top this please.
by Bignosenick
32 Comments
I don’t know who’s more of a champ, the can of butane or the ceiling panel
Someone’s getting fired lmao
This is a really fucking good one
How that place isnt burned down is a miracle
is that panel deformed from the torch?!?
You win
Op. Please start a trend.
There’s no way that canister could have lasted all night turned on.
I’m fucking impressed.
I feel like you maybe surprised some mafia hitman who then fled the scene but left the torch burning in their haste. No way a can of butane burns that long continuously without going dry right?
Come on, I can’t top that
Usually posts about this is just petty gripes but this is genuinely insane. Zero repercussions for this is insane
In my younger days I worked as closing mgr. We left the place spotless and prepped for Day shift. Every day the minute we showed up the entire Day crew and GM scattered. Leaving the place trashed, unstocked, dirty, and every trash can overflowing. So one night as soon as we locked the door I told my whole crew to go home. And I locked up and followed them out
Next day when I walked in the entire day crew and GM asked me what the hell happened, the place was a wreck! I looked around and said …” That’s how you leave it for us every shift, I didn’t think you would notice.”
Last night our operations manager left our prep sink on full blast and wasted close to three thousand gallons of water. Which was only a $23 mistake on the water bill.
One time I tried to steal commercial drain cleaner. I put it in a thick plastic bottle and lived close. The plan was to rush home and use it. I left it on top of the ice machine… It melted through and in the morning Jose opened. It had burned through the bottle all the way to the ground down the ice machine. Jose hit it with the mop and it mixed with the bleach creating a big gas smoke cloud. The offices above were not so happy.
Somehow didn’t get fired bless their kind souls lol
Holy shit that’s crazy. Mine does not beat that but I’ve got a decent one
I was working at a retreat center in the middle of the woods. After I wrapped up dinner service one night I left my sous and a dishwasher volunteer to clean up, I did breakfasts solo starting at 5am so that was a pretty good arrangement for me to end my night “early”
We left the kitchen/common area building open so that guests could access the tea station or get wifi passwords or whatever — kept a few lights on so that it wasn’t pitch black of course.
The next morning I come in and there’s a note by the cutting board and a bus tub on the ground with water in it. There was also a bus tub by the hood because water was dripping there too.
“HEY CHEF. SOMETHING LEAKING IN THE ROOF. NOT SURE HOW TO KEEP LIGHTS EMPTY BUT PUT A BUCKET DOWN!”
Apparently one of the pipes burst during a cold snap and it was just snaking down all the electrical lines. Rather than kill power or shut off water they decided to just let me walk into that shit when I’m trying to get coffee going.
At the very least like…. tell somebody yknow? Wtf
I actually ended up shattering my leg falling out of the ceiling fixing that shit. Had to get a plate and screws put in
https://preview.redd.it/nigs4rchexpg1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1201624f08c646bb39f37e1bcad89002baba6681
Was it really the brulee? Or did someone come in for a late night dab?
For real though, that’s really amazing that the place didnt burn down.
After putting the pork in the oven to slow cook, the closer cleaned the oven face and turned the temp to 400 without noticing. I walked in that morning and immediately knew what happened from the smell
Wow. That’s it. Beats anything I’ve walked into
Even failed to burn it down for the insurance money. A winner all around.
When I worked my last actual restaurant job, someone left a pot of soup water (soups came in bags, heated them in a pot of water) on the stove and left the stove on. Opening managers came in a 7 (I came in at 8:30) and the place was FILLED with smoke. All the water had dehydrated and was burning the bottom of the pan, completely charring it. Genuinely surprised nothing caught fire. Wouldn’t have complained if it did though, that job sucked and I was not making enough money for all the prep work + every other odd job they asked me for
Mine was:
March 31st (of some unknown year) I was closing the coffee shop. Someone before they were leaving for the end of their shift said, “hey! We cleaned the inside of the ice machine today. Do you know how to open it up?” And I was like, “why don’t you show me in case there’s something I missed.” So he unscrewed the front of the machine (where the ice forms and later falls down) and showed me. I was like, “thanks so much. Going to get back to my tasks.”
Guess what? He never screwed the screws back on! I guess he thought I would do it?? Even though he removed them?? And left without telling me? So the next morning when openers came in, they thought I left them *the worst* April Fool’s prank of pulling off the front of the ice machine so no ice would be made and would instead fall all over the floor. I honestly don’t understand why it didn’t fall off over the course of the shift that night.
And I *did* leave them a good April Fool’s prank: I moved the milk/sugar station to the corner of the cafe. It was on wheels and easy to move back. It was just meant to be a “huh where did it go?” moment, not a whole debacle all over the BOH floor.
Does the owner have excellent insurance and big gambling debt?
https://preview.redd.it/unv9u2qdgxpg1.jpeg?width=654&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=602f8463227ff5a41fa8efc97ef1fc64c030f6c3
Saw this sign posted in our employee bathroom after my days off. My questions remain unanswered
https://preview.redd.it/doypgaqzgxpg1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2235d51e4b5b4e0dd63fbf6c99b4953ed9327c2
I know it probably doesn’t count, I work at a bar but I figured some of y’all would get a laugh
https://preview.redd.it/4c16ajcehxpg1.jpeg?width=1206&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c9344e275337c78aba130f9f003465f86eb11b4f
How relevant. Just got this text.
No one locked the walk in and a bear got in.
One of the first kitchens I ever worked, one of the closing cooks was celebrating his birthday the next day so the opener told him to not worry about cleaning or anything, the opener would get there a little early. Well, opener decided to black out and missed his alarm.
So the owner opened the kitchen. Closer got called in with something like an hour sleep because he’d been celebrating all night.
Doesn’t beat your story but it’s the most fucked up closing story I’ve got from my time in kitchens.
Guy who closed didn’t wash all the boil out from the fryer. It started activating when we blanched fries the next morning. It was a disaster
12 quarts of NOTHING BELLOWING BLACK SMOKE in the steam table when I opened on a Sunday morning. Something told me to go in a little early that morning….
I never had the “who closed last night” issue, BUT when I worked 2nd shift at Waffle House I used to ask the same question after I’d come in after 1st shift. Silverware always half cleaned, pots and pans from first would be in the dish pit (mind you there’s no dishwasher so whoever came in next had to do it) , & they rarely did fill ups for the syrup. I had a love/hate relationship with that job
When I was an apprentice, someone left the stock on full boil. Walked up the next day to do breakfast with the fire brigade putting out a medium sized kitchen fire and smoke damage through most of the front of house
Brand new sous chef left out three cases of lobster tails Sunday night. We’re closed Monday, so we found them Tuesday morning. That was a good one.