NEWS: Resturants, Dry Humping, and Litigation

CULTURE: Restaurants, Dry Humping, and Litigation

I've never worked at a restaurant. Friends, lovers, and parents had all worked at a restaurant, at some point, but I was spared that specific occupation. Therefore, I know nothing about restaurant culture, waiter behavior, kitchen politics, or what really is in the clam chowder. But I am interested in how people frame their working experience from a consumer perspective--that is, I enjoy hearing about people's work when I'm a customer. Office politics fascinate me. Back-room dealings feed the weird Machiavelli inside me.
So, when two men sue a restaurant citing sexual harassment and discrimination (via Gawker), my antennae start twitching.

The events seem brutal, and I hope the best outcome for the gentlemen who sue (if these events did occur), but what was interesting was the question the blogger at The Gothamist posed: "Can anyone [...] who have worked in restaurants (and their kitchens) tell us about what goes on?"
I particularly enjoyed the story from Kitchen Confidential about the woman who (after being sexually harrassed) twisted the cooks neck around and dry humped him.
Any horrendous restaurant stories you want to tell?

Man, that's a lot worse than mere sexual harrassment.

I worked at two restaurants, one was for a very short the other being considerably longer. I never encountered anything out of the ordinary. I was a cook. I learned the basics at the first short term restaurant, my friend's family owned it and thats how I got the gig. My friend also worked there, she's a lesbian, and the most that went on was honest joking around, nothing serious. Then again pissing off a family member at a family owned restaurant is just a bad idea. The other place I worked at was a sports bar, we had pretty much an all female wait staff, and an all male cook staff. The cooks I worked with never said anything out of the ordinary or anything. There was a lot of homoerotic jokes done in the kitchen but nobody was singled out. This might be due to all the managers being female too. This also occurred in another job, worked with a bunch of guys doing manual labor and for some reason homoeroticism was just part of some of the jokes. I swear people around this area I live in are more homophobic than anything but they make homoerotic jokes... bah it makes no sense to me....

[Edited on Apr 15, 2004 1:53AM]

Am I the only one interested in the 15 minutes that went on just before this particular moment in time?

[Edited on Apr 15, 2004 3:51AM]