Cape Restaurant Owner Brings Abusive Customer Tale To National TV

BREWSTER, MA — A Cape Cod restaurant owner remains fed up after unruly customers forced her to temporarily close her restaurant after they berated staff to the point some employees cried. And now, she's using the incident to draw national attention to a post pandemic trend of impatient customers verbally abusing workers at understaffed eateries.

Brandi Felt Castellano, the co-owner of Apt Cape Cod in Brewster, went on MSNBC and shared her frustration with anchor Stephanie Ruhle, about what Castellano calls the worst customer behavior in 20 years.

"It's been a lot of demanding, not patience, wanting to be sat right away, wanting to eat right away and doing whatever they can or saying whatever they can to get their way," Castellano said. "People would say things I can't even say on TV."

Like many other restaurants, Apt Cape Cod has struggled with staff shortages and high customer demand after coronavirus restrictions were lifted. Castellano said workers have always had to deal with a little verbal abuse from impatient customers, but it reached a new level on July 8, when customers became impatient with wait times. She said customers swore at, threatened to sue and yelled at staff in ways she's never seen.

So Castellano closed the restaurant for half a day and said she treated workers to a day of kindness. Castellano said some staff got paid to take the day off, while others helped her and the chef with projects while the restaurant was closed. She said the day of appreciation became an international moment, with restaurant owners in Australia and New Zealand messaging her to show their support.

"It's a little bit of COVID and a little bit of the culture that's created in the service industry," Castellano said." But you don't have to take it. You don't have to stand for it."

See Castellano's full television interview with MSNBC below: