Karens Diner

Gill told me about this, and on a surface level, I laugh, but I can’t imagine why I personally would ever want to go into one of these places. In Australia, there is a chain of restaurants called Karens Diner. Here is a brief description about them.

We hate good service. rated 1* by us.
THIS WILL BE THE MOST FUN YOU’VE HAD EATING BURGERS, EVER.
About Karens
Karens is an interactive diner and an absurdly fun experience. At Karens you will be greeted and waited upon by rude waiters and forced to play a variety of games. 

You can expect good food, good fun and a dining experience like you’ve never had before. Let us know if it’s your birthday, if your name is Karen and for the love of Karen don’t ask to speak to the manager….
P.S if your name is actually Karen we will give you a free drink – bring some ID.
100% RUDE STAFF
Our staff are rude and our manners are non-existent. Come on, ask for the manager… WE DARE YOU.

I only have to go over to the store, or go to a restaurant, or go to the airport, or get on a bus, or do anything to take a chance that the service will be bad and people will be rude. Don’t get me wrong, I get lots of excellent service, and thank god for that. But when you’re blind, or have any sort of disability, this is the risk that comes with walking outside.

For example, I went to Walmart yesterday to pick up something. I wanted to pick up one item. This was my experience.

1. Because one wall of checkout tills have been turned into self-checkouts, I had to wander in there and get the attention of the self-checkout monitor.
2. She called someone to help me.
3. She called someone again after a few minutes because nobody answered her first call.
4. Someone finally came over, and argued with the person about what on earth they were going to do with me, because they didn’t have time for that.
5. The other one told her to take me to a sales associate and drop me off.
6. I finally got mad and said “Is it too much to ask to help me find one jug of distilled water?”
7. When she heard I only wanted one item, she agreed to help.
8. As we headed off, she asked me what I was doing there, where were my parents, and why would I need distilled water?

Another time, we were at a bar in London, and asked the server what kind of wing sauces there were, and she barked “Lots!” and left.

These situations come easily to mind. This is because there are many of them to choose from.

Why on earth would I willingly subject myself to rude people and bad service? I get that stuff for free often enough everywhere I go, and more frequently now, because everybody’s so short-staffed and short-circuited by the pandemic. I know the experience at this diner is all a joke, but I’m fully expecting them to be rude when I ask for help with the menu. If I did go there, they had better have a perfectly accessible menu, and a point of sale terminal that talks, because if they tried to be funny rude to me when I was trying to pay…they just might see Carin turn into Karen. Hopefully they wouldn’t, but the thing is that more and more, I hope that I will have good service, but I’m on my guard for the bad stuff. So if I knew I was going in somewhere where the service would be bad, I imagine it would not be a fun day.

I am curious though. Would they accept my spelling of the name as good enough to get a free drink?