Guy comes into my sandwich place (we do wraps, paninis, burgers, Americana food etc.), plops like a small pile of clothing on the counter and says "how fast can you get these done?" A split second later he says "Oh sorry wrong place. I'll take a burger with fries, be right back" I'm not really realizing what just happened until he's halfway walking out the door. Then it hit me, this guy was making a joke about how a lot of dry cleaners are run by Asians. It took every ounce of willpower to not spit in his food.
It's just a local sandwich place in an extremely above average middle class area. You really don't expect this kind of stuff around here.
Maybe he really was that out of touch? Who brings a pile of clothes with them into a restaurant on the off chance that they might be able to make a racial joke?
Maybe he is just absent minded and wasn't watching where he walked in first (are you next to a drycleaner?). Maybe he's an addict. Maybe he's a drunk. Maybe there's another explanation other than the one you assume. Maybe it is just seems to me that regardless, you were a little too ready to spit in someone's food. Maybe it's just me. I guess if he was being racially insensitive (I'm not really convinced necessarily) then I understand being offended by it... but... I'm not so sure as you, and is it YOUR sandwich shop, or you work there?
There's a dry cleaner in the same shopping center about 10 stores down, run and operated by the same white guy for the last 20 years. We have an open kitchen that you see when you walk in, and numerous other things that tell you this is a restaurant. I guess my Asianness just completely overcame the smell of the food and the sight of the huge open kitchen.
From what OP said... I find it hard to believe the guy was doing a racial joke, especially since he left and came back for the food. It seems more likely that he was just in a hurry and a bit lost...
