Recently, a restaurant manager opened up about a particularly stressful situation involving a demanding group of churchgoers.
In a viral TikTok video, Kellie—known online as @ambryrae—shared her experience with what she called the “Church Crowd,” shedding light on the challenges restaurant staff face when serving large, demanding groups.
In the clip, Kellie described her encounter with a group of 25 churchgoers during a busy Sunday shift.
The group arrived at 2 pm without a reservation, expecting to be seated immediately. Kellie informed them of a wait time of about an hour due to the restaurant being crowded. Although they initially agreed to wait, one group member kept asking when they would be seated, which required Kellie to repeat the expected wait time.
“We had a 25-top walk in with no reservation on a Sunday. They had no reservation, and I told them it’s going to be a wait for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes because it’s really busy,
Once the large area for the group was prepared, a member of the Church Crowd seemed unimpressed that they weren’t receiving a “private room,” with Kellie clarifying that the restaurant didn’t have private rooms and that options were pretty limited for a party of 25.
“Before they even got their food, the lady goes, ‘Well, how long is this going to take?’ and I’m like, ‘Ma’am, your servers can’t put your food in until you’re seated,’” Kellie recounted.
“When we brought out the salads and the bread, they’re switching seats. We have a 25-top, and they’re switching seats like it’s musical chairs,” she said. “The guy already wanted collard greens. We don’t serve collard greens at this restaurant, and we’re an Italian restaurant.”
Kellie took a short break away from the Church Crowd, then she heard a ruckus coming from their table, and went over to discover them banging tambourines and various other musical instruments. At the same time, there was another table being rather loud, and so the Church Crown asked Kellie if she could tell them to keep it down as they were currently engaged in a “worship session.”
The tipping point occurred when a young member of the group was unable to cover his bill (which had to be split 25 ways). The Church Crowd leader suddenly transformed into what Kellie described as “sweet as pie”, asking Kellie to “bless” the young man by comping his meal.
Kellie resisted, pointing out that the group, bringing 25 people to the establishment, could collectively contribute to cover the cost. Ultimately, the leader reluctantly covered the young man’s bill, leaving a $50 tip on a $350 bill.
“She just kept looking at me, and she’s like, ‘Well, you could bless him.’ ‘Ma’am, that’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.’ She just had the audacity to say, ‘Well, if you weren’t charging us for his food, then I would’ve tipped you more,’” Kellie explained.
Finishing off her video, Kellie reflected on the hypocrisy of the teachings of the church and the behavior exhibited in the restaurant. “I just wanna know what y’all be learning in church because once y’all leave that church and y’all come to these restaurants, y’all are some of the meanest… some of the most unkind people that we ever have to serve,” she said.
Seeing the humor after the situation, Kellie suggested a solution might be to rat out people’s pastors on their shocking behavior!
What do you think about this situation? Is the “Church Crowd” really that bad? Let us know in the comments!
