WHAT WOULD JAMES DALTON DO?

Coming from Manhattan to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, it was only a matter of time before I'd have to deal with a drunken idiot.  No big deal; I've dealt with that element for over 20 years, but always in Manhattan.  I finally had my first "encounter" with a neighborhood agitator on Friday; my first since I started working at Yellow Hook Grille.  It was interesting, to say the least.

The encounter took place during Happy Hour and it wasn't anything that happened suddenly; This was a situation that developed gradually.  It all started innocently enough.  I was grabbing some supplies for a delivery guy out by the patio area when I heard this loud screaming from a male.  I looked up and there was this guy, screaming into his phone while leaning against a car.  Strange, but hey, I'm in Brooklyn.  Expect the unexpected.

I go back inside the restaurant and as I make my way towards the front of the bar, I can see out of the corner of my eye, the same guy, now in full rant mode.  I turn to get a better look and I see that he's clearly drunk and still screaming at his phone, while carrying what looks like a can of Four Loko (they still sell that crap?).  He turns and stares at the bar and my "Spidey-Senses" tells me to keep an eye on him.  He began to make his way towards the bar and I had this feeling that he was going to try and come into the bar.

I make a beeline towards the door and got there just in time to block his entry.  He looks me up and down and says that he wants to come in.  Now this guy was drunk, twitchy and at the point where depending how you dealt with him, it could either be a smooth interaction or a cluster*** situation.  "Now", I asked myself,  "What would James Dalton do?".

(James Dalton, for the uninformed, is the classic bouncer, played by the late Patrick Swayze, from the cult film classic, "Road House").

Truth be told, if he wanted to, he probably could have torn me from limb to limb.  He was a big, burly biker guy.  But I wasn't going to let it get to that point; not if I could help it.

The next few minutes was a combination of him wanting to come in to use the phone, to him bragging about belonging to some motorcycle gang, to saying he used to own this block and that Mr. Lento knew him and his reputation. Lots of chest puffing, some "Don't you know who I am?" and a few more of "If you don't let me in, there's going to be trouble" talk.  Yada, yada yada.  Each time I simply deflected the conversation and tried to keep him at an even keel.  I wasn't interested in getting into a pissing match with him- We had a Happy Hour crowd and early diners and the last thing we needed was some jacked-up idiot making a scene and killing our night before it even began.

So I let him go on with his tough talk for a bit, but each time he attempted to walk in, he got rebuffed. And each time he raised his voice, I simply kept my voice on an even level so as to not add fuel to the fire. And when he finally realized that between myself and half of the Yellow Hook staff guarding the door, he wasn't going to get in, CC Ryder decided to move on down the block.

Unfortunately for the store across the street, they got the brunt of his ridiculous antics until the police showed up and shooed him away.  At the end of the day, everything worked out and we got a good laugh out of it.  I can only imagine what other "colorful individuals" I'll come across during my time at The 'Hook.  Stay tuned...


Cheers!