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Video of Pasco County restaurant spat goes viral

Posted at 6:03 PM, Mar 07, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-08 00:51:28-05
Video inside a New Port Richey restaurant is going viral after several people say they received bad customer service.
 
Tom Szwejkowski says he never expected the owners of The Boulevard Family Restaurant to get so upset when he and his friends complained about their customer service after eating brunch Sunday.
 
“I’ve never ever in my life dealt with something like that,” he said. 
 
Szwejkowski’s girlfriend filmed the whole thing on her cellphone even after the owner’s wife told her not to. She yells at the camera at the beginning of the video.
 
“Turn that phone down. You don’t take video of people in public,” she said. 
 
Szwejkowski said they waited more than an hour for food, which he actually enjoyed. He said the food was so good he even ordered extra to go. As they were leaving, Szwejkowski said the owner’s wife asked about their experience. He said his friend told them the service was terrible but the food was good and tells us the owners then offered to comp only one of the meals.
 
“I’m like, well his food was free, so why isn’t mine free? I was fine paying because I already gave her my card,” he said. 
 
The argument escalated.
 
“If you’re a man, you ate you’re going to pay. Don’t come in here buddy and cause problems,” the owner says in the video. The owner eventually covers the cellphone and walks all three of them out the door. 
 
“I tried reasoning with him but he wasn’t having it. He just kept telling me to pay even though I already paid,” Szwejkowski said.
 
The owner refused to speak with us on camera but said he’d willingly comp the meal if he didn’t feel like they were trying to take advantage of his employees. He said once the customers were given their food they exchanged one of the entrees for a wrap and still complained about the service.
 
“If they just treated me right I would have been, like, cool, paid, left and would have never come back. The way they went about it was very unprofessional and you don’t run businesses like that,” Szwejkowski said.
 
The owner said while he and his wife feel bad for losing their tempers, he won’t allow anyone to disrespect his business. 
 
He has since filed a report with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office for harassment.