This weekend, thousands of people on Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, and X viewed one of San Francisco’s worst customer crashouts in recent history. For bartender Miguel Marchese, who was filmed, yelled at, cursed out, fought, and had his hair pulled by an enraged, visibly tired and emotional customer and her companion, such antics are par for the course.
The incident, which occurred at Hazie’s at 501 Hayes St. Saturday night, was filmed by both passersby and restaurant staff. Marchese said the couple arrived for dinner appearing to have already gotten very much in the holiday spirit and were seated at a table. At one point, they asked to speak to the manager, who then took their drinks from the table. Sometime after that, the customer entered the restaurant’s kitchen in a rage and began filming. When the hostess tried to get her out, the customer slapped away one of her hands as she held it up in the classic de-escalation gesture.
The customer then went behind the bar to harass the staff there. That’s when people began filming. After hitting a busser who was filming the incident and then attempting to attack someone sitting at the bar (who, incidentally, was an off-the-clock restaurant staffer), a combination of patrons and staff attempted to escort the couple out of the restaurant. Marchese was among them.
It unfortunately doesn’t end there. Once on the sidewalk, the instigator grabbed hold of Marchese’s hair and refused to let go. Her dining companion had grabbed hold of her and also refused to let go. (You can imagine how all this weight felt on Marchese’s scalp.) She ignored pleas by others involved to let go of Marchese’s hair until, as Marchese explained, “I needed to give her an incentive to let me go. So, I grabbed her phone out of her hands,” Marchese said. “And I chucked that shit.”
It worked. She let his hair go and immediately ran after her phone. But unfortunately the madness didn’t stop there, and once police finally arrived, the couple was arrested.
Gazetteer has previously covered how social media and the rise of influencers have impacted small businesses in San Francisco. But Marchese, who has been tending bar for eight years, said the film-and-share mentality has made way for more accountability in the service industry.
“I've literally been spit on, I've been slapped, I've been called homophobic slurs, and I've been sexualized by guests,” he said. “I think now with the rise of social media, everything's at the touch of our hands so you can expose it.
“Five years ago, you know, you got away with that behavior because the customer was always right. Nowadays, if you do that, people record you and they find out who you are and where you work and demand accountability. Like, just because someone works in service, doesn't mean you can treat them like this.”
The internet was quick to identify the couple as Shireen Afkari, senior manager of growth marketing and retention at Strava, and Christian Bruchman, a staff scientist at Advanced Land and Water. (Both of their LinkedIn profiles have been deleted as of Monday afternoon.)
The Yelp brigade, a typically lethal subculture of doxxing, has the Hazie staff’s back: Since the videos went viral, users are leaving tons of five-star reviews for Hazie’s on Google and Yelp, boosting the restaurant’s rating. Most are captionless (a sign that few of these reviewers had firsthand experiences there), while some read things like “Shout out to the staff,” and “Great job all staff handling the out of control couple. Give them a raise.”
As for Marchese, he does not intend to press charges. This is not the first time he’s made headlines this year: A housing scam in Manhattan cost him over $6,000. He’s hoping to close the year out peacefully instead of taking on another lawsuit, he said.
“I'm not that person. I'm not, like, going to sue for everything she has. I just don't want my hair to be pulled out,” Marchese said with a laugh.
An attempt to reach Afkari was not returned.
