I’ve never personally been stood up at a restaurant ( knock on wood ), so I can really only imagine how embarrassing it would be the find yourself on the sad end of an empty table.
And it just goes without saying that that feeling would definitely be amplified if happened on one of the biggest, most arbitrary yet somehow still socially relevant days of love of the year: Valentine’s Day .
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If I was in a restaurant and saw someone had been tragically stood up by their not-so-special Valentine, it would definitely pull on my heart strings.
And that’s exactly the kind of emotional response a 27-year-old man named Stephen Bosner was hoping he’d get, just without all the heartache on his end.
In 2019, Bosner shared an entire Twitter thread documenting his pursuit for a free steak dinner from Outback on Valentine’s Day, which all started with one simple query:
“If I went to Outback Steakhouse by myself tonight and asked for a table for 2, then got progressively sadder as the night went on alone, do you think they’d give me my steak for free?”
After mulling it over, Bosner decided this scam was definitely worth his time and put his plan into action.
On the big night , he showed up to his local Outback Steakhouse dressed in his finest suit and armed with a Valentine’s Day present for his “date”, which was really just jumper cables from his car he had stuffed into a gift bag.
To the staff and patrons of Outback, he was, by all accounts, a just a well-dressed man preparing for a pretty special Valentine’s Day steak dinner with his date.
Of course, in order to really sell the whole “stood up” thing, Bosner had to deliver an Oscar-worthy performance of a man hopelessly waiting for his Valentine.
And he definitely made sure to pick his moments, too.
When his waiter walked by his noticeably still empty table, Bosner pretended to leave his date a voicemail asking her to let him know when she gets to the restaurant.
He also made sure not to touch the decanter of wine left for the pair on the table, so every time his waiter came by, he saw that Bosner had yet to even pour himself a drink while he waited.
Just 15 minutes before the kitchen closed, Bosner decided to finish all the wine himself — in full view of his waiter, of course.
During all of this, Bosner reported that he had definitely caught the attention of several patrons inside the Steakhouse, who took notice of his absent date and increasing hopelessness as the evening wore on.
While anyone who’d actually been stood up would have likely been humiliated by their sympathetic stares, Bosner was eating it up and knew his plan was working.
Oh, and if you’d asked Bosner to describe his date to you, he’d be able to give you a beautiful, though tragic, story of their fleeting love.
Katherine, as he dubbed her, was from Arlington and had seemed “so excited” for their Valentine’s Day steak dinner after the two met grabbing for the same bag of shredded cheese at the grocery store.
You just can’t write that kind of love story.
Eventually, Bosner’s steak arrived, though he was obviously in no mood to dig in — he was supposed to be *heartbroken*, after all.
It’s important to note here that Bosner was sitting at an empty table, staring at his plate of steak well after the Outback had closed, and he even added in a follow-up tweet that his waiter hadn’t brought him his check yet, even though he knew the gent was getting ready to clock-out for the night.
Suffice it to say, this silly little Valentine’s Day scam was really affecting more people than just the lonely man sitting at the table for two.
Finally, all that… hard work (?) paid off when a sympathetic couple at the bar offered to pay for Bosner’s untouched meal.
So in the end, after spending hours sitting inside an Outback Steakhouse by himself, leaving fake voicemails to a fake no-show date named Katherine, and wasting both his time and that of the restaurant’s staff, Bosner was able to walk out the door with a free meal that otherwise would have cost him about $50.
Score?
Bosner later shared an update to say that he tipped his waiter $20, and also donated $50 to the American Civil Liberties Union in a “pay-it-forward” gesture.
I guess it’s up to you to decide whether all that makes up for his Valentine’s Day scam. He sure thinks it does.
But some people online have left comments to make it clear that they don’t exactly agree with his methods.
“This is terrible,” one user wrote. “You lied and basically stole that couple’s money. Give it back to them, not someone else.”
Another added, “So you steal someone’s money and donate to your cause on their behalf. You’re a terrible person and a thief.”
Then there were those who pointed out how unfair this whole scam was to Bosner’s poor waiter.
As this unimpressed user wrote,
“I hated everything about this ‘story’. So you take up a servers table for hours. You keep him coming back waiting for someone who was never coming. Kept kitchen staff there late.
Kept your server there late. Good thing none of them had a family or loved one to go home to on Vday.”
However, there were actually some people who inexplicably applauded Bosner for pulling off his Valentine’s Day scam.
“This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen,” this user wrote. “So well done (and great job with the $50 to ACLU and the $20 for your server). Just incredibly high quality performance.”
Obviously these people have never worked in the service industry before.
Outback Steakhouse eventually got word of the viral scam, and tweeted a response to Bosner. But they didn’t say what you’re probably hoping they did.
No, instead the restaurant chain actually offered Bosner another free meal , just as long as he actually brought a real date this time.
Well then. Maybe there really is not justice in this world.
