A New Year's brawl leaves many wondering what happened at the city's only 24-hour diner

For many of us, it's become a bit of a fallback option to head to City Diner when you need to balance out the vodka with some 4am fries. The city's only 24- hour Western-style diner, recently plagued by reports of poor service, became the scene of "Servers Gone Wild" when a brawl broke out between customers and the staff in the wee hours of New Year's. Reports of the event streamed onto the City Weekend website, detailing the descent of rowdiness into violence, leaving us to wonder what went on and what's been done since.

According to eye witness accounts, the fight broke out when a disagreement between two groups of customers led to the staff getting involved. The situation purportedly escalated into a battle between customers and the servers and cooks. Reports describe a bleak scenario–blood and glass on the floor, police, a trip to the hospital for some, and even staff proclamations that the establishment is run by mafia. The details are difficult to discern and, as expected, there are many sides to the story, but the events of the evening are less material now than the response.

City Diner's owners, a brother and sister pair from the U.S., say they are "appalled" by what took place on New Year's. "What happened should never have happened in the first place. The staff that were involved are no longer here," they state plainly. In response to previous complaints about bad service, the owners had already contracted with a service company in December to provide staff with service training in January and February. That training will now include security training. Additional security has been added in the evenings as well as the owners admit a bit of a concern that their "open door policy might be a bit naive." How do you separate the happy drunks from the belligerent ones? As one CW website user, jbiesnecker, commented, "Some of the customer behavior I've seen on my trips to City Diner has been horrendous." While the phrase goes, "the customer is always right," it seems the adage, "Don't sh*t where you eat," also applies.

The owners are adamant that no amount of bad behavior by customers excuses the staff's behavior on New Year's, but do feel that a certain reciprocity is required to prevent future incidents. "House rules apply. Please behave at our establishment the way you would at home," they say. In return, they will continue to work to improve their service and ensure guests' security. "A lot of people are really passionate about the diner. People comment because they care and want it to be better and we [are taking] it to heart." When asked about the supposed mafia connection, one owner laughs and says, "If anyone thinks this place is run by mafia, they can check out my Brando impression."