Doing a ‘simpa’

There’s nothing that irks a Spaniard more than having to wait too long for their bill in a restaurant. Sooner or later, after asking the waiter for the third time, someone will suggest doing a ‘simpa’ (sin pagar = without paying/doing a runner). The annoyed party waits until the waiter disappears into the kitchen, then leaves quietly out of the front door, secretly willing to be challenged in order to lay into the guy in the white jacket and bow tie about the dreadful service.

Well, at a branch of VIPS (chain diner with ever-worsening cuisine) in Arganzuela, things reached historical proportions this week when a party of 200 Gypsies finished their meal and quietly got up and walked out of the front door without paying for a thing. The security guards did nothing, some of the younger members helped themselves to restaurant property as they left, and the police turned up and refused to arrest anyone. “They weren’t in a hurry, some even ordered a taxi,” reports 20 Minutos, “This may end up in the Guinness Book of Records”…