What’s it like to insult folks for a living? We asked staff at Dick’s Last Resort in SC to find out

At Dick’s Last Resort in North Myrtle Beach, the food isn’t the only thing that gets roasted.

Branded, “the shame o’ Barefoot Landing,” on its website, Dick’s boasts vulgar ambiance and sarcastic service.

“‘The most UNHINGED restaurant,” one TikTok with more than 115,000 likes dubs the restaurant. In the video, servers throw napkins and straws and drag a guest celebrating her birthday away from the table by her chair.

At most jobs, cursing out customers is a recipe for unemployment. But Dick’s definitely isn’t a normal workplace.

“It doesn’t feel like work,” said server Landon Huggins. “It’s kind of like coming in here and having fun with everybody, especially the banter between us, everything is just fun.”

The unconventional restaurant first opened its doors in Dallas in 1985. Seven years later, a Dick’s opened in Barefoot Landing and the restaurant has been dishing up food and insults in North Myrtle Beach ever since.

“We’re more like medieval times or Pirates Voyage,” said general manager Sean Roseway. “People come here not necessarily for the food. They want decent food, but they come here for the experience that they can’t really get anywhere else. We’re dicks.”

Before diners see the walls adorned with vulgar memes and ceiling festooned with bras, they are greeted outside by a sign that’s both welcoming and warning, giving notice of the restaurant’s irreverent vibe.

“We’re an escape from ‘political correctness’ with great grub, strong drinks and lots of sarcasm,” the sign says. “Not for you? Tell your server and they’ll try to act ‘normal.’”

A big part of working at Dick’s is feeling out boundaries. Inside the restaurant, waitstaff give customers an additional heads up and try to get a sense of just how rowdy an experience the guests want.

“We all have to go for that first initial, ‘Hey, this is Dick’s. I’m going to be a dick. You’re more than welcome to be a dick back. Take it how you want it. I don’t mean anything towards you. I don’t know y’all, I don’t care about you,’” Huggins said. “You can tell kind of after that interaction if they want to really have fun, or if they just want to have kind of a calm night.”

Despite its vulgarity, Dick’s gets its share of families. For servers, having kids at the table also influences the tone they use. Server Sam Simonka asks parents with young kids if they want service PG, PG 13 or R-rated.

“I don’t say the F-word in front of kids, unless the parents sit there and they’ll be like, ‘I don’t give a [expletive].’ And then I’m like, ‘Alright, it’s open.’ But usually, if there’s little kids at the table, I’ll avoid the F-word and stuff like that,” Simonka said.

The restaurant chain is perhaps most well-known for the infamous white paper hats. Servers fold the tall hats using an enormous roll of butcher paper and give each guest an insulting note to wear through their meal.

When servers first start at Dick’s, they’re confined to picking quips for hats from a massive list of ideas. The insults are split into categories by age, gender and size of the party. After that training period, staff are free to go off book and create their own.

“When it comes to the hats, sometimes [customers] really want to have fun. If you’re not too busy you’ll sit there and you’ll kind of pick at them and see, ask them where they’re from, ask them what they do for work, really try to relate with what you write on the hat. And then sometimes you’ll just go straight off the list,” Huggins said.

Demonstrating how to fold one of the paper hats, Simonka wrote, “So old I [expletive] dust,” on a hat for an older woman seated in her section.

While many guests come specifically for the trash talk and insults, there are some subjects staff avoid. Roseway, who started at the restaurant as a server in 2010, said he stays away from subjects like politics and sexual orientation, especially in the age of social media.

“With social media now, it used to be whatever happened at your table, would stay at your table. But now a table over here gets upset about what happens over here and it gets blasted on social media,” Roseway said.

The hiring process at Dick’s isn’t as complicated — or mean — as one might imagine. Roseway looks for thick skin, assertive personalities and the ability to read people.

After initial interviews, Roseway says Dick’s typically holds group interviews they call auditions. Prospective employees don’t need to prepare roasts or comedic material but they do have to step into the spotlight.

“We just have them do some silly things in front of groups just to make sure that they’re outgoing. Shy doesn’t really work here,” Roseway said. “And common sense is important, because you need to know who you can say what to and you need to be able to judge people.”

The restaurant trains staff to identify three different kinds of guests: those who want the full Dick’s experience with hats and insults, those who are into the restaurant’s gimmick but would prefer to watch and those who want none of it.

“It’s always one in a family that gets dragged in,” Roseway said. “They don’t want hats, they don’t want to be messed with, in which case we just give them straight service.”

While some visitors aren’t as game, most enjoy the experience. Simonka estimates that, since starting at Dick’s at the beginning of the summer, she’s only served five tables that didn’t ask for hats.

Despite the insults and roasts, staff agree that the restaurant’s atmosphere is positive behind-the-scenes.

“I come into work every day and it doesn’t even feel like work. We just laugh ... It’s like working with your best friends every day, just making people laugh,” Simonka said.