Why is it strange to order brown sugar for your coffee at a restaurant?

As a server, I would secretly be annoyed if you requested brown sugar. In the restaurant I work in, we give you a little sugar caddy with sugar, sweet and low, equal, and splenda(on request). The brown sugar is in the back, in a giant container. The cooks use it in their potions. Now, when you ask a server for brown sugar, you become a "difficult customer." As this point, I am allowed to tell the other servers that you are a douche. And maybe you're not, really. But the thing is, by the time you ask that server for your brown sugar, the server has already had a million other stupid questions/requests/complaints, and your desire to have unrefined organic sugar in your coffee (which entails us going to the back, finding an appropriate container for the sugar, and filling an appropriate amount for you WHILE doing other gay things for customers) may just be enough to push us over the edge. And we're not allowed to bring vodka to work anymore. Hope I helped! :):) P.S. You're supposed to call us servers, not waitresses/waiters. Don't ask why.

Not every restaurant carries brown sugar, believe it or not

Maybe they look at your unusual request and think you're fussy, fussy, fussy....Probably not gonna give them a good tip! (LOL)

Kim is right and she has a wicked sense of humor, which I adore. You posted a similar question the other day and I am not quite sure why this is such a pressing concern to you. It is not strange, it just makes you appear to be overly picky and difficult. I have been a server for 25 years and when I hear a customer make a request such as yours, it immediately sends up red flags. Most people who make odd requests will inevitably be difficult during the entire meal. They will often try to change the menu to suit their needs, want the temperature adjusted, will complain about other diners or employees, critique your skills, want everything on the side, and want a different seating arrangement. I'm not saying that this how you act, but from a server's experience, this is what they are anticipating from you. I have many customers who have to have certain non-traditional restaurant items for their meals, they either choose to be difficult or they choose to bring these items with them to the restaurant, so as not to be difficult. You choose, which person do you want to be?

Again, we don't know where the brown sugar is. Why would we? We have to interrupt a cook, he has to tell or show us, we have to figure out what to put it in, it is really just an annoying thing to have to do! Yes, you are being "difficult". How much sugar do you use? Nikki is right. Sugar is sugar is molasses is honey.

I wouldn't say it's all that different than other things put in their coffee. Cinnomon, nutmeg, some even like clili powder

It's standard in UK. Good restaurants do not use the packets these are reserved for motorway service areas or american imports like Starbucks. In a good restaurant you would expect a small tray with milk, cream, white sugar, brown sugar and some petit fours with you coffee.