I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

We received a postcard in the mail over the weekend. It took all of us a couple of reads to figure out that it was not a complaint but a compliment.

The card read:

LF Team:

I’ve been here four months. The steak is horrible. You still have to crown. The service is worse than the steak. Merry Christmas.

Turns out it was from a regular who was transferred to France for work.

He came in a lot and loved loved loved our restaurant.

We all laughed once we figured out who it was from.

Tonight was the slowest, I mean the quietest day at the restaurant in over a year.

We sat our last reservation at 7:30. A two top at the bar. We sat all our other reservations by 7:00.

Whew. It’s going to be an early night.

8:00 came and went and everyone is finishing up. Including the two top at the bar.

8:30 comes and goes and everyone is starting to leave. Including the two top at the bar.

By 9:00 everyone is gone except for table 25. A four top sat at 7:00.

And sit they did.

At 10:00 they asked for refills on their water. They finally gathered their coats and left at almost 10:30. For 90 minutes they’d been the only guests in the restaurant.

They leave and I wait for the server to finish up. She comes over to sit with me to do her cash out. At this point I learn that the table had only tipped 16% on a 300 dollar tab.

I usually don’t get involved with servers and their tips. On the whole the guests at my restaurant treat the staff very well. But this annoyed the fuck out of me.

The server, me, the bartender should have all been home drinking a cocktail by 9:30. Now we all three had a 45 minute drive for a fraction of the money it should have been.

Frustrating to say the least.