I’ll explain the shiny shirts in a later post.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Server Edition!!!!

I just worked my first swing shift. A swing shift is when you go in midway through lunch and stay until the restaurant is off the wait for the evening. Today I got to work at 1:30 and my station was cut at 10:30. Overall it was not a bad day, and I do have to admit that my new outlook is working great. For the last two days I’ve had great shifts, worked hard and made good money. And basically I just tell myself that no matter what’s happening there is no reason to be upset. It’s not worth losing your job over, yelling about, or losing your cool. And for the most part it’s worked.

I do have to admit though, that I had to take a couple of very deep breaths at the end of the shift tonight.

My last table of the evening was four British women who were sat around 9:30. There was nothing out of the ordinary about them and they were okay nice. They didn’t want to have fun, but they were pleasant enough. I should have known better. They ate at a snails pace. It took them almost an hour to finish their main courses. And when you have an appetizer, entree and dessert, that can take a while. They also had three rounds of cocktails. When it was all said and done, their bill came to $241.27 and they had been my only table for well over an hour by 11:30. At around 11:45 they finally paid their tab. They were very sweet and told me to keep the change.

And so breathlessly I took the money to the wait station and said a little prayer. And counted it.

They had given me $250.00. And I got to keep the change. All$8.73 cents worth.

I just stood in the wait station, cringing. I was afraid to go back on the floor because I didn’t want to be tempted to say something to them. With most corporate restaurant jobs, the one sure way to be fired is to say something to a guest about a tip. But at the same time you have to be kidding me.

Just to break things down for you. I have to tip out 4 percent of my gross sales. So let’s just do the math. 4% of 240 is 9.60. Yes, that’s right, it’s actually cost me money to wait on them, and in the end I didn’t make a penny. And I’m still at work at midnight, when if they hadn’t been here I could have been home by midnight.

By the time I got home, I just let it roll off my back. There’s no use getting upset about it. It really doesn’t do any good when it’s all said and done. I still managed to walk with 13% of my sales for the day and that was still a significant amount of money. But I just keep thinking how nice the fifty bucks would have been if they’d tipped the 20 percent they should have. Ah, wishful thinking.

And now I’m going to go to bed, so I can have my new outlook during my shift tomorrow.

I got to work today and was scrolling thru the reservations.

I got super excited about a 5:00 reservation. They had a name that was a variation of my name. And I wanted to make sure I was in the lobby when they came in to say hi.

I was there. We exchanged pleasantries.

They were seated.

A bout 30 minutes the server comes to let me know they aren’t happy.

They have received their meals but their salads weren’t served first.

I ask her if I should visit them. She says no. I do say that I will make sure to be at the door when they leave to check in.

And so I am.

They arrive at the host stand and are leaving, and I ask how their meal was.

The wife says “alright.”

I ask, “just alright?”

And she gets that pursed look on her face that I hate. My mother would do that.

Her husband says, “He asked Go ahead.”

And she tells me all the ways that the evening was horrible.

Their salads weren’t served first.

The music was too loud.

They got their food too fast.

The window looked out on the parking lot.

The server never checked in on them.

The tables were too close.

The restaurant wasn’t romantic.

The neighbors was too loud.

They never got their potatoes.

I listen. They finish.

I’m not sure what to say.

The salads weren’t served first because they are sides.

The food came fast because they sat at 5:00. Every. Every. Every. Restaurant is fast at 5:00. There is no one in front of you. Most people who eat at 5:00 want to be fast. When Adam and I eat at 5:00 we are on our way to a show. We don’t want to linger.

Yes. The music is loud. We are an Argentine steak house. Not Delmonico’s. And no we did not turn it down, because the man who signs my check sets the volume. Not one other person complained tonight, not even the other people sat at 5:00 who were your age.

Yes. The window in the dining room looks into the parking lot. My little town is filled with restaurants that look out on to the water. If we had water views your filet would be 1.5 times more expensive. Also our dining room is fucking beautiful. And if it’s your anniversary, look at your husband.

The server said, her version, that she came over after your food was served but you waved her away because you were annoyed you’d gotten your food. She also said, you got your mashed potatoes as you ordered. She put them on the table herself. You didn’t get two orders because your salads were actually your sides.

Yes, the tables are close. For Maine. If we were in NYC or Chicago, or any other major cities we’d have four more tables in that row of tables. Three inches apart.

As for your loud neighbors, did you say hi? Did you talk to them? Keep them occupied so they can’t be loud. Or you can be loud with them.

And we are a VERY romantic restaurants. We have sooooooo many first dates at our restaurant. One guy calls me his wing man because; he calls me to tell me he’s bringing another first date to the restaurant. I see him at least every two weeks. He’s hot. The girls he brings are hotter. We treat him like gold. Eventually, he’ll find the right one.

The couple left two reviews.

One was a response to our survey.

One was on Google.

Both mentioned that they talked to the owner on their way out and he didn’t respond to their complaints.

I’m not the owner….but…..

I didn’t know what to say.

The salads are side. Did you ask for them first?

I have no idea how to address the view. I can’t move the restaurant. We don’t have a roof top dining room. The patio looks on to the parking lot. I was screwed there.

I really think you were going to be unhappy with anything we did. You really needed to be at a white table cloth restaurant.

Meanwhile. I had 30 conversations tonight telling me how wonderful we are. How great Bob was. How great Andy was. How great the 45 day dry aged Wagyu strip was. How great the bread pudding was. So many people were there for the first time tonight. From just down the road. From Connecticut. From Philadelphia. From Portland.

When they were seated, we gave them a lovely card wishing them happy anniversary and thanking them for celebrating at our restaurant. They gave it back to the server with the words, we will never be back.

So I will ask again…was it us? Or you?

Today I realized that the absolute WORST part of running a restaurant, in the summer, in a coastal New England tourist town…

The ABSOLUTE worst… 

Is trying to decide on a day like to today whether to keep the patio open or close it preemptively. 

You never.  Ever.  Win. 

If you do close it, the rain never comes.

If you keep it open the rain comes at 6:30 when every table is full. 

If you close it and it doesn’t rain, you lose money.

If you close it and it doesn’t rain, you piss guests off. 

If you don’t close it and it rains, you lose money.

If you don’t close it and it rains you piss guests off. 

There is no way to win. 

Our patio seats around 100 guests.  We do NOT have matching seats inside just in case. 

We fill up both the patio AND the inside with the goal of capturing as much revenue as possible. 

Today, storms were forecasted between 4:00 and 6:00.  They could be severe. 

Chef and I met at 1:30 and decided to just play it safe.

It started to rain at 4:26 just as pre-shift was starting.

Around 4:38 there was a full rainbow in our parking lot.

And the rain stopped at 4:45 as pre-shift ended.  And the sun came out and the skies were clear for the rest of the night.

Unfortunately, when you call it at 2:00, you no longer have staff.  You no longer have reservations.

And you watch as the sun continues to shine in the parking lot as you struggle to turn tables to get all the people you moved inside, sat on time. 

And the guests walk in wanting to know why the patio is NOT open.  And they don’t care that it was supposed to rain. 

And I get their point. 

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Server edition!!!

PS. I clearly remember the woman who was upset because her drink wasn’t pink enough. It was not a cosmo!

During my shift waiting tables on Tuesday night I came to the realization that I hated my job and I was completely over it. This is not something you want to realize when you have only been at the job five weeks. The past three or four shifts have sucked for various reasons, and I haven’t made nearly as much money as I should have and this only makes it worse. So on the way home on the subway Tuesday night I had a little chat with myself. I basically said to myself that I needed to stop taking the job so seriously, I needed to stop getting upset by things when they didn’t go my way, and I needed to realize that the job for better or worse was excellent money and that I needed it.

I had the same conversation with my roommate who agreed with me that it was not good to hate a job you’ve only had five weeks. He also reminded me that it was a means to an end and that if I hated it, that would keep me motivated to look for a real job. I reminded myself of all of this on my way to work tonight. And without a doubt I had the best shift tonight that I have had since I started working there. I didn’t make the most money, but I dealt with every thing without getting upset and just let the crap roll off my back. And all though it wasn’t THE BEST money night, it was the 2nd BEST money night.

And trust me when I say it was not a smooth night at all. The restaurant just spent a trillion dollars getting a state of the art computer system with all the bells and whistles. It has a response time of about 20 seconds. Meaning you touch the screen to ring up a burger and it takes 20 seconds to register that’s what you want. This means it adds minutes to every check you deal with every night. To make matters worse, the entire system was down tonight when the shift started. Luckily it was back up withing 20 or so minutes so it didn’t create too much havoc. Unfortunately at about 10:30 when I was very busy it lost all of my checks. Well sort of. I could see them. I just couldn’t access them. So anytime someone ordered something new, I started a new check. And then when the table was ready to pay I had to get a manger to override the system, combine all the checks and then print it for me. And then if a table was paying with a credit card, once again the manager had to override the system and do the card manually. Of course all of my tables wanted to pay at once and it took forever to take care of them.

But I did not get upset. I just explained to them all that it was a new computer system and that I would get them out as quickly as possible. Most of them found it funny and were fine. Trust me when I say I could have let that ruin my night, but I didn’t. I just rolled with it and let it go.

I only had one bitchy table. They hated everything from the word go. I didn’t get the drinks right. They weren’t in the right glasses. The drink wasn’t pink enough. I wouldn’t give them separate checks. Needless to say, I realized about three minutes in I wasn’t going to get a tip, so I cut my losses and ignored them. I waited on them as much as I had to and was as nice as I could be. They left me exact change on the tab with no tip, just as I expected. I just laughed about it. Some people are just unhappy and there’s nothing I can do about it. The way I see it, 42 other tables thought I was great tonight. One didn’t. I don’t think it was me. On other nights yes, it was me. But not tonight.

Tomorrow (Friday) I have to be at a meeting at 9:00 a.m. for the shows in Oklahoma for next summer. Maybe tomorrow’s post should be Oklahoma Day One?