I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

When I started at my job, the front of house was the wild, wild, west.  

They had not had real structure in months.  

The person who’d been hired to be general manager, had quit unexpectedly.  This left Chef to do his job, my job, plus cook, and pay the bills, hire, and manager the whole team.  

I know how he is when he’s tired.  I can’t imagine what it was like before I started.  

My first day was on Wednesday, June 23.  

The first words out of his mouth to the staff was, “this is Jeff, go to him with your problems.”  

And it was true.  12 minutes into my first shift, I get called over to deal with a steak that had been sent back.  

Not his problem.  

Go ask Jeff was his mantra for the first several months.  

The staff now knows when to come to me.  

It wasn’t just the staff who’d needed structure.

The guests had had no structure either.  

In the first three days of being there, I pissed off everyone.  

I know you are a regular, I know that you know where your seats are at the bar, but I still need you to check in with me.  

I pissed off so many people. 

At the same time, though, I was creating stability.  I’m not sure the staff would have believed that then and I know the guests didn’t, but I was trying.  

Slowly things began to change.  The staff started to trust me.  All except a couple of people, who continued to push back and they ended up having a meeting with me in G-4.  That’s where I sit with people who are about to find out they are looking for new jobs. 

The guests were a little trickier.  I had only ever worked in one restaurant that took reservations and it was a very short stint.  I had a lot to learn.  A LOT to learn.  

It’s funny, about three minutes after I started on one of my first days a man walked in and started to head to the bar.  I stopped him and asked if he had a reservation.  He said no and started to walk on in.  I stopped him and explained that we had no room at the bar.

He looks at me and say, “you’re the guy that used to work at the restaurant across town.  I was going to spend a lot of money here but I guess I’m not now.”  He’s never been back.  

Piss people off I did, but we also came to an understanding.

And now going on 15 months later, for the most part our guests love me.  I know who the regulars are.  I know how to work magic and get people in.  

I know how to make people happy.  

We were busy tonight.  I stopped taking reservations at 3:00. 

We didn’t answer the phone tonight.  

And we managed to get in, every regular that showed up without a reservation tonight.  

All of them.  

And they were all so appreciative.  So grateful. 

I was on the patio tonight and a man comes up to me and says, “is this your restaurant?”  

I explain that I don’t own the restaurant but I am the general manager.

He says, “you should be very proud of what you’ve accomplished here.  I’ve worked in the business consulting on restaurants for years, opening too many to count and what you have here is magical.”  

I always say thank you.  But I also say, that it’s not really me.  It’s the chef and the team that do all the work.  I just make sure people show up to do the work and they do and they do it well and they make my job easy.”

He wouldn’t hear of it though.  He said, “you may say that, but I have seen good and I’ve seen great and this is great.  And a lot of that is on you.”  

We talked for about 6 or 7 minutes until someone came to say Chef needed me.  

Last night I was talking to 2 real regulars who stopped me to say hello.  One of them thanked me for getting them in and then told me they really appreciated the changes I had made.  They could see a difference in the reservations, in the ability to get in, the ability to get a phone call returned and a huge difference in the service.  As always, I explained that it had very little to do with me but I thanked them for the compliment.  

I am telling this story, because sometimes I forget and get beaten down by the day-to-day operations and forget that I’m pretty good at my job.  I always say that I’ll never be the best general manager, but I’m sure as fuck not the worst.  

I am very aware of my limitations.  I’m very aware of the things that I struggle with.  I’m very aware of the things that I wish I was better at.  

But I also know what I’m good at.  

I’ll finish by saying that this week we had a 9 top reservation.  It was a surprise 30^th birthday celebration.  I worked with the woman hosting the event over the course of the last month.  The event was for her son.  

When we reserve a table for more than 8 people, we use a special pre-fixe menu.  I have to send all the information, along with pricing, and availability.  There were a ton of emails back and forth as we planned the event.  Even day of, as a few of the people had tested positive for COVID and couldn’t come forcing their numbers to change.  

The day of the dinner, we get everyone seated a head of the guest of honor.  The son arrives thinking they have dinner reservations for 2.  

Here’s the catch.

I knew the birthday boy.  He worked for me in 2013 has a server.  He had just finished college and was embarking on his future.  He was not the best server, but what he lacked in skill he made up for in being a genuinely nice person.  He is still one of my favorite employees.  

When he arrived, he gave me a big hug.  I exclaimed that it was nice to see him, pretending that I had no idea he was coming in.  I picked up two menus and led them through the dining room.

The area where they were seated has a row of two tops against the wall, and 4 tables of 10 in private rooms.  I get them there and say you can take a pick of the two tops.  He starts to sit down and I say, I actually think you’d like this one better.  I lead him to  one of the large rooms and everyone yells surprise and he tears up and gets emotional. 

He joins his friends and eats dinner.  

At the end of the meal, I make point of saying goodbye.  He is about to leave and gives me a big hug and thanks me for everything.  His mom gives me a bigger hug and thanks me even more. 

We stand and chat for about 15 minutes.  

And at one point, we are chatting about his time as an employee and I say that I have changed a great deal in the 9 years since he worked for me, and that I’m a much better manager.  He looks at me and says, I thought you were a great manager then.  And I appreciate all that you taught me that summer.  

I hugged him again.  And he went on his way.  

A lot of people who will read this post worked for me moons ago.  

Back in 1902, I was faking it till I made it.  

I appreciate their patience.  I appreciate their kindness.  I appreciate what they taught me.  

I have changed.  Mostly for the better.  

But sometime I have to remind myself that even when I’m struggling, I’m pretty good at my job.

And I’ll never be the worst fucking manager!!!