I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

We opened the doors at 4:50 tonight.

Like any other night.

Jennifer unlocked the doors and went in to the parking lot to let people know we were open.

60 seconds later our first guests of the evening appeared.

We welcomed them.

The wife said thank you for the escort.

Her husband said, but we like our Toyota at the same time I said, she hasn’t done that in years.

Both. Dad. Jokes.

We both started laughing.

They were sat.

We went on with our evening.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

We opened to the public today.

It was quiet.

We had hoped it would be.

We wanted the day to work through the kinks.

In that regard it was a success.

At the end of the day we announced on social media that we were open.

There was overwhelming excitement.

Except.

For the naysayer.

For example the lady who got mad over a year ago because she wasn’t told the price of a special had nothing nice to say.

Many people were upset that we are closing at 5:30.

No congratulations just anger.

Then a lot of people were upset that we said the restaurant sat on a river. Not a harbor.

I wrote that text.

I didn’t know it was a harbor. I thought it was the River my old restaurant sat on.

I aspire to be so perfect.

Meanwhile, the restaurant is beautiful. The team has worked hard. The food is amazing.

And I’m now the GM of three restaurants.

I’m tired.

I keep getting manager applications but they either don’t get back to me if I’m interested. Or they don’t show up for their interview.

Or they show up 30 minutes early for their interview. Spend 20 minutes in the restroom. Finally come out, and sit across from me chewing gum, while being surly. He talked for 30 minutes and finally said, I suppose I should give you a chance to talk.

I knew 30 seconds in I wouldn’t hire him.

Then there are the applicants who have amazing resumes. You look them up and they have puppies on their Facebook page. They are quite handsome, and when you reach out turns out they have already been snatched up by another company and you spend the day crying into your coffee. You know who you are!

However.

I’m having fun.

It’s exciting.

And the staff at our old restaurant has been very helpful. And making my life manageable.

I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes.

I’d like to speak to the manager!

I have a new host who started last week.

He’s doing great.

But he’s new.

After pre-shift he comes to me and says that there’s a man on hold who’s angry.

He wanted a reservation for three people at the bar, but one of them is a minor.

And he’s upset.

I go to the phone.

He’s already hung up.

The phone rings, it’s him again.

The other host answers.

Hands the phone to me.

He’s upset.

That he was put on hold.

That he left a message this morning but we are just calling back.

That the host told him we don’t take reservations for three at the bar.

(This is true, but we say we are booked, not that we don’t do it).

He keeps complaining about my host.

He changed tactics and tells me that he lives down the street. We are his favorite restaurant.

This never matters to me. But I also know he’s not a regular as he doesn’t know me.

I tell him I can make a reservation for him.

And I do.

Ably to discover he is looking for Saturday. Not today.

He is upset. Telling me 12 times he left a message. I should have known it was tomorrow.

I don’t tell him that I had 25 messages. They all run together.

He keeps on getting more and more upset.

Now he is yelling at me.

He yells at me that I should be better and that this is ridiculous.

I reply.

We’ll now you’re yelling at me.

So I’m sorry. We are booked Saturday. I wish you luck finding some place yo eat but you won’t be dining with us.

Have a good night.

And I hung up the phone.

I explained to my host that we never say we don’t do something. We are just booked. We don’t availability.

I assured him he was not in trouble. He’s knew.

Ignore them.

The man did not call back.