I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

I have 24 more hours till I get my first two-day off since June.

I did 18 weeks of 6-day work weeks.  

Jeffery is TIRED.

We have 10 more weeks until my restaurant closes for a 3 week break for Xmas.  

And Adam and I have 11 more weeks till we leave for a 10-day trek to Argentina for a “research” trip, where we will explore all thing culinary in Buenos Aires.

And for those interested, I am going to sing Don’t Cry for Me Argentina from the balcony of the Casa Rosado with my arms in the air. 

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

The last two nights I’ve been on the floor.

I have had a host.

We’ve also been short staffed, so I’ve forced myself away from the door.  

I have different experiences on the door than when I’m on the floor.  

I’m standing at the POS at the wait station, when I see table #31 call a server over.  It’s not their server.  They speak for about 12 seconds and then server turns and walks toward me.

I know it’s not their server, so I ask her what they needed. 

She says, they have asked for bread.

I should mention that their server is also standing at the POS.  Putting in their order.  

They have given him about 37 seconds from the time he said he’d bring them bread till the time, they felt like they’d waited too long for bread.

They were in need of something the entire 48 minutes they were in the restaurant.  

In and out.

But always in need.

They’d really be happier at a drive thru.  

Service on demand.  

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Tonight, I was at the door.  

Once again, while my host was peeing.  

A woman walks in, I greet her.  Take her name and tell her that her table will be ready soon.

As she turns, I see what I think is an amazing tattoo on her back of a very detailed zebra.  

I start to say something and then realize it’s a print on a shirt that is near to her skin tone of a zebra.

I tell her what I thought I saw.  

And she assures me that she is never going to be so cool as to have a zebra tattoo on her back.

Thing is, she really did look like someone who’d have cool tattoos.  

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Was standing at the host stand last night, while my host for the evening was peeing.  

A couple come out from the restaurant into the lobby.  They had been sitting at the bar.

The woman looks at me and says, how long have you been here.

I say almost a year, not sure where this is going.  

She says, I thought so, you are so much nicer than the guy who was here last summer.  

I thank her for the compliment.

Maybe they don’t recognize me because I’ve lost weight.

But I’m pretty sure I WAS the guy here last summer.  

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Hi all.  

Remember me?

I have been missing in action.

On Tuesday, Adam and I were supposed to go north to spend the night with friends.  But we woke up to the news that one of the friends we were visiting was not feeling well.

So, we stayed home.

And got the booster of the monkey pox vaccine instead.  

And.

That motherfucker kicked my ass.

I have had the flu shot for years.

I have four doses of the Covid vaccine.

I have had the shingles vaccine.

I have had the polio vaccine.

I have had all the vaccines.

And I’ve never had such a reaction as to this shot.

I woke up feeling crappy on Wednesday, like I hadn’t slept well.  Which I attributed to the chicken pot pie, and wine that I over consumed the night before.

Suffered through Wednesday.

Then Thursday came along and I really felt like shit.

I got to work, had some coffee and started feeling better.

Got through the shift and felt like I’d been hit with a truck.

Came home, thinking I sure hope this isn’t COVID.

The home test said it was not.

Also, I’ve had it at least once, and I think twice and it’s not how I felt either time.  

Friday, was the worst. 

I slugged through work.  It helped that we were short staffed and I didn’t have time to complain.

On both Thursday and Friday night, when I got home, and just collapsed on the couch.  I sat there for an hour, not really watching TV or anything.  Just breathing.  

Today I woke up, and felt sluggish but better.

And by the time I got home I was amazing.

I have energy.

I have the ability to do more than sit on the couch.

And now you have it.

A new post.  

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

It’s 2:45.

I got home two hours ago.

I’m annoyed about work tonight.

In away I’m not sure I can speak about.

It’s why I’m still awake at 3:00.

Tonight was offensive.

We hosted an event.

And it was offensive.

So offensive that the event planner apologized to me, by making excuses about the content.

I learn more and more about event planning every time I do it.

Don’t say gay!!!

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

The phone rings.  I answer.

They say, how long is the wait?

I explain that we don’t run a wait. 

They say, so if I walk in right now, how long will I have to wait?

I explain that we don’t run a wait, we don’t keep a list.  We either have a table for you or we don’t.

This confuses everyone, not just the person on the phone. 

So I can’t just come down there and wait.

You can come wait, but I can’t guarantee I’ll have a table for you before we close.  

So, you don’t have any more open tables tonight?

I can’t answer this question, as I don’t know how many people are in their party.  If it’s 2 people I’ll have a table open in about 30 minutes.  If it’s ten people, you’d have to try again tomorrow.

I ask him all the important question.    

How many are in you party?  

He replies five.

I start looking and moving things around.

I let him know that I would have room for 5 people around 7:30 and ask if he’d like to make a reservation.  

He does.  

I book the table for him and all is well.

He shows up around 7:25 with his friends.  

And the best part.  

They were maybe 17/18 year’s old at best.  

Very well behaved.  Ordered well.  Tipped the server well.

Their parents should be proud.  

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

I get a call around 7:30.  

I answer.

It’s a woman looking for a reservation for 6 people on Sunday.

I give her the options and she says, great.  I’ll take it.  

I ask for her phone number, area code first and start the process.

I’m at the point of confirming when she asks if there is a better time on Saturday.

I can see people walking toward the door and the phone is ringing.

I don’t have time to look at 12 different days for reservations. 

She tells me to answer the phone.

I mute the phone, greet the guests, get them seated. 

She is gone when I get back to the phone. 

She calls back about 15 minutes later.

She tells me she is ready to book.

I get her phone number and am about to confirm, when she stops me and says, “I have a gift card for XYZ resort collection, I assume that I can use that at your restaurant.”

I assure her that she absolutely can NOT use that card at my restaurant.  We are two completely different companies.

This upsets her, and she stops the reservation, and says she’ll have to think about it.

And she hangs ups.

Here is the thing.

I don’t think we are in the yellow pages.

Unless she called information at 411, she must have had access to he internet to find our phone number.

Which means, she could have looked up the company on the gift card.  

Their website lists their restaurants.  We are not on said list.  

In fact, our guests complain that at this particular company’s hotels, we are not listed as a restaurant in town at all, even though we are pretty awesome.  

Needless to say, she did not need to call to ask about her gift card.  

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

A server came to me tonight and asked if we used a special air freshener in the men’s room, as a guest had asked her about it.

Seems the scent in the men’s room reminded him of home.  He thought since he was from the same city that our chef is from, we might use a secret air freshener from there. 

I assured her that that was not the case.  

She let me know that she’d never been in the men’s room. 

I assured her it smelled of piss and vanilla.  

Piss, because the men all seem to pee on the floor.  

Vanilla because the automatic air freshener was vanilla scented.

You can’t make this stuff up.  

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

It’s done!!!

My last Monday till June!!!

The day was especially easy. I kept thinking that someone would have to prove me right and yell at me today because it was Monday. But alas, I did not get yelled at.  

I even had a server mention how easy the night was, and I told them that they were going to jinks us.  

Not only that, we had no late reservations, and EVERYONE showed up early tonight.

We were all in (all the reservations seated) by 7:15.