We sell gift cards.

As does every other restaurant in America.

We sell traditional plastic cards that are processed through our Point of Sale.

We do not sell cards over the phone then mail them out. Our POS has an online gift card feature. You can buy the card then have the information emailed to your friend. Or you can print it out and physically give it to them.

On Thursday night a woman called and she was very angry. She had printed her gift card and it the printer had printed it “sloppy.” I have no idea what she meant, but she called to let me know this was my fault.

She wanted me to fix the file over the phone so it wouldn’t print sloppy.

I had no idea what the problem was. The print is plain but not sloppy. There are no graphics. Essentially our name, the amount, the GC number.

She kept demanding I fix it.

Then she demanded I send her a new one.

I kept trying to explain that neither choice was in my power.

Finally she got completely angry and said if I didn’t fix the problem she’d never come to our restaurant again.

I apologized and again said I couldn’t fix it.

She finally ended the call.

For the life of me I can’t understand people who don’t follow the instructions on our reservation site and call the restaurant for larger party reservations.

Tonight a woman called to see if her two five top reservations can be seated together. Also they are four tops now.

The truth is we could have seated them together.

But.

It would have meant that two servers would have lost four covers each. And a server who was already going to get more than her co workers would get 8 additional covers.

Plus. You caused us to lose reservations today if we give your two tables away because I told people all day we were full.

And all of this!

I repeat.

All of this could have been avoided if they’d just called.

Also.

They made the reservation almost two months ago. There would have been availability but alas they decided not sitting with their family as a whole superseded just calling.

I’ll never understand it.

I always think I know what I’m going to write about by 8:00. Then someone comes along and throws that idea out the window.

Tonight we had a reservation for four people at 8:00.

Two of the four arrived early. They waited in the lobby for a while. They finally decided to be sat.

At 8:15 their friends are still not there.

They finally arrived as the clock inched toward 8:30.

The four of them then took forever to order. They actually ordered after the 6 top that was sat at 8:30.

The meal proceeded as normal.

At 10:00 they ordered dessert. No big deal.

At 10:30 they were finished.

They were also the only people in the restaurant.

They remained the only people in the restaurant until 11:45.

Myself, the chef and the server chatted at a table in the bar until they left.

We never rush people. We want them to enjoy themselves. But where’s the limit?

PS. We don’t do this but I know managers who would turn the heat off in the winter and air off in the summer to move people along. As well as turning off the music so it becomes uncomfortably quiet.

No it’s your fault!

Thanks for all the comments from last night’s post.

I truly appreciated everyone’s input.

It was a rhetorical question.

I know the correct answer. But I wanted an honest discussion.

The correct answer is the item they ordered that they didn’t like, want, or didn’t ask for mods for is removed, comped and the new item is ordered.

No issue is made about this by any of the staff.

As for my friend, Vera, who had her food delivered to the wrong table and then brought to her table after:

I’d ask to have it recooked.

And I’d bring it to the manager’s attention that it happened. Not to get anyone in trouble but so the server can be educated.

We all have worked at jobs where people either don’t know what their doing, don’t care what their doing, or are just too lazy to do the right thing. The server who did this falls on one of these categories. The manager needs to know.

Trust me on this.

Tonight I received a phone call asking what time we closed. I said that our last reservation was at 7:45. They said okay and hung up.

About 20 minutes later I got a phone call that said, if we get to your restaurant right at 7:45 will you be able to seat us. I assured them that yes we could seat them if they were there by 7:45.

At 7:47 a couple walks through the door. I ask them if they are the couple who called. They said yes. I jokingly said it was 90 seconds too late. Then said follow me.

As I’m walking them to their table, they see friends they know at the bar. So they stop to talk.

They were still talking at the bar at 7:58.

They’d arrived on time but didn’t actually sit down until 8:00.

Luckily they ordered a salad and a burger.

But it was still annoying.

Tonight a woman called to see if we had outdoor seating.

I let her know, that yes in the summer we did have outdoor seating.

She replied but you aren’t seating outside tonight?

I didn’t know what to say. So I said nothing.

She repeated the question.

I replied, no we are not seating outside.

She asked in a roundabout way why?

I said it was because it’s cold.

She said OH.

I assured her he we had seats inside.

She said okay.

I said have a good night.

We both hung up.

You’re responsible!
You’re the one to blame!
It’s your fault!

Here is a question for everyone.

How should a restaurant respond when the following happens:

Tonight a guest ordered yucca fries.

She clearly said she wanted yucca fries.

The server ordered yucca fries.

Yucca fries were delivered to the table.

At which point, the guest says, what’s this? I can’t eat this! I wanted plain yucca fries.

At no time did she mention that she wanted her order modified.

She ordered. We brought her exactly what she ordered. But it was not what she wanted.

Do we get her a new one?

Do we charge her for the first one?

What should be our response?

Why should it cost us for her mistake?

Along the same line a guest ordered our featured dessert tonight. She took 1 bite and declared that this was not what she thought it was going to be. She sent it back and ordered a bread pudding instead.

The same questions apply!

Thoughts?

One of our last reservations of the evening was a 5 top, at 7:15. A five top is a big deal when it’s after Prelude in December. Especially for the server who scheduled to have them. It was 30% of her covers for the evening.

I was worried when 7:15 came and went.

I was really worried when 7:30 came and went.

At 7:35 I called to make sure they were coming.

A woman answers.

I ask if they plan to keep their reservation for the evening. She corrects me and lets me know her reservation is for tonight. I assure her that it is not.

She apologizes. I fix the mistake.

What I wanted to say is, did you notice when we sent you a text for the initial reservation? Did you notice this morning when you got a text asking you to confirm the reservation. Did you notice the text that said, You’re due at the restaurant in 30 minutes!

I double checked. The app confirmed the texts were sent. And it’s the right number because it’s the one I called you at.

I did not say this. I told her I looked forward to seeing her on Friday.

The server who didn’t wait on them was very disappointed in their night.

Can we chat about paying the check.

This one comes up way more than you’d think.The Jones’ have reservation for a party of 8. Mr. and Mrs. Smith come in first. They check in and let the host know they want to pay the check. They hand the host a credit card and that should be it.

Right?

Six minutes later the Johnson’s check in for the same reservation and they let the host know, that THEY want to pay the check and try to hand them a credit card.

The same thing happens two more times.

At this point we have four credit cards and four requests to pay the bill.

What do we do?

My rule as a server and NOW as a MANAGER has always been whomever asks first gets to pay.

It’s a steadfast rule. No grey area. The rule is the rule.

However, it’s never that cut and dry.

I’ve seen guests almost come to blows over this.

I’ve also seen server’s verbally abused because they followed my rule.

And I don’t bend. You give your card first. You pay. You want to fight about it. Fight with your friends–not my staff.

And do you know who is the worst about all of this?

People who don’t need the money. People who have more money in the their pocket than most of my staff will ever see in their life. It’s always the rich folks. And I want to smack them and say give the 800 bucks you are trying to spend to someone who really needs it, and stop being a child.

Meanwhile, if you do this, stop it!

The easiest, always the easiest thing to do is to split the check equally among everyone. Four couples, split by four. Easy. Peasy.

But for the love of god don’t be mean to the staff because they told someone before you that they could pay first.

Welcome to my Ted talk

Over the last three days we’ve gotten several surveys back with complaints about the food.

This never happens. Our food is fucking awesome. Very rarely does the chef really mid the mark with something. I can count on one hand how many times since I started.

The common denominator in all of the complaints is not taking the chef’s recommendation on how to order the food.

The skirt steak: Gentleman complained that it was tough. Couldn’t cut through it. Either make sure it’s tender or don’t serve it.

A skirt steak is a very thin piece of steak cut. It is prized for its flavor over its tenderness. Our chef recommends no more than medium rare. Any more and the steak starts to get tough. This gentleman ignored the advice of the server and ordered it medium well. He was disappointed. The chef was not surprised.

Of course it was tough. He ignored the chef.

The pork chop: Guest complained it was undercooked. Was angry that it couldn’t be cooked more.

Many. Many. Many. Restaurants will cook pork to temp. Many.

We do not.

Our pork is cooked through and then finished on the grill.

The catch.

Our pork is cooked using a method called sous vide. French for in a vacuum. This is sometimes called low temp, long time cooking. Basically the item you are cooking is sealed in a plastic bag, and then placed in water. The water is heated and kept moving using an immersion circulator. The desired temp is set on the device and then the food is cooked slow over a long time till the center is heated to the desired temp. The cooking time can be over several hours. You literally put your steak, turkey, pork chop in a bag, in water then cooked for several hours.

When it’s reached the desired temp the item is usually finished on the stove. For example Adam cooks steak this way, then sears it on the grill on in an iron skillet. Perfect medium rare on the outside. Delicious char on the outside.

At one of my last restaurants we cooked turkey this way. Finished it in the oven to brown the skin.

We cook our pork chop this way.

However.

This cooking method, cooks the food through. It won’t dry it out. It also leaves the interior on turkey and pork a little pink. The meat is at a fully cooked temp, but the meat looks rarer than it is.

We got complaints about this at my last restaurant. And clearly this man was angry about it. And we won’t cook it more because in no time at all it will be dry. Trust me, it’s the most delicious, moist pork chop you’ll ever eat.

Filet: Guest called his well done filet a hockey puck.

A filet is sometimes two inches thick. To cook the center to well done the outside is going to be charred. To a avoid this the filet is often butterflied which cuts the meat almost in half so it’s a flat thinner piece. It’s not much better this way.

Some folks refuse to let us butterfly the steak. Some are unhappy that when the steak comes out well done it’s dry and tasteless. Because. The filet has very little fat. There is not far to keep it juicer. Want medium well, we’ll done? Order a New York strip. A ribeye.

All three times the guest was unhappy because they knew better and didn’t take the advice of their server.

So the moral of the story: ask questions if you don’t know the item or recognize the description. Then listen when the server gives you advice. The advice comes from the team who wrote the menu. They know how the item is supposed to be cooked to taste the best.

And don’t get angry when you don’t listen.