management

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

It’s the third weekend in July.

That means it’s the weekend of the Yarmouth Clam Festival.

That means it’s just six weeks till Labor Day Weekend.

It means that we are half way through the summer season in Maine.

And it also means it’s Camper’s Weekend.

AHHHHHHH.

That was a chorus of angels singing.

What is Camper’s Weekend you ask?

Well.

Let me tell you.

There are around 150 summer camps in Maine.

Many of these camps are sleep-away camps.

Many of these camps welcome kids for several weeks at a time.

And most of these camps DON’T allow visitors on the regular.

So.

One weekend, in the middle of the summer, these camps open their gates and allow parents to visit.

And that one weekend is the third weekend in July.

July 19 and 20, 2024.

And why is any of this important?

Well.

Summer camp in Maine is NOT for working class folk.

For the most part.

There are subsidies and scholarships if you are a middle class and poor.

For most of these kids their parents are wealthy.

Very.

Wealthy.

And I do mean VERY wealthy.

People, from all over the country, ship their kids to Maine for the summer.

And on the third week of July, these wealthy parents descend on Maine, to visit their offspring.

And these wealthy, wealthy, stupidly rich people can be very amazing.

Very sweet. Handing out money to anyone they come in contact with.

But far too many of them come to Maine, and they eat in our restaurants, and they are HORRIBLE.

But how are they horrible you ask?

Well.

Let me tell you.

First of all, every restaurant in town is booked months out.

Completely booked.

But that doesn’t deter these folks.

They call repeatedly.

They threaten.

Do you know who I am?

They have their assistant’s call.

Do we know who they are?

And these folks, finally get reservations.

At their first, second, third, fourth choices.

Yes, they make lots and lots of reservations.

Leaving it up to fate, luck, and what others are doing as to what reservation they will keep.

If they keep them.

Today we had 23 cancellations.

Most of which were in the last 24 hours.

About ten of them were after service started tonight.

We were significantly less busy, even though on paper we should have been crazy.

But that’s the good part.

The bad part is how a lot of these folks act when they walk through the doors.

On Friday night, not one table sat where I had them scheduled to sit. They walked in. Looked around and then told me where they were sitting.

I’m not sitting at a high top.

I’m not sitting at the counter.

I’d like that corner table in the window that seats six, even though we are just four.

I’m not sitting on the patio.

I know I booked a regular table, but there is a lovely table on the patio and we’ll sit there.

None of these things could happen.

A party of four would show up with six, and say, we’ll squeeze, until they realized that wasn’t an option.

A party of 10 took 75 minutes to be complete last night. The first guests sat at 5:15, the last guests arrive at 6:40.

They let their children run wild. And I do mean wild. I watched an 8-year-old, it was his birthday, run into different servers for 90 minutes.

They are also all gluten free, organic, vegan, dairy-free, probiotic, paleo, pescatarians, who are allergic to black pepper, allium, mollusks. However, they are gluten free, not celiac, so if you use the fryer that’s okay.

And ALL, and I mean ALL of their phone numbers originate in New York City and its suburbs.

Something an employee pointed out last night, is that for the most part, they don’t really enjoy food. They are quick to order a burger, a pizza, or salad. Most are not venturing in to seafood, especially raw seafood. Steaks are preferred medium well.

And more than anything, they don’t like to be told no. In fact, they don’t take no for an answer.

Like never.

It goes back to do you know who I am? Do you know who I work for? Do you know how much I am worth?

I can buy and sell you!!!

Friday night, was the worst shift I have had at my new restaurants.

The host working next to me, kept saying, you’ve got to be kidding me?

Do you have a kids menu?

No.

Do you have child friendly food?

I don’t know what that means.

Do you have chicken fingers?

No.

Pasta?

No.

Spaghetti?

No (Spaghetti is pasta).

How about grilled chicken?

No.

How about pizza?

Yes, we have pizza.

Is it gluten free?

Yes.

That might work.

This is a conversation I had at the host stand. Long before they were seated or spoke to their server.

If you live in Maine, you know it’s coming. You can’t take the weekend off like we used to do in NYC for Fleet Week. Or Easter Weekend or any of the other horrible days.

We all suck it up, take a deep breath and take it like a man.

I do have to say, that this weekend, this year, was every weekend last year, and the two summers prior.

So, I really shouldn’t be complaining.

But I think it’s important to share the fun.

And, every restaurant in town does well this weekend.

And by this time tomorrow, every family will be headed back to NYC and we won’t see them again till the third week of July, 2025.

And I will be sitting in my underwear, drinking Buffalo Trace, which Adam found in the grocery store today, grateful the weekend is over, but also grateful, that it was another banner Camper’s Weekend.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Management is hard.

That’s what my friend Laura says to me, over and over and over.

She was my first AGM when I became a manager!

She tells me often that management is hard.

She is not wrong.

I had the same conversation today with my front of house manager.

I always thought the hard part would be knowing the job.

How to do financials.

How to manage labor.

How to make sure the needs of the restaurant were met, like ordering trash bags, and paying the rent.

Turns out that’s the easy part.

The hard part is managing people.

The personalities.

All different.

Not unlike teaching.

Who needs a hug?

Who needs a scolding?

Who needs to be sent home to breathe.

Who needs a cheeseburger.

Thinking back to ALLLLL of the manager’s I’ve had in my life, and it’s been a lot, there is a lot I’ve learned along the way.

My first manager was a friend of my parents.

She fired me for being insubordinate.

To her daughter.

My next manager, chain smoked like a chimney. Was about five feet tall. Weighed about 80 pounds. And was a firecracker.

She put up with no shit. I followed her from the Georgetown Wendy’s to the North Park Wendy’s. I stopped working for her when my car died and I could no longer get to Lexington.

I always joke that when I got hired to be a restaurant GM, I sat down and said who do I want to be like.

The name that came to mind was Mike Cook from Daryl’s restaurant in Lexington.

Cookie.

He was horrible

First question when you got to work was what kind of mood is Cookie in? If he was in a bad mood, everyone was in a bad mood. If he was in a good mood. Everyone was in a good mood.

He was one of the worst manager’s I ever had, because you never, ever knew who you were getting.

And that I’ve spent the last 13 summers asking myself what would Cookie do, and then did the opposite.

For all of my faults as a manager, the one thing that I don’t do is take out my personal mood out on my staff. If I’m depressed? If I’m mad about something? I don’t yell at them. I put a smile on my face and keep it to myself.

Last summer, was the first time, I developed crack in my facade.

I had employees who could see the pain. They helped as much as they could, but to no avail.

In the past though I’ve had lots of good, and lots of bad manager.

I’ve had managers who played with my schedule.

I asked for 10 days off at the Hard Rock.

The 10th day fell on the beginning of the next schedule.

I went away on my trip, and didn’t show up for day 10 because why would I be scheduled.

I was told I was being fired for a no call – no show.

It took about 10 minutes in the GM’s office dropping the word harassment, and discrimination 17 times, for that decision to be reversed.

The manager who played with my schedule was transferred about 6 weeks later because of me.

While I’m on the subject of the Hard Rock, two of the best GM’s I ever worked with were there. Great attitude. Fair treatment. Listened. Cared. Treated the staff like gold.

Back to the subject.

Managing is hard.

Managing restaurants is especially hard.

And it’s truly not for the feint of heart.

I’ve learned a lot over the past 14 summers.

Do I still fuck up?

Of course.

Back in 2014 I made a rule for myself.

If I snap at an employee…

I buy them a beer at the end of the shift.

Not literally.

Because that would be illegal.

What I do, is take 20 dollars out of my pocket and give it the employee, to buy themselves a beer after work.

And I ALWAYS apologize.

ALWAYS

I usually only have a couple of occurrences a year.

I won’t tag her in the post, but one of my favorite employees of my GM days, was a girl who hosted for me.

We butted heads a lot.

She gave her notice at the end of the third summer, in a letter to my boss.

She gave him all the reasons that she hated me and that was the reason she was quitting.

Fast forward six months, and she is working in a restaurant, in another state, and she texts me to say that she was sorry.

She was wrong about me.

After working in a restaurant, with actual bad management, she realized that I was quite fair in my expectations. Was pretty clear in what I wanted.

And wasn’t so bad after all.

Since then, she has finished her degree, has two kids and I love watching her grow from 8 states away.

She is not the only person to share the same sentiments with me.

To end the story, she was the last customer I spoke to on October 29,2017 the night before we all lost our jobs. She was in town visiting and had come to the restaurant to see me. She sat at seat 51 at the Front Bar and we chatted.

She left.

I went home.

The next day when I got to work, the locks were being changed and yellow envelopes were being handed out.

I was told, it’s just business.

It’s not personal.

But that’s another story.

I'd Like to Speak to the Manager!!!

Tales of a Restaurant General Manager

A weekend in the country, would be charming, and the air would be fresh.

One man may seem incompetent, another not make sense, while others look like quite waste of company expense. They need a brother’s leadership, so, please don’t do them in. Remember mediocrity is not a mortal sin.