A hug and kiss and touching their face is all you need sometimes. I went into work one happy ole gal.
Walked into total mayhem.
In less than one minute I was Lucy in the candy factory again. We usually run with no fewer than seven servers and sometimes eight. We had five servers (one almost nine months pregnant) and the place was already half full. I never wear my work shirt in because it's so hot. I usually wear my little camisole and change in the restroom. They needed me to pick up a table immediately so I set my cup of water down, pulled off my camisole right there in the server alley and put on my work shirt. It's not like anybody in the kitchen had time to notice my pitifully small boobs and in under ten seconds I was ready to go.
My first table was a party of five, ordered two large bottles of Pelligrino and a seventy dollar bottle of wine followed by two orders of Escargot. Their tab was well over a hundred bucks before they even ordered dinner. BINGO! Right after I served their entrees a party of twenty five came in that had requested me to be their server for their parent's fiftieth wedding anniversary. We were so short on servers I had to take the party by myself. YIKES!
We have a new girl who is still in training so she was helping everyone out and for the next few minutes she helped me.
Last week I waited on a woman with her two daughters who I have waited on several times before. The first time I waited on them I noticed the woman's necklace and asked her where she got it? She said she bought it at a boutique on the Newnan Square. I asked if it was made by Jill Massey Couture Designs and she looked shocked, said "Yes! How did you know that?" I told her Jill Massey was my cousin. Now they are regulars of mine at the restaurant. Last week she told me she was bringing her parents in eat and wanted me to wait on them. I didn't realize she meant with twenty two other people.
The owner said to take the party by myself and they wouldn't seat me any other tables. Luckily I had just dropped the check with my first table (who had ordered ANOTHER $69 bottle of wine with dinner). He left me a fifty dollar tip...AND I WAS OFF TO A GREAT START!
The new girl was really helpful and wouldn't have been able to do it without her. The main thing I needed help with was getting all the drinks and bread out to the table while I rang in the twenty five orders. From there I could handle it on my own. I thanked the new girl, Leigh several times and she even helped refill tea and water glasses while I served the salads and soups. I was chatting with the honorees and congratulated them on their fifty years together and threw in my standing joke "My husband says he FEELS like he's been married to me for fifty years."
I never like to compliment the chefs too much back across the cook line which servers consider the divide between North and South Korea but had to tonight. Ask a cook and we servers are N. Korea ask a server and they are. Well we all worked together tonight and my twenty five top went out perfect and it was one big happy table!
I cleared the dinner dishes and told the couple celebrating their fiftieth that the strippers were here and we needed to make room. They both got a kick out of that. I told them I would bring out the cake to let them take pictures and then take it back to the kitchen to cut and serve. They all thought that was a great idea. I was getting the back table in the kitchen ready to cut the cake when the sometimes sour puss sous chef commented I could do it at the table lot easier. I told him there was no room, which there wasn't and pointed my finger at him, winked my eye and said "Then they would know how much cake was left."
Needless to say they had plenty left to take home and we had plenty to eat in the kitchen! I talked to the woman who had asked me to wait on them and said normally with a party this size wanting separate checks we added a suggested gratuity of 18% and did she think that would be okay? She said certainly so I did just that! The tab was over $400.00 and every one of them left me more than the eighteen. The husband who's anniversary it was (and who's tab was picked up by one of their kids) handed me a twenty and said thank you. When boxing their leftover cake I made the comment to the anniversary couple "Now don't be showing up pregnant and having a baby nine months from tonight, because ain't none of us gonna baby sit for you!"
You have to know who to joke with and this was the table for it. They loved me and showed me their love. There was one little old lady at the table who's tab was only twenty three dollars, she had split a meal with her daughter. She told me four dollars wasn't enough of a tip and scrambled around in her purse and gave me a few more dollars. In the end they gave me about fifty extra bucks over the eighteen percent gratuity.
I worked my butt off, needed help from the trainee, Leigh to get it all started but was pretty much a flawless party.
I waited on just two tables but walked out with not only Ben Franklin but his twin brother and boy, did I need it.
The trainee was getting ready to leave and I handed her ten dollars and told her how much I appreciated her help. She looked at me quizzically and asked if the servers were supposed to be tipping her out? I said no but I was. I told one of the managers how much Leigh had helped me out and she said "Leigh isn't here tonight, that's the other new girl. This girl's name is Rachel."
I went to find Leigh/Rachel and apologize. She laughed and said she didn't even notice. It was pure pandemonium and I can be quite bossy when I get into my server groove.
Here's the real deal. I went into work today thinking how in the heck am I gonna make it through this week with all the bills we have due?
God provides...and HE did just that for me tonight.
Added bonus, the little old woman who scrounged in her purse to give me a couple of bucks extra...and she took a long time scrounging so starting chatting with her and it ends up we both lived on Bayard Street in East Point back in the sixties. That just opened up a whole 'nother can of worms (as we say in the south) and chatted for about ten minutes about what a great place East Point was to grow up. Jeez, these peeps loved me so much I felt like taking a bow. Instead they all asked for my name saying they would come back and ask for me again.
Once again I used my standard remark. "You don't have to remember my name just call and say you want the skinny old woman who looks like a lesbian."
So I got my butt kicked. It felt good. It made me realize once again, you get what you give. I was talking with the owner tonight before I left, telling him I gave Leigh/ Rachel ten bucks and still walked with two Franklins.
He's so smart. He said that's a good thing, she'll learn early on...work hard and you will be compensated.
I've had no time to spend with my Girl. Got home after eleven and have to be at work by eleven in the morning but made enough tonight to treat them all to brunch at the restaurant tomorrow and still get the bills paid. My boss always gives me discount when my fam comes in.
I am a loved, blessed and lucky woman.
Til next time...COTTON
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