I'd say Massey and I go out to eat lunch together about once a week. Sometimes I can't believe she still willingly goes with me.
I can pick a place apart, especially if it has sit down service.
Especially franchises.
I never let the server or management know, and rarely let it affect the tip I leave, but instead secretly vent to Massey the entire time the we are in an establishment, from the instant we walk in the door.
If I am ignored at a host stand for more than thirty seconds (and is not busy) I'll leave. (if I'm not starving)
Seat me in a booth and ignore me for five minutes while it's not busy, I'll be gone.
And I won't be back.
On the other hand, do an excellent job and don't think I won't be the first person to point it out to my server and management, and any interested co diners.
Plus my tip will most def be around twenty five percent, if not more.
Number one: The initial greet at the door.
No one should have to stand at a host stand long enough to feel like walking around to find some help. That is a negative way to begin a visit and immediately puts you on notice, as a server.
It's up to you to recover the fumble...they won't likely see the host again until they leave.
I started my serving career on Old National Highway in College Park, Georgia at the Red Lobster. It was so far back that they were still actually called Red Lobster Inns. Originally billed as a "Harbor for Seafood Lovers."
We wore a polyester blue dress with a white sailor collar in the back and red tie across the front. We had to wear panty hose and white shoes...not tennis shoes. At the end of every shift you had over an hour of side work to do and another hour of doing silverware. We had bottles of ketchup, two different steak sauces and Tabasco. You had to combine and fill every bottle. Take every cap and soak in bleach water until it was clean, then clean it again. Then you had to take a clean rag and wipe the inside of the neck of the bottle so that no ketchup or sauce showed above the label on the neck. Then you put all the freshly washed caps back on, after drying them and moved on to the salt and pepper shakers and sugar caddies.
All for thirty bucks in tips in your pocket if you were lucky.
Crazy huh?
It was just Red Lobster but they trained the crap out of ya. Not so much the waiting tables as the worker bee part.
I moved from there to Steak and Ale.
I switched out my sailor suit for a short plaid skirt, low cut peasant blouse and black tights. My money doubled.
Then I moved on to Crowley's Scotch House.
Tavern on one side, upscale dining on the other, boasting huge lobster tails from South Africa, weighing almost two pounds.
Then I plunked down in to Johnny's Pizza for well over ten years.
That's where I learned how important it was to work hard, do your best job and more importantly, how to adult...finally.
It only took thirty years!
Most servers don't seem to realize how closely every aspect of a restaurant, from front of the house to the back of house, need to work together, for success and prosperity.
A lot of servers act like the restaurant kitchen is theirs, to hang around in, talking, eating or avoiding work. It's not.
Just ask any cook.
Servers are terrible about cleaning up after they eat in the back, roll silver in the back or polish glassware in the back. They leave empty silver and glass racks, unused linen, polishing rags and half a dozen drinks cups and leftover food they ordered (from a cook no less) all exactly where it was when they finished the assigned server tasks. Then when the cooks get off work an hour or two later, they are stuck cleaning up our mess left in their kitchen before they can leave.
No wonder most cooks aren't big fans of a lot of servers.
Neither am I, and I am a server!
Here's how my work day goes, every day, every shift, every time, for the last thirty years or so.
I'm on time, if not early.
I am clean, neatly dressed, look professional and prepared to perform my job from the jump.
The minute I hit the clock I begin to work without anyone having to ask.
If it happens to be slow, I find something to do or something which needs to be done.
When a customer sits down at my table, It's showtime... for them as well as for myself.
#TrueFact
Nobody likes having to part with hard earned money and not enjoy themselves while doing it.
When I got a job at the world's busiest airport, in fine dining no less, with a well known Atlanta dining powerhouse group... I hit my professional stride.
My first day of training, I came home and told my husband I felt like they were training me to be a brain surgeon.
Hands down the most intense, thorough and eye opening training I've ever had as a server.
I think the most important thing I learned about, besides fine cuisine, wine, aperitifs and digestifs, were basically skills of survival and prosperity for a "Lifer."
I paid attention.
And it paid off.
Not to give away their secrets but essentially boiled down to this one thing:
"Allowing customers to experience joy while dining."
BAM!
My own rules:
*Be there with something before a customer needs or has to ask for it.
*Anticipate needs and go a step beyond meeting them.
*Know who to chat it up with and who to simply serve quietly.
*Treat every single table as a top priority.
*Never pre judge or assume, ever.
*If you're not making good enough money, you're not doing a good enough job.
*There is no "I" in team; be a team player.
*You all look good together or all look bad together.
*It's not always going to be easy, that's why it is called work.
*Dress for success... a filthy or wrinkled uniform is totally unacceptable and speaks volumes about your sincerity as a valued employee.
Every server has them.
Mine usually go something like this:
I have way too many tables at once, in a restaurant I've never been in before, am using a computer program I've never used before and sometimes don't even know what the table numbers are or how to even get to my tables.
They are more like nightmares.
I enjoy my job. A lot of people can't say that. I feel like it keeps me young and in shape.
A servers' job, done correctly is a very physically demanding one. A tremendous amount of servers spend more time trying to get out of doing work than it would take to simply get it done. I feel like at the age of fifty eight, (hopefully)showing younger servers (some not even twenty) the way to do a job correctly (every time) and have a positive attitude while doing it, is most definitely noticed and will inspire them in some way to be a better person, or at least a better employee.
You get to laugh at my job.
A lot.
Every. Single. Day.
That's a big bonus to me.
Every shift being a payday doesn't hurt either. I was extremely spoiled by my last job, but was the needed ends to a means for us, at the perfect time...literally.
So now I'm doing my gig for peeps in Florida.
Bonus points, am down to four shows a week for a total of twenty hours.
I almost feel like I'm stealing.
Instead of a three hour (sometimes plus) commute to and from the work place each day (sixty miles round trip) and paying twelve bucks a day just to park...it now takes me fifteen minutes to get to work. I park for free in a garage directly in front of the restaurant and takes me less than a minute to go inside work from my car.
Yes there are still good shifts and an occasional not so good shift, but in the long run my average take is (luckily) more than enough for me.
I now consider myself semi retired,
and fits me like a tiny glove!
In the grand scheme of things; Life is (mostly) about Karma, the Golden Rule and Paying it Forward.
The perfect Hat Trick or Trifecta, for your best shot at a successful existence.
The bottom line is, whatever you choose to do in (or with) your life...do it well.
Don't be a slacker...you'll end up a lacker.
Til next time...COTTON
Tavern on one side, upscale dining on the other, boasting huge lobster tails from South Africa, weighing almost two pounds.
Then I plunked down in to Johnny's Pizza for well over ten years.
That's where I learned how important it was to work hard, do your best job and more importantly, how to adult...finally.
It only took thirty years!
Most servers don't seem to realize how closely every aspect of a restaurant, from front of the house to the back of house, need to work together, for success and prosperity.
A lot of servers act like the restaurant kitchen is theirs, to hang around in, talking, eating or avoiding work. It's not.
Just ask any cook.
Servers are terrible about cleaning up after they eat in the back, roll silver in the back or polish glassware in the back. They leave empty silver and glass racks, unused linen, polishing rags and half a dozen drinks cups and leftover food they ordered (from a cook no less) all exactly where it was when they finished the assigned server tasks. Then when the cooks get off work an hour or two later, they are stuck cleaning up our mess left in their kitchen before they can leave.
No wonder most cooks aren't big fans of a lot of servers.
Neither am I, and I am a server!
Here's how my work day goes, every day, every shift, every time, for the last thirty years or so.
I'm on time, if not early.
I am clean, neatly dressed, look professional and prepared to perform my job from the jump.
The minute I hit the clock I begin to work without anyone having to ask.
If it happens to be slow, I find something to do or something which needs to be done.
When a customer sits down at my table, It's showtime... for them as well as for myself.
#TrueFact
Nobody likes having to part with hard earned money and not enjoy themselves while doing it.
When I got a job at the world's busiest airport, in fine dining no less, with a well known Atlanta dining powerhouse group... I hit my professional stride.
My first day of training, I came home and told my husband I felt like they were training me to be a brain surgeon.
Hands down the most intense, thorough and eye opening training I've ever had as a server.
I think the most important thing I learned about, besides fine cuisine, wine, aperitifs and digestifs, were basically skills of survival and prosperity for a "Lifer."
I paid attention.
And it paid off.
Not to give away their secrets but essentially boiled down to this one thing:
"Allowing customers to experience joy while dining."
BAM!
My own rules:
*Be there with something before a customer needs or has to ask for it.
*Anticipate needs and go a step beyond meeting them.
*Know who to chat it up with and who to simply serve quietly.
*Treat every single table as a top priority.
*Never pre judge or assume, ever.
*If you're not making good enough money, you're not doing a good enough job.
*There is no "I" in team; be a team player.
*You all look good together or all look bad together.
*It's not always going to be easy, that's why it is called work.
*Dress for success... a filthy or wrinkled uniform is totally unacceptable and speaks volumes about your sincerity as a valued employee.
Every server has them.
Mine usually go something like this:
I have way too many tables at once, in a restaurant I've never been in before, am using a computer program I've never used before and sometimes don't even know what the table numbers are or how to even get to my tables.
They are more like nightmares.
I enjoy my job. A lot of people can't say that. I feel like it keeps me young and in shape.
A servers' job, done correctly is a very physically demanding one. A tremendous amount of servers spend more time trying to get out of doing work than it would take to simply get it done. I feel like at the age of fifty eight, (hopefully)showing younger servers (some not even twenty) the way to do a job correctly (every time) and have a positive attitude while doing it, is most definitely noticed and will inspire them in some way to be a better person, or at least a better employee.
You get to laugh at my job.
A lot.
Every. Single. Day.
That's a big bonus to me.
Every shift being a payday doesn't hurt either. I was extremely spoiled by my last job, but was the needed ends to a means for us, at the perfect time...literally.
So now I'm doing my gig for peeps in Florida.
Bonus points, am down to four shows a week for a total of twenty hours.
I almost feel like I'm stealing.
Instead of a three hour (sometimes plus) commute to and from the work place each day (sixty miles round trip) and paying twelve bucks a day just to park...it now takes me fifteen minutes to get to work. I park for free in a garage directly in front of the restaurant and takes me less than a minute to go inside work from my car.
Yes there are still good shifts and an occasional not so good shift, but in the long run my average take is (luckily) more than enough for me.
I now consider myself semi retired,
and fits me like a tiny glove!
In the grand scheme of things; Life is (mostly) about Karma, the Golden Rule and Paying it Forward.
The perfect Hat Trick or Trifecta, for your best shot at a successful existence.
The bottom line is, whatever you choose to do in (or with) your life...do it well.
Don't be a slacker...you'll end up a lacker.
Til next time...COTTON
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