Server is NOT Synonymous with Slave

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Wanna See a Trick??

Soooo I work at a fine dining restaurant where my asst. manager wanted to dazzle me with his "skills."

First let me tell you, we are very high-end....$25 for a basic dish and for a table of two it's typically $100ish depending on what's ordered for drinks.

There are linens laid out on the tables with brown paper over it. There is an extremely neatly folded napkin at the center for the guest, a salad for and dinner fork on the left and a spoon and knife on the right. These items are two-finger widths away from the edge of the table. There is a water glass at the tip of the knife and a wine glass adjacent to the water glass, just touching it. There is also and B&B (bread and butter) plate with a B&B knife 1/3 from the top of said plate. There are 2-4 settings like this on the table, dependent upon how many the table seats.

It's pretty similar to this:

One of the other servers came up to me today, in the smoking room, and was like, "Wanna see something cool?" And I was like, "suuuuure" and then he grabbed the edge of the table cloth from one of the tables and he just gave me one of these looks.....

I felt like we were standing outside of some rich shmucks house and he was going to pick the lock of his prized car and we were going to go off for a ride in it and not care about the world the rest of the night.

I really thought he was joking,

there was NO way he was ACTUALLY going to do it!

Then.....HE DID!!!

And, sadly, to my surprise....despite the fact that he

Pulled it off

He didn't

"Pull it off..."

I just looked at him and laughed until he said,

"I forgot, that that last time I did it

and it worked....

was because the b&b plates weren't on the table.

We should probably get out of here!"

In all actuality he only broke a few water and wine glasses, but I've never laughed SO hard at work before!! Nor been so silly. See, we're an upscale, hoity-toity kind of place and we're supposed to be quite serious, unless our guests laugh first, ya know?

So try to remember when trying to impress a girl

with the table cloth trick

that it's best if the b&b plates are removed

before you make an idiot out of yourself!

Contests, ugh!

So I work at a steakhouse

and they're constantly trying to cram sales

contests down our throats.

Like if you don't sell enough alcoholic beverages then you're not a good server. You can lose shifts because of it and you can have your section affected by it.

I get it, you dangle a reward in front of people and they may start offering the crap outta something they wouldn't have before. But it's insanely unfair that I get many families, father and mother with their kids, in my section who aren't going to drink because:

1. They don't drink in front of their kids

2. It's expensive enough to feed all of them -without alcohol

3. We don't have what they want to drink

4. Our drinks are FLIPPING expensive!!!

Those are just some of the reasons mind you....

But I can't help if I have a section full of teenagers or people on their lunch breaks who would get fired if they had a drink with their meal.

What am I supposed to do, serve underagers and risk going to prison to win a $50 gift card that was a trade with another restaurant so that the manager gets a big fat bonus?

Is it not enough that I just do my job and suggestively offer? I don't want to cram anything down anyone's throat!

"Drink this!!!

I need to win a gift certificate to Olive Garden!!"

No thank you. I come in and do my job and shmooze with people and then I'm gone. Let the other servers kill each other for those certificates,

but don't take my respect for my customers wishes out on my section or my hours!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Real Women: of the Quad Cities

Please vote once per day for this organization to win a $25,000 grant!!

They're trying to change the perception of body image within society and want to be able to get an office and hire staff and interns! =)

Check out the replications of these pictures that society says women should look like with the pictures of local Quad Cities women without photoshop.

http://smallbusinessgrant.fedex.com/Gallery/Detail/81287e0a-b2eb-44e3-a8cc-ebb8b4df92ca

Just trying to help a fellow organization! Show em some love!

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

When Your Own Restaurant Lets You Down...

Truth be told I am not a huge fan of my restaurant's food. Why do I work there you might ask? Well, OTHER PEOPLE like the food and I make decent money. I literally go into my own restaurant to dine ONCE per year. My brother-in-law likes it and my boyfriend had never been there and I will eat an appetizer and/or some of the desserts, so I figured, why not? Well, I will tell you WHY NOT!
(And please note, I specifically REQUESTED the night OFF just TO go in and dine!!)

1. I'm not a fan of stir fry.
When I eat, I want to sink my teeth into something, like a big juicy steak and a big ole potato! Maybe a chicken breast with melted cheese and spices or sauces on it with a side of mixed veggies. But, like I said, once a year I can deal with scraps of random food the looks like Roadhouse or Applebee's food went through a shredder. I know, I know. If it's not my "cup of tea" then why go AND bitch about it? Well, like I said, I can do it every now and then and even on days where I haven't eaten for a day or two (thanks working full time and being a full time student!!) I can work up enough of a hunger to where my mouth my even water for it. I had been preparing myself for two weeks to try and salivate just for the occasion!
Plus it's supposed to be fun dining at your own place! And I do eat one of the apps and a few of the desserts and sides, so I can make do in other ways!
2. The Midwest is cold AS FUCK lately!
Which means that no matter where you go it seems to be freezing also. But our restaurant was SO cold that if I set my soup by the window with a stick in it, where I stuffed my coat to block to chill, by the time we left I could've had an egg drop Popsicle for the ride home. No joke, there will be snow blowing in the side door (in the front of the house still) because our doors and windows are SO poorly insulated! We may as well had been dining on the patio (that we don't have)!

3. I NEVER go into my own restaurant and eat so you'd think I would get really good service and maybe get something off of my bill for the rare occasion.

Nope! The supervisor sat me, my sister, and her husband and never came back. The server checked on us and took care of us, but she had an 8-top (table of 8 ppl, btw) that I knew would be hard for her to make the dessert I was dying to order. You'd think for how rare it was that I went in that I'd get something taken off of my bill for the special occasion. Nope! When I got my bill I had NOTHING taken off...at all. Which, technically we don't get anything off if we didn't work that day, but I work another job from 7am-5pm M-F and work Thurs-Mon nights THERE so it'd be pretty fucking hard for me to work prior to coming in to dine at night! However, I didn't have to pay for my soda (nor did my sis), so I guess I should take the $2.29 and be happy that I saved at least that!? Though, I could've just ordered water and saved myself the money that way... I guess it was the thoughtlessness that bummed me out. I'd seen so many other people get taken care of that DIDN'T even work there (along with the ones who DID) and felt like I wasn't anything special.

4. I had to wait 15 minutes for my soup because,
like usual they were low and no one bothered to start heating some more up (a constant problem that will never be fixed, ya know, unless I do it myself). But I already ate my main meal so it's not like I had to starve while I waited for it.
5. I ordered dessert, because we have a few unique ones and I wanted my sister and bro-in-law to try one and knew they'd never order it themselves -my treat of course! I did "spec" it ...and my sister's salad... out which I apologized for, but I personally encourage my customers to spec their stuff out since it's what THEY are going to be eating and I want people to enjoy their food so they come back and get more and tip me each time they do so -obviously! I even have a couple down so well with their spec'd stuff that I just tell them to not worry about anything and I'll be back with everything!

BUT our dessert ended up being on the "crispy" side (deep fried cheesecake) and it tasted terrible and was jabbing our mouths with it's crispiness. It's kind of like eating a burnt crab rangoon for those of you who've had that. Those burnt edges can do some damage! But we choked down what we could. I'm the type of person though who tells customers I remade something that was burnt or would ask them if it was okay (because some people don't mind things on the crispy side) but I tell you what, burnt deep fried cheesecake is TERRIBLE!
6. We have a points program, which I'm pretty sure as an employee I can't have, but the server didn't ask my sister or bro-in-law if they had one or needed one started so they lost out on that.

And I figure, if I'm paying FULL PRICE for my meal at my own restaurant I should be able to have one too, right?
7. Our server seemed annoyed that we wanted separate checks. Maybe she wasn't, but I sure felt bad asking for them. We were a table of 3....a couple and a single girl.

Why would we be on one check, unless we specified that ahead of time? And they had a coupon for a free meal. I think she thought it was mine...but this is why you don't assume! And I did have cash, but it wasn't broken down into smaller bills to be able to give them the cash needed for my meal AND tip. Plus I hate making someone else put my meal on their card when we can easily separate the bill to start with. (It's SUPER easy to do at my restaurant.)

8. OTHER PEOPLE'S DISCOUNTS
I've waited on MANY employees when they've come in (and people manager's knew too on that note!). MOST get half off -even if they didn't work earlier. Some get their entire meals comp'd- a manager took off a server and her boyfriend's entire meal on a busy Saturday night (she tipped me VERY WELL btw!). I've even waited on a server's BROTHER who had $8.27 taken off of his bill WITHOUT HIS BROTHER EVEN BEING THERE! One specific employee comes in to eat with his girlfriend when he's low on money or if he gets called off of a shift and eats for free -their meals aren't even rung in.
So after my "meh" dining experience at my place of work I went to my best friend's restaurant and bitched to her and was taken care of better there than where I work -and I ALWAYS am. Their managers treat me like I'm an employee there and their other servers take care of me like I'm someone special. I, of course, don't take advantage of it, but they do little things like make sure I don't need any more soda if they pass by and my BFF is busy or they stop by to chat with me and just make me feel super welcome.
But when I went into my own restaurant, which I hadn't dined at for A YEAR I froze my ass off, waited awhile for soup, got nothing off of my bill, ate burnt dessert, and heard more about the problems of the eve than getting an enjoyable, relaxing dinner out where I should feel comfortable and welcome.

I just really wanted to get out of there and hate that place forever and bitch about how I'd never go back. Unfortunately, I have to go back there and try to not be angry about it and make some money from here on out. Let's just say that I definitely WORK there and will never DINE there again! Hell, thinking back on it, I was waited on by one of our servers at her OTHER restaurant and was better taken care of there! Wtf?!

I wish I could complain like a normal customer, but I just feel like I can't. And nothing inherently terrible happened -there wasn't a hair in my food or anything, but it was kind of disappointing and embarrassing to bring guests and just have it be subpar and unenjoyable.