HA

Ok, well here's a real kicker.

Me and My friend, a kitchen manager, went to a movie tonight. He leans over to me and says would you like to hear the recent soap opera of our restaurant. drama? of course i said yes. He then proceeds to tell me that apparently me and him are dating. Bethany quit because me and him were dating and they had previously dated. oh and one of the hostess's is pregnant with his baby.

WTF? that's what I thought after I laughed hysterically for a good couple of minutes.

Oh the rumors that go around that place. It always keeps things interesting, and makes going to work much more fun.

Ooops...

So, I made someone quit this week at work.

Ok I really didn't, but it seemed like I did.

Here's the story. Our restaurant does triple nickel wings every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 3-5 (wings for 15 cents each if you couldn't figure that out). I usually come in at 3 and it gets pretty chaotic. Usually a bunch of cheap high school kids come in and rip all of their servers off (this is a different topic I will someday talk about), but we produce a plethora of wings in those 2 hours. Well a whole bunch of wings came up in the window, and the cook gave me two tickets so I could sell them. I called the servers and sent them out with their wings. There were two remaining bowls of wings in the window, and another cook came over to see why they were there because he was going to start helping with the rest of the orders. The first cook told him they were supposed to go out with the orders I just sent, but I told him they weren't. I sent out everything I was supposed to. Well this other cook got really annoyed (he has temper issues in the first place and he has taken them out on me verbally many a time, but that's just him and i just ignore it) and started yelling at the other cook for messing up (ok this wasn't a big deal because you just use those wings for another order, right?) well he got mad at me and said why didn't you send these out and I said because I didn't need them, and it's not a big deal. He used many profane words and went into the back. I thought he was just going back there to cool down because he does that a lot, but then my manager comes out and said what did you do? I didn't really know what he was talking about and then he told me that the temperamental cook just came back there and said i can't take this shiz, I quit. Uh....yeah. Well I didn't really make him quit, but everyone was really confused as to what happened. It wasn't a big deal because obviously the other cook and me had nothing to do with it, but he was one of our best line cooks.

haha oops.

(it does make me kinda sad he quit because he was one of my favorites to work with...and to look at ;-) but what can you do)

Finally something to write about

Well I haven't worked as an expo in quite sometime. I technically have been working as an expo, but it's been so slow that nothing too exciting has happened. The last few weekends I've been sent home early or called to not even come in because it's been so slow. Tonight I got a message from my dreamy manager that I needed to come in a little earlier because I was the only expo tonight and there was only one manager there. Now this might not seem like a problem but usually there are two managers and one of them helps the expo out here and there and the other one helps the hostess out here and there. Needless to say, it's convenient having two managers. Once I got to work my manager came up to me and said, "Hey, we have 4 reservations of 12 coming in tonight, so it's gonna be pretty busy. I'll be around to help if you need it but mainly I'll be up front."I wasn't too worried, but sometimes when weekends get busy, servers run around like chickens with their heads chopped off and things just get out of control, which stresses me out. Well it got busy and it got busy pretty fast, but it was awesome. I love when it's busy. I actually get to do my job, and it's awesome. Well things did get out of control, but everything worked out fine. I loved tonight. It's been too long since I've gotten to actually work hard and it felt pretty good. Oh and can I just say that I love my kitchen staff. LOVE them. They are the best, so here is there shout out!!

Ok, well I needed to add something to make this blog informative and helpful for all you restaurant goers.. even though I'm sure you are all smarter than this.

Scenario: [This is told to me by one of my favorite servers] Table full of girls going to see New Moon. (You can already see this is a disaster right ;-).

I sent out 6 meals to a table. The dinner consisted of some nachos, burgers and salads. Our nachos are pretty delish. They are full of our homemade veggie chili, cheese, tomatoes, olives, and green onions. Sounds good to me. Our burgers are burgers, but pretty darn good ones, and our salads come with the dressing on them.

About 3 minutes after I sent this food out, my server comes to me and says, "I need some nachos pronto, but I just need them with just cheese." I ask him to explain because I need to let the kitchen managers what's going on and he tells me that this girl didn't want any of the other stuff that come with the nachos. Well this girl didn't read the menu very well apparently because in the menu it states everything that's on those nachos. A couple minutes later my server comes back with the salad he took out and said, "Hey, I need this salad without dressing." UGH. seriously? I asked my server to just admit to maybe messing up and forgetting to enter these things into the computer because servers mess up a lot, but nope. These girls didn't pay attention to the menu. annoying? heck yes. it puts everything behind a little and it's just annoying.

So lesson for the day:

Read the menu. It says what comes with your meal and if you don't want something, tell your server. It's frustrating for the kitchen to have to redo these silly things, and it costs us money because that's food wasted.

Well, I should be working a lot more this month with the holidays coming up so stick around because I will hopefully have some good stories...maybe not as good as the phone sex girl, but who knows.

Oh yeah, and Bee is officially done. :-( I'm sad

Guess What?

Put in my 2 weeks notice on Friday... I'm gonna miss the place, but then I look at my pay check that I picked up yesterday and I feel so much better about my decision. $68 is not gonna cut it my friends. 

A full 18 minutes...

Well folks...I think it's time to find a new job. sad right? But here are my reasons or mainly number one reason. I worked for a full 18 minutes yesterday. 18 MINUTES! What's up with that?

Last week I works for two days and worked a full 2 hours. 2 HOURS! What's up with that? So i'm trying to pay bills, for groceries and for school and in the last week I've made about 20 dollars. This is a problem with working in restaurants. They can send you home any-freaking-time they want, and it aggravates me to no end. But remember that whole love-hate relationship i have with my job. Well that love part still exists even when I don't make money. I love the people I work with. I love the atmosphere..unless our crazy owner comes in, I love when silly things happen (ie: the previous post posted) and really I just love that i have a job.

So to make up for me not working at all, my manager said I could instead of expo-ing I could bus tables but i'd probably be cut soon with that anyway...I hate bussing tables...ok I don't hate it, but I really dislike it, especially when kids are involved. (That's a whole other story...kids in restaurants)

So friends...I'm on the search for new employment, but am having a hard time giving up this love-hate relationship.

Funny Story today...

Hello readers! 

I thought that today I would share with you some stories of the interesting people that I have the pleasure of dealing with. 

This first story happened a few months ago, when we had 3 hostesses working the front. Well, we had had a dishwasher that hadn't shown up for his shift and didn't give any explanation to the managers so he was fired. A few weeks later, he showed up, grabbed a few bottles of soda and left without saying a word to anyone, so obviously the managers were trying to figure out what was wrong with him, but yah he didn't work there anymore. Well, probably about 2 weeks later, I was working on a Friday night, and this guy's roommate calls us and asks us to go out and see if his truck was in there because supposedly, the guy who had been fired had taken it to work with him. Well, we kindly told him that his roommate was no longer employed with us so his truck would not be in the parking lot. Well, the guy didn't get the hint and he began calling us every 15 minutes and asking us to go look for his truck. All of the hostesses lost patience with him after about 4 of these phone calls, and we were just flat out rude to this guy after a while, to the point where we would hang up on him if we heard his voice on the other line. Well, it was about 6:30 and we were on a 20 minute wait and a little flustered when all of a sudden, we see someone, a little unusual walk into the front door. He's about 5'3, dressed in a checkered, button-up shirt, chaps, cowboy boots, spurs, cowboy hat, and completely decked out in rodeo clown makeup. Well, this guy marches up to the hostess stand and demands to speak to a manager about how rude his hostesses are. Yah, it was the dude on the phone. Well, one of my fellow hostesses had had it, and she began to chew the guy out for not listening to us the first 10 times he called. Well that got the rest of us riled up and we all started having at him. Well about 3 minutes into it, I realized how ridiculous we must look. 3 girls, having a heated argument with a rodeo clown, in front of about 20 people waiting to get a table. Probably one of the more entertaining moments on the job. 

The second story happened today. We were having a slow night, so I was trying to find ways to entertain myself, so I would talk to the girl who was in charge of retail a lot. Well, in a particularly tough moment of bland boredom, the fates smiled upon me and gave me a bit of entertainment for the day. Retail girl walks up to me and says "come stand over here by the door, it's SO worth it!" The door she was talking about is the door between retail and the hostess stand. Out by retail, there are lots of comfy couches and benches for people to sit on and wait for their table to be called. The couch closest to the retail stand was occupied by a typical, white trash, nasty girl who was sprawled out on it. But it wasn't until I got close to the door that I realized why retail girl had told me to pay attention to this girl. It was because this girl was having hot, passionate, raunchy, nasty, very loud phone sex, right in the middle of our lobby. I won't go into details about what she was saying, but I can tell you she was REALLY enjoying herself. It was that moment I concluded that no matter where I'm at, I will always have access to an electronic with video taking capabilities 24/7. Thank you universe for giving me another reason to never quit my job. 

FINALLY contributing!

Hey faithful readers! (All 2 of you) 

I've finally decided to put in my 2 cents here because I do in face have a lot to say about the restaurant business. First off, I love my job, but only about 40 percent of the time. I love the people I work with, 80 percent of the time, but every time I go to work, I swear that this will be the day that I will bag it and quit entirely! But for all the ups and downs we face, like Rach has said, it's a love/hate relationship. This post is going to be about something I hate. Being a hostess, I have a different view of restaurants then my fellow poster does, and I get the happy task of dealing with the general public, and I am constantly amazed by how incredibly picky people can be, especially when it comes to what table they want to sit at. Scenario: An older couple comes into the restaurant. I pull my best fake smile and ask how many people will be in the party and they reply 2. Our restaurant follows a rotation so I lead them to a table that can fit 4 people in the next server's section. Problem: I took them to a table and they refuse to sit there. Instead, they demand to be taken to a booth built for 8. Well, of course, the customer is ALWAYS right, so I take them to the booth, throwing off rotation, and making the servers very upset with me. When we arrive at the booth, however, it is not a booth by the window and the nice, older couple ask me what would possess me to take them there. The window is 1 booth away, maybe 3 feet from their original table at the most. Seriously, what is wrong with people? You're coming into a restaurant to eat for maybe 20 minutes, it's not like you're going to be living at your table for the rest of eternity! If a hostess takes you to a table, it's not because she doesn't feel like you deserve a booth like some people seem to think, she's doing it to save herself when that family of 8 comes in 5 minutes later and desperately needs the space. So PLEASE cut us some slack, sit at the table or booth we take you to the first time. Karma will reward you. 

Oh work..

So, this week wasn't too bad.

I actually LOVE my job (at least this last week I do).

Table Confusion?

Here's the scenario:

Expo: "Will you take this to table 42 please?"

Me: "I would love to." (I grab the tray, which has 3 dishes on it. I grab the ketchup and I'm ready to go. I get to table 42 and put the tray down. I then realize that there are only 2 people sitting at the table.)

Me: So I'm thinking that you guys didn't order this much food. (They laugh at me and say no. I feel AWKWARD. I walk back to the kitchen.)

Me to Expo: "Wrong table. Will you please buzz the server?!"

Me: Hello server, the table was wrong on the ticket. Where do I need to take this food?"

Server: "ha ha, silly me. It goes to this table. Thanks for running my food."

Me: "You're welcome. (Under my breath) You better tip me out big time tonight"

Tonight I happened to be a food runner instead of my usual expo. Pretty much I take the servers food to their tables for them. I don't mind it, but I don't get paid as much and a lot of the servers forget to tip me out. Tonight I was really busy running food though, which was nice. Now I understand that people aren't perfect and they make mistakes, but if you make the mistake of entering the wrong table number at least come tell me or the expo the right table so there isn't confusion and embarrassment. On top of that it just slows everything down and wastes time. This happened a couple times tonight and I was so annoyed by it. Ugh. Luckily the servers got the hint and fixed this problem and the flow was so much more organized and I wasn't so crabby.

Good note of the night: I work with some awesome people and tonight I helped one of our servers out quite a bit and he tipped me out more than he's supposed to. It made me so happy. I like being appreciated for working so hard...sorry if that sounds vain and selfish, but it's just nice to be noticed for working hard. (Although sometimes I don't...) Until next time!

Our Love-Hate Relationship

Welcome! The food industry is in the top 5 growing occupations, especially for college students like ourselves. Do we choose to work at restaurants because we need the money? because we enjoy it? because we can't find anything else? because we are naive? or all of those reasons?

I find myself asking myself this question numerous times after i leave work...why do i work in a restaurant? My emotions are very mixed. Somedays I love it, and somedays i hate it, but i still work there and i don't plan on quitting anytime soon. And overall i love the chaos of restaurants.

So, welcome to our blog of bitching and complaining and venting about this chaotic occupation!