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!