Peppers bar and grill

New website

2006-11-15T12:50:00.000-08:00

I registered http://www.slidewaysonline.com

Quiet talkers

2006-08-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

Heres one that I wanted to post but I was too busy to. This is actually kind of like a Dane Cook act which is really funny in more way than one.

Customers that talk loud are just kind of annoying, customers that dont talk loud enough are disasters. I dont like re-asking the same question just to get the same muffled responce. The reason I say "excuse me, sir?" is because I couldnt hear you. If you dont ask them to reiterate, you run the risk of getting the wrong thing and thats just another barrel of monkeys you dont want to open. God damn monkeys.

The problem with asking someone to repeat themselves is that they usually get mad at you for not hearing them. Im sorry if everyone around you is talking louder. But when they do say something again, they practially yell it at you and in such a way that it looks like they dont think you know english. I dont have any good recollection of an incident that happens, its just an annoyance.

moral: some people talk to loud, some too soft. You cant win... stop trying! J/k

I quit!

2006-08-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

I actually stopped working about two weeks ago. They bought me this nice cake for my last day and the hostess only sat me with nice tables. My roomies showed up and gave me a nice tip. it was a good last day. Looking back on it, I would really like to pick up shifts. More for the people that work there that I miss than the job.

As far as this blog goes? im not sure. I might update with rants of things past but for the most part there isnt anything to report on. We'll see. If this is my last post, thanks for reading. Be tolerant, try to put yourself in other peoples shoes.

Moral: You arent the only person in the universe. Act that way. Dont make everyone else's life miserable because you think you are the only one that matters

Van

2006-08-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Van is a very nice russian guy that does a small school locally but really works full time at Peppers. He lives in the US mainly because he likes it here. Im not sure if Russia really is that bad but we have quite a few Russian people working at Peppers. Along with being foreign, Van has problems with the language. In 9 months, this guy has become very fluent in english. The problem, as most customers remind him of, is that his accent is very thick.

Since I have a background of another culture, I have little to no difficulty understanding him. I have overheard many customers making fun of him as soon as he leaves a table or make comments about not being able to understand a word hes saying. The phrase "Learn English!" has been known to have been said to him or others in the wait staff that are not native speakers. Those types of people make me angry. He, in his 22 years of life, has left his home country, learned english AND spanish, and knows more about American culture than most people that walk into our establishment. Learn to be a little tolerant.

Anyway, Van is very overworked. He works every shift except sundays. What he does with his time, I dont know. I feel bad for the kid. Hes fairly scronny and has a very distinct russian face. I suspect he didnt have many friends back home in russia. At least here, he is interesting instead of normal.

As far as Van and drama in the restaurant goes, he stays out of it. He will give the occasional russian explitive about a customer, but thats about it. I hope that if he plans on staying in america, that he finds a better job.

I quit

2006-08-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

You heard me! I put in my two weeks. I got full time at my office job and I make almost 3 times as much as I made waiting tables. Lol. Somehow, It was hard to do. I worked there for over 3 years and the people I work with almost feels like family. Sure Im still going to go by now and then but it isnt the same.

As far as this blog goes, I might just post up old expiriences as I remember them or go over personalities of waiters/waitresses so you know what goes through their mind and why they act that way. Some restaurants are very dirty :)

Moral: 401k/benifits/salary > barely making bills a month and being at the mercy of customers

Late Stayers

2006-08-03T06:23:00.000-07:00

Everyone has them. It happens to at least one person every other night. Late Stayers. They are the people that like to go to a restaurant and play "catch up" with each other. There is no problem with any patron staying for a while after they are finish eating. There is a difference when its been 2 hours since your last water refill.

Our poor hostess turned waitress Ellie had to expirience her first Late Stayers last night. Since she had worked the morning shift, she was in a section that got to get out about 8pm. It was such a slow night that she was let out at 6:30pm. She left the restaurant just before 11pm. Why you ask? Late stayers.

She had a group of about 3 adults that had a light dinner and several cocktails. The bill was just over $60 and she was expecting them to pay and leave any minute so she could go home and get some rest. But they just kept talking to each other. For the first bit she just sat around, eventually she figured that if she was going to be around, that she would make some money. She had a few other tables and they left. The Late Stayers were still there.

Eventually at 9pm they gave her a credit card, they signed it at 10. They left the restaurant at 10:40pm. They left her $6. 10% for all of her time. For reasons like this, I believe tips should be based on how long you were at the resaurant and not by how much the food cost. *shrugs*

I had 2 Late Stayers last night, the difference was that I was closing and they left right before we closed. I was not inconvenienced aside from not being able to clean their table. Which doesnt really make much of a difference anyway. Eventually, it was so slow and they were the only table. I took a nap in one of the booths in the bar. Then I played a game of "Throw newspapers at the bartender". Gotta do something to keep your sanity.

Moral: Late Stayers! Dont stay so late, esp if your waitress is sitting 3 booths away with her head down because she has nothing to do but wait on you. (lol get it?). As for my advice to the waiters/waitress', you cant avoid it, just try to keep yourself occupied or transfer the check to anyone else.

Knowing when to leave

2006-08-02T06:40:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows restaurants have a very high turn-over rate. My restaurant follows this so closely that in the 3 years ive worked there, I have trained two managers and weve had at least 7 transfers.

Maybe I drive them away?

Anyway, we recently had a nice girl start to work with us at peppers. She had some problems with the dress code (pink dyed splotches of hair and plug piercings). Immediately people thought I would get along wither her because we both had/have a thing for piercings. I didnt get along with her well mainly because she was one of those artists that did the hair color and piercings as "self expression". Dont get me wrong, expressing yourself is key, but her way is very cliche, cookie cutter.

Either way, her main purpose of working at Peppers was to pick up some cash and pay bills because her career as an artist hasnt picked up yet. Now, Im also an artist, but I do it as a side thing. I firmly believe that it is near impossible to make a living off of art. Van gogh wasnt appreciated until long after he died. So I kind of foresaw what was going to happen this past week.

First off, she is always late. Punctuality speaks volumes no matter where you work. This past saturday, she called that she was going to run 15 min late for her noon shift. It was 11:15 and her real shift started at 11. My William Hung look-a-like manager gave her a stern talking to over the phone and told her not to bother coming for the morning shift because by the time she got in, the rush would be over. Strike one

When she came in for her night shift (I was working a suicide shift (open-end of dinner straight through)), she complained that she needed to get out at 7:30 at the latest to make it to her art show so she could sell some of her art pieces. Since she hadnt come in for her morning shift and she yelled at a manager over the phone, they had her in a closing section. She begged Van to let her go home first but he was doing almost the same length of time I was. She begged me as well, of course Im a nice guy and Im a sucker for pretty eyes. I also had no real plans being the loser that I am.

So she got her wish and I switched with her. When I got cut to go home, I would work and she would go to her art show. We had to clear it by a manager, who was not happy at all that I was being nice to someone who had no respect for the job. What she was not counting on was the dinner rush. Saturdays are hit or miss for us. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side. We had a party of 40 and a few parties of 10 or more. Since our facility is setup to have a max of two tables of 10 at a time, it was hard to fit it in, let alone cook for all of them.

Behind the manager's back, she went up to the hostess and asked the hostess to stop seating her. Strike two. Especially if we are that busy, we need every table. Needless to say the manager was angry that her section was empty and everyone was running around while she was cleaning up.

There she stood, in the middle of our kitchen line, with her cashout and sheets all filled out with every other person in the restaurant running around her because they were so busy. My manager took a second to look at her and told her that there was no way she was leaving at that moment. After about 10 min of bitching and complaining my manager took her cash out and closed the office door. Strike three. I didnt hear what happened, I havent heard what happened but I havent seen her since. Ok well I at least know she got fired. I hope her art show went well.

Moral: There are certain things in life that you should be passionate about. Temporary jobs are just that, temporary. You sometimes have to make a decision between what you want to do and your job. Do I think she made the wrong choice? I dont know 100% what her situation is but if you cant afford to be out of a job then I would have stayed. I think she lives on her own. So yes, I think it was a bad choice. There would have been other art shows and she should have taken that day off or something. Sucks tho. Im sad she had to pick between her job and love (art). Thats life.

Piercings

2006-07-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

This is a situation few waiters come across. Waiting tables is a common occupation because it does not require previous training or any specific kind of education. Therefore, it attracts people with things such as tattoos and piercings. A side note, when I started at peppers, I had no piercings.

Ive had numerous comments about me having piercings and growing up, etc etc. I agree, piercings to me are kind of a phase of which I am growing out of. Because you dont like it, does not mean you shouldnt at least be tolerant. I fresh comment noted that to him it was "disgusting". Some people do think that, thats why there is the dress code of which I violate. In my culture, we eat grasshoppers. I bet a lot of you just went "ew". Not to me, and thats the point. Why is it that disgusting? To me, its normal. You can not tell me that no matter what, its disgusting to have a lip ring. Its a matter of personal preference. I know my bitching wont change a thing. I work in an industry where you must be as conservitive as possible so you dont offend anyone. I know I know.

Try to understand that to me, it isnt fashion. To me, its me being me. I know, you dont understand it. Not even the other people I work with that have piercings understand.

Let me try to explain why I wear them.

Do you know that kid, when you went to high school, that sat in the corner and said nothing? The kid that would bump into someone and fall over and have half of his books fall on the floor and people would stare. That kid you would push around for fun or cheat off of on a math test. That was me. I hated every minute of it.

I got my first piercings when I was 18. My parents were 110% against it. My mom told me that she would kick me out of the house if I got anything pierced. Guess what? I got my tragus' pierced (the nubs just outside the hole of your ear). From that point forward, I got treated differently. At least I precieved it that way. I felt like one of those bad asses. You know when you walk down a sidewalk and someone is coming the other way. you sorta do chicken, whos gonna keep going and whos gonna move to the side and let you go. I wanted to be the guy that just kept walking. The earrings gave me the confidence to do things or talk to people and be a different person from what I was.

I got more piercings and it became an obsession. I became "that pierced up guy". I stopped getting picked on and people wanted to talk to me. Fuck, girls would come up and talk to me. I was a different person. To take the earrings out would be me reverting back to the person I didnt want to be. It was a huge crutch for me that I used to change myself, but it worked.

The side effects of this though is what all of you have been complaining of. No one is tolerant or tries to understand why I am like this. It violates dress codes and closes doors that would be otherwise open because I deviate from what is considered normal. What a society where a person with good credentials and ability can be turned down for a job because he/she has a tattoo or piercings.

I work an office job on top of my waiting job now. It pays triple what I made as a waiter. But, of course, I had to take the piercings out. It was the hardest thing for me to do. I wasnt angry because I had to conform to a dress code, I was afraid I would be back to square 1. I have to get off the crutches that I made for myself and stand tall. That doesnt mean its easy. Yea yea, "Suck it up and be a man" or something along those lines. I am.

Moral: Call me a pussy. Call it disgusting that I had a piece of steel in my lip. Tell me im gay for whatever reason. I dont really mind, Ive run into that quite often already. Just understand, taking out the piercings felt like taking out a part of who I am. I dont feel like I am myself.

A "Fun" place to work

2006-07-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

So says the little sign outside of my peppers to get people to come in and apply for a job. I doubt it works.

Who would think its fun to work here? Well recently I realized that I did like to work here. At least I realized this after I stopped having fun. We have a new manager that looks like william hung but taller and skinnier. He has an oddly gay lisp and gets in your face when you do something wrong.

We had a little skirmish when I added gratuity to a table that was under the minimum limit for peppers. They claimed that many were going to show up, 3 less did and I was too lazy to have him take it off. He yelled at me about something like "Its considered theft" blah blah. Which it isnt because gratuity is defined as 15% added in for the customers ease. Ive had a few people leave me under it, are they stealing from me? I know I should have gotten the gratuity off the check but it was more his reaction to me that made me angry.

There are nice ways of putting things, and there are way of putting things that make me want to fix his lisp. Hes also cracked down on my piercings. I have taken 90% of them out for my new job (which im currently at, yay for offices). All I have in is my lip ring and my nipple rings. No one can see my nipples so thats ok. Regardless, this guy has a problem with my lip ring. Fine, ask me to take it out, we have a dumb and conservitive dress code for a reason. He makes one of the other managers that I dont hate as much, come up to me and tell me to take it out.

I dont expect anyone to understand how much my piercings mean to me, but telling me to take out my lip ring (remember this is to me), is like telling an indian woman she cant have the dot on her forehead because its against the dress code. I know not everyone sees it the same way but regardless, I was angry.

I no longer talk to him at all but he always finds some way of dragging my mood down. Me in a bad mood means customers arent always happy. If im not in the right mind set, I just dont care if someones food comes out late. I dont know what im going to do because he works basically every shift. *sigh*

Moral: Keep your tongue and physical anger in check and you will keep your job. But I do find myself questioning if I need this job.

The business

2006-06-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

Restaurants as a whole are set up in three ways. The company, the customers, and the workers. Im assuming that this is like most service industy businesses. Heres the idea, the company makes money by selling goods to the customers. In order for the company to get money, it has to pay its workers and for the food/rent/etc. Theres only so many cuts you can do when it comes to food and rent. You have to deal with the FDA and you have to open your store at a decent locaiton in order to bring in people.

The best way for a company to cut costs but still give good service is cutting the amount you pay your workers. Think of it this way. If youre a waiter and you only get $2 an hour which actually gets eaten by taxes, what are you going to do for money? You give better service to customers in hopes that they will tip you better. Waiters are tipped AFTER the food and generally after the customers are gone so they cant really say anything and yell at customers. Therefore, you pay the waiter less and they give better service to customers. Double win for the company and the customer! Shit for the waiter.

Its not just waiters, some restaurants work on the tip out method for everything from the hostess to the cooks. None of that money comes out of the company and the customers arent forced to pay it. Again, good for the company, bad for the workers. Good luck trying to get any kind of medical benifits. The costs are so high that its easier to get a loan for any medical procedure you need rather than pay $20+ a week to get crappy medical coverage.

So why do I do this job? Hours are flexible and it requires no skill when you are first hired. Its good if you are between jobs are just need something for the summer. It isnt great money but its quick money. That is the key factor why people do this job. Service jobs are becoming increasingly popular. Why? Outsourcing. Service jobs are the only job that cant be outsourced. Therefore, as other jobs are taken, service jobs stay the same if not grow.

Moral: The system sucks for the workers of corporations. But jobs are jobs and thats why people will continue to wait tables, host, and wash dishes. After all, it is money.

15%

2006-06-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

15% to us is minimum. If we simply asked for your order and gave you your food, that is base minimum. I go out of my way to talk to my customers, make them feel happy. I had a guy once pull me over and tell me that he was in the worst mood ever when he came in, but my actions put a smile on his face.

Some of the things I consider my A service are things like, your drink never gets below the half way mark of your glass, or instead of just getting you a box for that left over salad, you get a nice box with some dressing already in a ready-to-go container with some silverware so you can eat it anywhere.

Parties are one of those times when you HAVE to do more than minimum. You cant be slow, you have to be able to take care of everyone at the same time.

In the waiting business, if you want to make more money you can do two things. You can either learn to handle more tables, or learn to give better service to the ones you can take. I chose option #2. I have to pay bills on this job. That means that even when business is slow, I have to find a way to still manage to live. I know im trying to explain this and none of it will probably get to anyone. Try a waiting job, get a job where you have to wait on people and after a month, you will easily see why 15% just doesnt cut it.

From my last post, that party was my last table of the night. All my other tables had left and I was getting ready to go when I got them. Their ticket said that they stayed at my restaurant for an hour and a half. I barely got any down time during this period and I only got about $9 out of it. That figure out to be about $6 an hour. Does that feel like it was worth the work? Nope. Not to mention the 30 more min I had to spend cleaning up a mess from a party of that size.

Moral: Put yourself im my shoes. See things from my perspective and you will see how A) Hard this job is and B) 15% is the minimum I expect if I actually gave good service.

Gratuity and Wrong food

2006-06-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

Heres a double post. Ive probably already ranted about gratuity so ill leave this part short.

Gratuity is added onto checks to prevent waiters from getting swindled out of a tip in a large party. Allegedly it is added in so its easier to calculate 15%. Its really there as a minimum tip. I had a table of 17 last night and they left me gratuity, to the penny. Literally this guy brought out his change purse (yes he had a change purse), to pay for his bill. I could have made at least 20% if I had 4 tables of about 4 people rather than take this party all at once. A large group is MORE work than the equivalent of smaller tables. I wont explain it, if you cant figure it out, dont come to my restaurant. If it is more work, shouldnt I get a bigger tip? I can understand if I royally messed up, but if everything is perfect, have a heart. Tip more than 15%!!!

Wrong food:
I had a lady this morning who ordered a salmon and requested it be well done. First of all, no restaurant aside from a sushi place should be cooking salmon anything but well done. it isnt steak. You dont ask for your chicken well done. Anyway, she took a few bites then complained that it tasted bad. Of course it isnt going to taste the best youve ever had, we are not a sea food house. I was nice and suggested a few other things she could get or I could make her a fresh salmon at the risk of it coming out the same way. She got the cheapest thing she could think of. She also only left me $0.76 as a tip. I understand that her tab was only $6, but that is a horrible tip.

It wasnt my fault the salmon didnt taste the way she wanted. Was I supposed to warn her? I dont know, maybe thats the way she tips. He even mentioned that it wasnt my fault that the salmon didnt taste good. Then WHY did I make less than a dollar?! I know several people that will not tip below a certain amount. I like the $3 rule. I wont tip anything less than $3 unless the person was REALLY bad, regardless of my check size. After all, you do take up a table for a usual amount of time. Grr!!

Moral: Gratuity == minimum tip

Moral #2: I dont care if it is 15%, a tip less than a dollar is an insult. Especially if I gave you the best service to my ability.

Bitch!

Bad Regulars

2006-06-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

From the mouth of our district manager: "90% of our customers are repeat customers"

and then he went on some rant about how if you treat a customer well, they will come back. This assumes the latter is possible as well right?

We have certain regulars that come by that no waiter wants to take. We will lie to newbies and tell them that they tip well just so we dont have to deal with them. Either they tip badly, treat you badly, or are just evil people. You probably dont think that we remember you, oh but we do. If you go to a restaurant more than twice a month, the staff probably remembers you.

Every other day we get this couple that come in for "food". The lady gets an ice tea and the guy gets either a large bud light draft with a lime or a sam adams. Their bill comes to just under $10 or $12, depending on the beers and happy hour and what not. They will always leave exactly $1.50 or $1.75. They will sit for over and hour, complain about the weirdest things, then tip you badly and leave. I heard of one time when they were angry that wings werent free (it wasnt happy hour or anything) and demanded that it be free because they were such good customers. My manager explained that they dont order enough to be considered good customers. Somehow, they still come in and a semi-regular basis.

Moral: Sometimes youll see a waiter look at you funny then someone else waits on you. Is it a sign that you are a bad customer and you have been pawned onto someone else? Maybe. We do serve many people but you would be suprised how easy it is to remember people.

Being happy at work

2006-06-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

One of the best ways to up your tips is to up your attitude. For once I was actually happy at work and it bled into my service. I will admit, that even if you know me slightly, you know im not all quite there. So I went around being a giant dork. I did my usual little curse at the hostesses when they sat me a table of two adults and three children. They were actually fairly nice.

One of the little boys wanted a big, adult sized chicken ceasar salad. His mother argued with him and told him that he didnt like chicken and she didnt want to waste her money on something he wasnt going to eat. I suggested that I could get the chicken on the side so they could take it home and use a dinner sized ceasar salad instead of the full meal sized one. I also picked a smaller piece of chicken so it wouldnt cost them as much. :) it helps to know little things that save people money. The little kid got his food and complained it was too small. I told him that it was the adult size but if he finished it and he wanted more, I could easily get it for him. Just as predicted, he ate half of the salad and didnt even touch the chicken. They got that and their appetizer togo. Seeing as our regular appetizer is free refills, I just got the usual togo package instead of just boxing up what they had. I also did not charge them for drinks or the appetizer like I was supposed to.

Doing things like that are as close as a regular waiter can get to giving a discount. This also has reprocussions. Sometimes you get a bad tip, sometimes you get a good tip, sometimes they dont care. The lady was really night though. When her husband went to the bathroom, she thanked me and gave me a really really big tip. I thanked her and invited her back. I was happy, she was happy. Happiness was spread for all that day.

If I do get caught giving my little discounts though, I could easily get fired. But I figure its $2.09 to get a regular softdrink at my restaurant. When I first started working there about 3 years ago, it was $1.80. How can the price of a single soft drink go up that much in 3 years? It doesnt. The corporation tries to squeeze out as much of a profit as possible. To produce about a 2 liter equivalent out of our machines would probably cost 2 cents, if that. This means that Peppers makes a several thousand percent profit on this. What about the cost of running the machines you ask? Water is relatively cheap and one carbination tank can last us a few months. The syrup itself costs about $5 a box, which can make probably 100 gallons of soda. Dont quote me on that amount tho. Pepsi also takes care of our equipment for free as long as we dont stock coke. Easy enough? I think so. Soda's are the biggest rip off in the restaurant world.

Moral: Happiness is infectious. And a $2, 2 liter coke, from 7/11, probably cost less than a penny to make.

Verbal compliments

2006-06-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

Everyone likes to get compliments now and again. In the waiting world, it makes you suspicious. I had a table this afternoon that raved about the food and claimed that I was giving them "really fast service". These seem to be red flags that (to me) mean "please dont spit in my food but I dont plan on tipping you well"

Theres a few tell-tale signs that you arent going to get a good tip. Like when someone is asking how much everything costs of ask if anything they want costs extra. Families; especially families with younger children tend to not tip more than the usual amount but that is because its hard supporting a family. I understand that. Thats why kids food costs less (and the portions are less).

To add too many compliments is just like giving too many to a girl. She thinks you have other motives. Im not one to discriminate, so I gave them my usual 100%. I got them boxes and their drinks to go. I even gave them fresh mixed teas to go. They claimed I was one of the best servers theyve had. aw.

$5 on $34. That is 14.7058235%, oh so close to 15% but not quite. I wouldnt have minded at all if they were a normal table, but it was misleading and makes the average server do that much extra only to receive the same amount if they had done the base minimum. This tends to create waiters/waitresses that do the base amount. Nothing extra, nothing more than they have to. Ill admit, I didnt feel that motivated to do anything extra from then on. Nice people tho. One of the key things they said when I was talking to them was "we just got done giving a pizza party for our kids soccer team for winning today". So they went and spent a bunch of money on kids and have very little left to feed themselves. cool.

Yes, I am very pessimistic and look more at how the signs that patrons give off as negative but that seems to be how this business makes people. An old highschool class mate dropped by later in the night and asked me how it was working here. I told her it was the worst job ive ever had in my life. Which is true. Ive only had one other job at an office and they give me all the free exotic coffees I can drink.

Moral: Waiters are like women in dates. Dont lay it on too thick,we know what youre after. Dont try buttering us up only to be an ass in the end.

Another instance of bar fog

2006-06-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

This past wednesday, I was doing the cocktail area as usual. Towards the middle of my shift, I noticed a guy standing right outside our kitchen line. Usually this means that someone wants a waiter but they cant find him/her. He was roughly in his 50's. For some reason, he was wearing sunglasses inside. I start to utter "Can I help you?" when he interjects.

"Youre looking at me like youre gonna kill me."

"Uh, no. I was just wonder.."

"No man its ok, you just looked like you were gonna kill me"

This went on for about 5 min. He went off onto a tangent about how nice the people are in my restaurant and how he knows that I really had no hostile intent. Of course this was all worded differently. While speaking to him, I couldnt help but notice he was missing most of the teeth on the left side of his mouth. And the rest were either black or starting to go black. *shudders*

I eventually walked off while he was still talking, trying to make it as polite as possible. Later on in the night, he was at the bar mentioning something to the bartender then turned to me and claims that I am a good guy and that he knows me. I simply assume that hes drunk and continue on. A few minutes later, he comes into the kitchen and starts to talk to me.

"Dont you hate it when people call you fucking crazy?"

"Well no, to me its a compliment. I am fucking crazy."

"But doesnt it bother you that people peg you for something just by seeing you? I mean I know that youre a nice guy and all. I know you."

I muttered something then walked off again. The only way to end a conversation with this type of bar fog is to leave. There was one instance where this particular guy stayed so long, that he followed the bartender to her car and was talking to her as she was trying to leave the parking lot. These kinds of people dont seem to get offended if you just leave. They simply restart where the conversation left off the next time they see you. Even though I smelled alcohol on his breath, (he was 2 inches from my face) the bartender assured me that it was the second shot he has all night. All night in this case was 6 hours.

Moral: Some people are naturally drunk

Pens!

2006-06-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

In prison they have cigarettes. In restaurants, they have pens. No, I wont butt rape you if you dont give me a pack of pens but its close. With the exceptions of good bartenders, waiters dont make much money. Usually just enough to get buy and make your monthly car payments. To have to use a few d0llars a week on pens is rediculous.

I have seen new waiters buy a fresh, nice pack of clicking pens that probably cost more than the pack of white T-shirts I had to buy last week because of oil and salsa stains. Virgin blood. The pens he/she has will almost all be gone by the end of the month. A "can I borrow a pen, im all out" once, or a stolen pen twice. It all adds up. You cant buy crappy pens because they fall out of check presenters easily or the lack of a top leads to it running out of ink and ruining your apron or just loosing it because it didnt have one of those clippy things to hold it on something.

We had peppers pens you could buy for $0.50 each. Customers regularly steal them thinking that we get them for free and theres a giant stock pile in the back. I just lost my last peppers pen because it fell out of my shirt (my lucky pen's lucky spot). Through the various ways of losing a pen you can see how a dozen pens really wont last that long. Bussers might accidentally throw them out or they get lost in seat cushions never to be found again. Its heart breaking.

Today I found my "donate blood" pen in this other waiters apron. Im 90% sure its mine because, well I dont have it anymore and I might have lent to her weeks ago. Although, she is a nurse. So I didnt confront her. You are probably saying "Its just a pen?!" but is it really just a pen? Restaurants are fraught with greet and meanness. If you leave cash lying around in your booklet somewhere on the dish line, theres no garentee all of it will still be there. Ive seen someone go around asking if theyve seen a missing $20 bill. I warn newbies not to put cash in their booklets or leave them lying around.

Pens are more of the basics. You know that if someone steals your pen, dont even lend them one again. Of course, I am a pessimist and hate everyone.

Moral: Dont but cheap/expensive pens. Dont steal my pens, I will break your hand. Donate blood! Ill give you a pack of cigarettes for 5 pens :)

Bar Fog

2006-06-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

Bar Fog
This is the title that is used for anyone that seems to hang around the bar just a little too long. They dont necessarily talk too much, they dont necessarily drink too much. But they are there and youd rather not have them there.

They are those kinds of people that make you mildly uncomfortable and seem like they have no other goal in life but to spend their life at your bar. You would pity these people but you would rather them just go away. Heres a few examples at peppers.

Gimpy:
My least favorite of the bar fog where I work. Hes in his mid to late 50's and I call him gimpy because he has one leg that is shorter than the other. Cause to feel sorry for him? none at all. He is one of those kinds of guys that likes to tell you what he thinks regardless if you want to hear. When I was a host he called me useless because he considered my job to be unimportant. When I snapped at him one day for saying "hey useless, get me a phone book", the managers made me apologize to him. I still havent actually done it. Anyone who would disrespect anyone and still expect them to help is a very dumb person.

There is rarely a night that I work that he is not at the bar. The problem with guys like him is that he spends more time at a bar than at home or at work. I went out to eat at an outback once and I found him sitting there, sipping on his usual white russian. I went to a chinese restaurant and I found him sipping another white russian. Apparently he frequents several bars. Where is his life? Its probably lost in his divorce and liver problems.

Toothy:
Toothy is actually bar fog I usually like. He gets red headed sluts (peach schnapps and jager I believe) and a bottled miller light regardless if drafts are on happy hour. His wife is about to become a black belt in karate. He has two kids that I remember him telling me about and he has a very sucessful business that he runs. He owns a fairly sized house with a huge yard in an area where an appartment can cost more than some houses elsewhere. Yet hes never at his office and preffers playing Golden Tee, the arcade golf game that somehow is popular. Even with all the money he tosses out drinking expensive drinks, he still doesnt replace the front tooth thats missing. Hes a nice guy to talk to but I think he needs to spend more time with his family or on his dental work.

Old Smoker Chicks:
These are no women in particular. You can notice them at just about any bar at any time. These are the women that are entering their forties but dress as if they are in their twenties. The smoke that constantly comes from their cigarettes have left their skin yellow, wrinkled, and all around un-youthful. They also tend to be overly tanned and seem to purposfully wear their thongs on their hips when their jeans start at their crack.

Some are missing teeth, some are missing hair. They get drunk and hit on anything they think might have a penis. There was one time where one grabbed an employees balls from behind with a death grip. When I asked him what happened he simply told me that for a brief second, he was her bitch. Being male, I can tell you, it is not easy to grab a mans testicles from behind and make him sound like a soprano.

These women need to act their age, and stop thinking they can pick up an attractive young male for whatever motives they really have. Some nights, they scare me. Hell halth no fury...

The Fog Friends:
I dont know if anyone else has them but I have what I call "Fog Friends". They are the kinda bar fog that think you are their friend. They sit you down and tell you that you dont have to get their drinks right away. They offer to take you out for drinks one night when youre off but that night never comes. Some of them arent even good tippers. There isnt much problem with these people except for the usual problem with bar fog. They dont know when to go away. Theyll stay until midnight on nights we close at 11 and claim to have not known. Despite the fact that I was cleaning all around them and their table being the only squalid thing keeping me from going home. No tip is worth me leaving over an hour after we close when I was supposed to get out 3 hours before.

Conclusion:
There are quite a few more unique types of bar fog. We have a gay guy that comes in to sip on captain morgan's while drinking a bud from a bottle. We also have a few old guys that just come in and like to talk to the bartenders or wait staff. Not all of them are bad, but they are fog. The difference between fog and regulars are about how they make the waiters feel. Fog is unwanted, regulars are genuinly welcomed.

Moral: If you fit any of the descriptions I just stated, think about the wait staff you effect. You may think they like you, but then again, you pay them to like you. If thats what you want, cool.

A stroke?!

2006-06-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

At about 10pm tonight, one of our elderly regulars had a mild stroke. She comes in with all of her family about once or twice a month. They are VERY nice people and very nice to the wait staff. I didnt even know there was anything wrong until I saw the ambulance show up 20 min later. I was in cocktail and they were in the main dining area so I didnt see it. I still feel really bad tho. Get better soon!

Anyway, today was crappy. I have a new job at an office and its one of those mon-fri 9-5 jobs but I have to get up around 7am to make it there on time. I get to peppers at about 6pm to do my night shift. The problem with us being so short staffed is that people that work day jobs (there are about 3 others) that have to close. On fridays we lose at 12 at night but most people are still trying to get drunk around then and love to bother me. There have been a few times that I have been waiting on people (literally) until 2 in the morning when I have to wake up 7 hours later to come back and open the restaurant the next day.

I cursed in my mind at managment for making me close but what I thought was more torturous was that 6pm is after the bar already fills up. This means that poor Fields already has more than 12 tables. The bar physically has 12 tables but many people will pull up chairs from the dining area or stand at our table tables to the point where you cant walk through cocktail anymore. As a result of this, Fields is freaking out and getting yelled at for drinks and I have to help him until things calm down. He gets bad tips for bad service and I get my first table at 7:30 and dont see a penny of my hour and a half of helping. I did horribly over all for the night and made quite under what I consider minimum for any night.

I am angry for managment putting me in this position and im tired.

Moral? None really, just me being mad that I had to stay late and make chump change. Im also sad for the old lady thats going to be sleeping in the hospital tonight. Well, they said it was mild and she was up and walking around...

Trainees

2006-05-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

In my three years of expirience at the restaurant game; at the same restaurant. I have developed seniority. There are only 4 or 5 other people, including managers, that have been here longer than me. This means a few things. First, I get fair game on my schedule. Second, people ask me EVERYTHING. Last, I have to train a lot.

Today I had a nice guy, ill call him danny. He is the younger brother of an old bartender that used to work with me. Hes one of those guys thats physically old but you doubt their mental age. Or at least some neurons arent firing properly. Being on his fourth day of training (out of 5), I assumed it would be a breeze and he would take all my tables. My manager begged to differ. She mentioned that he had quite a bit of trouble with the computer. This makes the basics and training very difficult. If you arent at least somewhat profficient with the basics of the computer, your tables wait longer for everything from being greeted to getting refills. Im proud to say that by the end of the shift, he had more than the basics down.

There are a few things that always happen with newbies if this is their first waiting job.
1 - They are scared to talk to total strangers
2 - They run away from tables without finishing what they are supposed to do
3 - They are quiet talkers
4 - They have yet to create a routine and so they must remember every step
5 - They dont know where anything is

Now the last one is a "Duh" kind of thing. That is just a matter of learning things as you go along. The first three bullets on the other hand are more of a matter of them not being used to talking to complete strangers. In a restaurant you need to be confident enough to talk to a patron to get the necessary information to make sure they have a good time. It takes a certain level of self worth to do more than just ask what they want to drink. You should put personality to it. After all, waiting tables is probably the closest thing to legal prostitution. You sell yourself, not just the food. If you arent sure of what youre doing, newbies tend to run away to hide themselves from such a social situation.

My biggest peeve are those who dont talk loud enough. There are no free tables around you and everyone in the whole place is talking, how is anyone going to hear you mumble the soups we have today? Again, this is confidence. Quiet talkers do not think that what they have to say is worth while or they are just too scared to say it any louder. I try to beat this out of my trainees as soon as possible. It will save them grief and it will help out their customers. Any good waiter can easily be heard down a large booth ment for 8 without being annoying sounding or too loud.

Number 4 is one of my favorite things to teach my pupils. A well oiled routine will help you not only get things efficiently but also gets every base you need to touch. In the waiting game, the more tables you can take, the more money you can make. The only reason newbies cant take a lot of tables is because they havent established a routine yet that will allow them more time to get more tables.

Heres a good example. One table wants the check, one table needs drinks, one table needs some mustard and you just got sat a fresh table for two. There are a few ways of doing this but here is what I do. Put the check in my apron, put drinks for the other table in my left hand while I have mustard and two sets of silverware in the other. Drinks and condiments go first, then I greet the new table, then I drop the check off at the desired table. The trick to this is what I call "The Tier System". Certain things come before others. Of course, your tiers are up to you. Universally some things are at their respective ends.

Granted, your table wants to leave asap. Theres usually someone else they can talk to at the table, it isnt horrible to make them wait if you are busy to give them their check. Refills on drinks are also something that can usually wait unless someone has a dead empty glass and is eating a salt sandwich. The ones that are the "must do" end are things like greeting tables as soon as they are sat and giving a table any condiments or extras that they might need in order to start their meal. Some people will not touch their burger without enough mustard. Some people think they need a spoon to eat soup. Those are things that must be done first.

I could go ooon and on about training but I will end there today.

Moral: Elders at a restaurant generally know what they are doing. Trust them. Well, dont trust me. I like to play jokes.

M&O

2006-05-31T08:29:00.000-07:00

Mcdougal and Oflanagen grill:

Yea I probably spelled those wrong and somewhere down my blood im scotish and some decendent of the great william wallace. Anyway, the gf and I (notice the proper english!) went to the M&O grill, it was a local place we had both heard of but never went in. We both felt festive and decided to dress up. Well we went for like a preppy goth look... basically nice clothes but ALL black.

We get inside this place and theres this balding short guy at the host stand. He asks how many we are then turns around and fiddles with what I thought were menus. Then some other lady came up front and asked how many we were. Then they argued for a bit, she mentioned that she could take us in a not so nice sort of way to the shorter bald man. They argued some more, then the bald man took us to some random table in what I thought was a small restaurant.

This place was ritzy! Stain glass ceilings with the state seal on it. Candles and fresh flowers on every table. Even the wood at our table looked expensive. The only other people we saw were old people and one huge table of asian ppl and some kids. The kids were well dressed but playing with game boys. I didnt think much of it until we got to the table. We were each handed a fairly large piece of paper. About two feet tall and a bit wider than normal paper. It looked as though the menus were printed fresh every day. It also looked like what a normal place would have as specials were the regular dishes. "Fresh from alaska" those kinds of things.

The whole other page was a wine list. Let me say that again. The WHOLE other side of the paper was the wine list. The average price was about $70 for a bottle. The prices on this whole thing was horrific. Kids food costs more than food at peppers. The average bill for a two top here would be the average bill for a 6 top or greater at peppers. I was in shock.

Our waiter approached the table after a fair amount of time. Apparently making patrons wait is what fancy places do. He asked what we wanted to drink. We both got our usual coke and iced tea. Our waiter immediately departed and brought us back, after a long time, bread, an iced tea, a glass of ice, and a 10 oz bottle of coke. My girlfriend and I ordered basically the cheapest things on the menu. I got some kind of seafood in "newburg" sauce and she got a basic pasta that you could get anywhere. I figured this place was fancy enough that $10 more for a pasta means more flavor or something. Nope!

The food took a long time but I expected that for seafood. I usually suck down my cokes very fast but something told me I shouldnt. I finished my food rather quickly because ther wasnt much there. It consisted of a small bowl of random sea creature parts in this odd orange sauce that tasted like wine. Even had the alcoholic kick to it too. It also came with 6 green beans and some rice. Needless to say, I was still hungry when we were done.

Basically, our food was par, the service was under par, and the prices made par look like its bitch. We still left an OK tip but its hard when you were expecting to pay half as much at a place youd never been at. As we left, I noticed the waiter immediately picked up the check and looked at the cash we had left him. I know where his mind is. He saw two young people that are probably 1/3 the age of any other patron. He didnt expect a good tip so he gave us bad service.

Morals: Research a restaurant before you go. Just because something costs more, doesnt mean you are going to either get better quality or more quantity. Waiters are money grubbers too.

Stretching

2006-05-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

Im not always a customer hater. I hate the system that the business runs on as well. Today was an example of how the restaurant wanted one thing and I wanted another. I had patio today, a relatively bad section that no one wants. This is due to the fact that you have to go through two doors to get out, it is the farthest possible to the kitchen, its self seating, and it is an instant fill section. What I mean by that is that when no ones out there, no one sits out there. As soon as one person sits outside, its full. Sure its only 5 tables max but getting 5 tables at once is suicide.

On top of this happening like clock work, they also decided I needed two tables inside in another section opposite of patio. Great. I beg with pot hostess to not seat any more tables to me but she did anyway. She gave me this blank stare whenever I was talking to her. Thank god its her last day.

Having that many tables caused many problems. First, I dont have time for everything and I forget things now and then. I forgot a box and to scan a nice couples credit card.They sat there with nothing on their table for about 10 min. I felt horrible. Second, service quality goes down. This raises patron unhappiness (duh) and increases goof ups where a manager has to do his job.

Its memorial day weekend so we had quite a few people and I had a party from "Rolling Thunder". You know the people that ask for sweet tea and when you dont have it, look at you like youre denying them life.

Anyway, my gripe is that management put me in this position and fully knew what would happen. Then I get yelled at when I goof up. Even our best waiters couldnt take what they shoved at me. I was tired and stretched too thin.

Moral: Managers, hosts, and waiters are all different worlds, they rarely understand the other. I know, I managed, waited tables, and hosted.

Asses and the unwelcome

2006-05-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

Heres a few stories from the past few days.

Today:
There are quite a few regulars to the restaurant. Not to me personally but to the restaurant. Maybe they like the average food. Many of the regulars I like, a few I dont. One particular gentleman comes in now and then. I believe he is a diabetic because I see a needle next to him when he first comes in. He could be a drug addict... in public. He always gets the same genre of things. An ice tea and some kind of a salad. 90% of the time, his bill comes out to $9.44. He leaves two dollars and is very low maintenance. I talk a little with him but not enough to know who he is. Its a fine little exchange. Im not over joyed at the tip, but it is 20%.

I have another table of regulars that for some reason, I always end up with. A father, son and daughter come in just about every saturday. They order different things each time and get dessert almost like clockwork. My problem is that he never tips more than 12%. Usually I get 10%. Sure on a $70 check its $7 but that isnt enough for the exchange and work I have to put in for that much food at a restaurant where the average food Item is $8.

Yesterday:
I had a 40 year old asshole that liked to come up to me, come about 4 inches away from my face and demand drinks and shots for his 20ish female compantion. When I brought things to his table, "Thank you"'s were never heard, he didnt even look at me unless he wanted something else. They stayed for over 2 hours talking about what seemed to be nothing because I dont remember them exchanging many words. On a fairly large check, I got 20%. I like the tip, but I would settle for 15% if he had just been nice. I suppose some people are asses unintentionally.

My last or should I say first table of the night was an odd group. They came in towards the tail end of happy hour and were two people to start. Two more came, then another guy, then two more. They shifted from a table of four to a booth of six. Eventually they also took up the other booth of six next to them for a newly engaged couple. Joy. Their total open check time was 6 hours and 48 minutes. Yes. the computer keeps track of how long youve been in a restaurant. Eventually, after about 13 beers or mixed drinks per person, I dropped off the bill. Almost $300.

You would figure that being somewhere for 6 hours, you would rack up a fair bill. As I walked away, I saw the guy lean back and say "wow". Not a good sign. I pick up some of the many glasses and see the men in the group saying things like "I dont have enough cash for this" or "I only drank X drinks". All of these things mean Im getting a bad tip or even that they might not have enough to cover the bill. Eventually I got enough credit cards to cover the bill. Only one guy tipped well but his amount was the smallest. One guy didnt even tip me. The over all tip was 10%.

I would not have minded the 10%. I mind the fact that I had to clean up over 3 tables for these people and they were fairly high maintenance for the large duration they were at the restaurant. On top of it, they were my first table and they were the reason I had to stay 30 min after close to clean up. *Anger*

Morals:
1) Just because you are a regular does not mean I like you and you will get special treatment
2) If you are an ass, you have a greater chance of getting something extra in your food
3) If you stay a long time, tip more. Another table could be where you are when you sip on your coffee for an hour.
4) Large checks do not mean it is ok to tip 10% or nothing at all

Hostesses and past hostesses

2006-05-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, I hear someone at my table mention that they used to work at a restaurant. Maybe they think that mentioning it will make me give them better service to get a better tip, I dont know. To me, I treat you worse. If you have to mention that to me, you arent really someone that worked in a restaurant.

Again, weed girl was hosting tonight. I was under her will. I hated it. Immediately she seats me a table of 5, a table of 3 and a table of 4. Van did not have a table while one of the other servers that walked in recieved one table. I try to ask her the reasoning behind this but she had no idea what I was talking about. Every party over 4 that walks in, she has to ask a manager what to do with it. We have part sections for a reason! She seats a party of 7 and asks me to take it. I explain T has no tables and that she would be happy to take it. So she seats T a party of 11 and a 2 top immediately after it. My brain hurts.

All of the tables weed girl sat her, minus the two top, were in other sections than hers. So when I party of 6 that is in her section comes around, T is too busy to take it and doesnt even notice that she has a table on the other side of the restaurant. weed girl asks me why I wasnt taking it. *sigh*

She topped off her night by giving van a table right as he was getting cut so he could go home. By the rotation, another section should have gotten it. I feel bad for Van, we both had been there since 10am. Weed girl just doesnt understand. It could partly be the weed, but also that she has never seen things through the eyes of a waiter.

Tonight, I had an old hostess in my section. She had a guy friend with her, I gave them my discount. My discount is basically free soft drinks and anything that I get myself and dont have to go through a kitchen for. On average, I can save someone at least $10. At the end of their meal, they paid the bill in cash. 20% on a fairly small bill for having steaks/shrimp/fajitas. Im not complaining. well, I am. Usually, the unwritten code is that you tip 20% on the original bill. Also, 20% to me is a base minimum tip from someone who is/was an employee. Again, she just never saw it through the eyes of a waiter, she never knew what even the difference between 20% on a discounted check and 20% on the original bill is.

Moral: Just because you worked in a restaurant doesnt mean you know how to tip. If you used to be a waiter, now thats a different world.

My terrible day

2006-05-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

I was going to write this sooner but the day was so terrible that I just went to sleep when I went home.

I had a final exam in a class that I felt that I didnt do too well in. On my way home, I decided that traffic would be less on a way I used to take home but stopped because I have bad luck on the road. So of course something happens. A few cars infront of me was what looked like a tow truck, bright red and shiny. All of a sudden I see a brown thing come out from infront of it and go flying across two lanes onto most of the shoulder. Of course it was a deer and its head was sticking into on coming traffic. At the time it looked still alive and kicking. And because of me being human, I looked as I passed. I saw hopeless dying eyes and the back end of this deer kicking. I know, Im a guy, but it really got to me. If I wasnt in the other lane I was planning on running over the head to put it out of its misery but I couldnt. The more I thought about it, it was residual nerve impulses of when the deer was running and it was really dead. Or so I make myself think of.

I go to work, distraught. Work itself was terrible. Everyone yelling for one thing or another. A lady arguing with me over how much something costs when its plainly written in the menu. No, we do not do a 2 for 1 special on long islands. I continually dropped things. One time I spilled chips and dip over the open seat of a one top. I apologized and mentioned I was having an off day. He didnt give me any kind of responce and went about reading his news paper. Of course, 10%.

I had a table of foreigners, the only one that spoke english had one of those lazy eyes that you dont want to look at but cant look away from. 3 large sam adams and 2 coronas. Well thats what I got after he tried to tell me about 4 times. I pick up the last sam to put it on my drink tray because I dont want to drop anything due to the high volume of drinks I was carrying. A full 20 oz spills all over my shirt, apron, pants. Warm, dried sam adams smells like baby vomit. I went the rest of the night with my things in my pockets and tried to make the best of it. The table didnt seem to notice and left me $3. Foreigners... they know how to tip, they just dont.

To top it all off, I had a table of two business men that seemed to think that sipping on beer while watching the hockey game till late was ok. I dropped off the check exactly at 11pm, when we close. They paid it at 12pm. I cashed out and cleaned up and got ready to leave. 1am rolled around, I was done cleaning everything but their table. Closers usually have to stay until the last customer leaves. I paid my manager $5 to clean it up for me, more than that table had tipped me. The moment my door closed, I see them walking to their cars. Damn it.

Moral: Even if you arent the one to hit the deer, it might still ruin your day.

Why make my life harder?

2006-05-06T19:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a story of a lady who decided that making my life difficult was fun. First she told the hostess that four people at the four top booth that they were sat at was too small and walked over to our only 6 seater booth and sat down. She and her husband (her husband and she?) were waiting on their two children and told me what they wanted to drink. She asked for one coke and a coke with no ice. I told her we only had pepsi products and she gave a little hissy fit about how every restaurant should have coke. I was going to tell her that pepsi takes care of our machines for free as long as we dont supply coke but somehow I wasnt in the mood to get bitched at.

I came back with both of their drinks and she made me stay at the table while she was on the phone with her daughter to figure out what they wanted to drink. As soon as I got back to the table with the drinks, their kids were there. She demanded that the order immediately. As each quickly ordered she would mention to me not to put certain things in or to add an extra side of something. Her husband ordered a burger. As soon as he had finished ordering she said that the burgers came with french fries and that he should get veggies. She didnt tell him this, she told me this. Her husband kind of nodded a bit.

Throughout the order she would tell me what was in each item and that I should replace them with other things. I am amazed that I didnt get any of the orders wrong. She demanded several refills and complained about basically everything. Apparently her daughter didnt like pepper on her corn on the cobb but only salt.

The took up a party table for an hour and gave me 10% on a bill for four.

Moral: The customer apparently knows more than the waiter about the food at the restaurant.

Retarded hostesses

2006-05-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

Yes not everything that I dislike about the waiting game is about the customers. The hostess I dislike the most was working this morning. She seems to think she can only make it through a shift on the influence of weed. Ive never been high so I cant really tell when she is high or not. She admits it frequently enough to make me think that more often than not, shes high.

My restaurant is weird. It was made by hippies so the sections arent exactly the best. Sections are supposed to use a pals system where if you are in trouble, the corresponding section is supposed to help you. But human nature makes people selfish and everyone would rather help themselves than you. This leads to waiters taking more than one section at a time. I was in a section the other day that had two tables from another section. Weed girl sat me in the party table of the mini section I was also taking and demanded that I take it. "But youre in both sections, you have to take this table", to which I reply many explitives and tell her that only the two other tables are mine and that if she wanted someone to take the table, that she would have to ask someone else.

Its not that im an ass. Well, I am an ass. But I cant take more than 7 or 8 tables at a time. To expect me to take all of those and a party is just asking me to commit suicide. Shes only 16 and has never done my job nor does she know how much harder than her job it is. She doesnt seem to want to try to understand my hardships so I like to yell at her quite often.

Tonight, she did something that I thought any normal person would have picked up on. My other waiter Van saw a table up front and seated them in my section because I was next. Fair enough. Then the next table comes in and the hostess seats them in my section and complains that I sat myself and now I have two at the same time. These two tables are very close to each other, and Van and I were the only two on. I failed to see how hard it was to see that I had a new table and that she should seat Van next. So, she double sat van after asking him to take the other table that she had sat.

Moral: Dont come to work high. Dont sign up for a job if you arent smart enough to take it. Dont smoke weed!

Separate checks

2006-05-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

I had a table of three tonight. Bus drivers.. Nice people. Not really. The first thing out of the ladies mouth after a nice hello was "Separate checks". No "Hello.", "Hows it going?", nothing. I dropped off the soft drinks at the table and mentioned that her beer was on the way and asked if they needed anything else for the moment. The lady chimes in "Where my beer?".

Their food comes out, she barely eats a bit. Check time comes and they all give me large bills to break. We dont have cash registers for these kinds of things. I dont know how anyone thinks I can break all of that so easily. I had to pull favors from a few of my friends and badly broke the change to the point where it was to the closest dollar in their favor. They left me about 9% and a bunch of coins.

Moral: Try your best to either have one person pay or pitch in when the bill comes. It isnt easy breaking checks, despite what many patrons think. I am not an ATM machine. Breaking change is really tedious.

Happy hour

2006-05-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

I usually close cocktail. That nice bar area that gives me the nice second hand smoke to make up for my lack of the habit of smoking. The start of my shift is always the start of the pick-up for happy hour. People from the local area come by to wait out rush hour and sit some place with friends and enjoy a few drinks. There are quite a few regulars. Some of which I like and some of which I dont like but you have to wait on anyway.

Lately, what has been getting to me is the gross amount of happy hour hogs. We used to keep a giant tub of free wings out in the cocktail area for anyone to come up and grab a plate of. We stopped doing this because teenagers would come in and only get drinks and take up a few tables for a few hours. Now we have the one set of wings per person per happy hour. This means that if you come in on monday, you only get one set that day. This leads to the old "Well that other table has a guy that got two.", which could be for a large number of reasons.

We also get people that abuse this free offering. Mass quantities of blue cheese and celery. Which you might not think would cost us much, but you would be suprised how many jugs of dressing we go through in a day. We also have complimentary chips and salsa. Again, tomatos are at a premium right now and we are told not to waste salsa unless necessary.

Imagine this: 3 people, 6 beers, chips, 3 baskets of wings, water to wash it all down. your non happy hour bill is around $45. Your happy hour price is about $18. You take up a seat for an hour to two and I get $3. When with the normal bill, I would have gotten $7. Over twice the difference for the same food. Consitantly bills are actually below $10 and consistently I get a dollar and whatever change was left after breaking change. Peppers is still making money from selling so many beers and hopefully getting someone to get food. I suffer half the tip money.

As soon as happy hour ends, we have a mass exodus. Broken bills, everyone wants change, others want to get another round or even two before the timer runs out. The 10 min before happy hour ends is a giant mess. I hate getting the customer that asks for happy hour prices because they didnt notice it was close to 7pm. Our computers lock those prices out at 7, I cant make the computer do a favor for you. The ending of happy hour brings out the money grubber in everyone there. Those who stay, are good customers. Those who leave, left you exactly 15% and left a huge mess of bones, wadded up napkins, and cigaretts with ashes everywhere from the ash tray to someone else's table top.

Moral: If you want to be stingy with your money, show up exactly at 3pm with your buddies and order two rounds, one for now and "keep the other on ice for when we need it".

PS: dont do that, I will spit in your food and serve it to you with extra pube sprouts.

Gratuity

2006-05-02T23:35:00.000-07:00

This morning I was squashed. There normally arent this few servers/waiters on the board but weve had a few quitters and people fired. Its that time of the year to be understaffed. Once again I had more than one section. I had about 3. My first info when I come in is that I am to take a group of 15. It doesnt seem that hard but I was one of maybe three people on that could take it by myself.

A group over 6 takes a certain amount of planning and knowledge to take. It takes much longer to get orders/appetizers/drinks/etc. Because of this, you must handle it accordingly. Odds are, when you come back with appetizers, or even before then, someone is going to need a new drink and that extra trip takes time.

Anyway, we normally dont take reservations. This is exactly for the reason of what happened today. The people didnt show exactly on time; fairly late enough that we thought that they werent coming. The hostess sat me lightly so that I could take the group when they arrived. Since they didnt, however, I had a fresh table of six and two other tables of sizes I dont recall. 25 min after their arrival time, the party shows up. The reason we dont take reservations is because in this situation, im fucked. I cant give the time needed to my current tables and still have the time to take an order that takes about 4 times longer to take. Luckily, Im good at what I do and managed it with help from another server and one of my managers.

This table was particularly thirsty so I wound up doing several trips with at least 4 drinks in my hands as well as things for that table and the others. Everything came out without a hitch. Special instructions were good, timing was good, everything was fine. Except that this one lady kept nagging me for things. She got twice as many drink refills and asked numerous times for things such as dressing, napkins, you name it. No real biggy, theres bound to be someone like that.

Bill time came around and the guy sitting next to her claimed the bill. He had one of those corporate cards so, I dunnod, its a tax write off or something. A side note to this is that gratuity is automatically added for groups over 11. Most other restaurants are 8. 3 people make a huge difference, especially when it comes to stingy customers. Heres why. I dropped off the credit card slip and started to walk away. The lady next to the paying guy immediately went back to talking to him. I thought nothing of it.

When they all leave, I picked up the slip. I saw about 10-12% added in under tip, then scratched out. The total was the same as the total on the check. I think that lady told him in the middle of signing that he didnt have to leave a tip becase its already added in. This means, that with all the work I did, all the extra it took to take care of this table, went to exactly 15%. Why is 15% so bad you ask?

"A minimum gratuity may be applicable should the Client’s numbers drop at short notice and staff have been organised to cater for the party."
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&hs=1HV&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&oi=definer&q=define:suggested+gratuity&defl=en

Note that this says minimum. Gratuity is added to checks on what are considered large parties because getting stiffed on a bill that large could break your shift. A group of 3 at table 14 with only a $30 check only tips so much but a party of 12 at 51 with a $200 check has you out at least $30. I felt that I did more than what 15% was. I did that little "wow" thing that we have in our training videos. All for 15% when I could have made more than 20 with the same number of customers but at many smaller tables?

Moral: Gratuity is a MINIMUM tip. If they deserve more, give more. If they deserve less, you are allowed to tip less. Tip based on your service, dont just leave only gratuity and think you shouldnt leave more.

Stereotypes

2006-04-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Everyone in the waiting business stereotypes. Dont mistake this for racism, our stereotyping isnt by your race, its by different lines. Old people, teens, rednecks, etc. Im japanese and I will willingly admit that my kind usual tip less than 15%. The other day, I had two parties of 5... at my four top tables. Horay for smart hostesses. Anyway, one was all middle eastern people and one was all asians. Two demographics where depending on who pays, I am likely to get about 10%.

The problems with these stereotyping is that when you get the table, you dont try from the start. When I first started, I tried to shed that and give my all and win them over like it says in our training videos. But these stereotypings are no random occurance. Over the years, I gave in, I stereotyped like everyone else. "Fucking foreigners" to quote the movie "Waiting".

So, Ill admit it. I didnt give them 100% to get their 10%. Its not like I ignored them. I did what I consider, my minimum. The middle eastern people got all mango teas and some mild margaritas. One guy seemed to be ruling the whole table. I guessed that he was the dad and controled the family. Yes, a stereotype that seemed quite true at the time. They got some of the most expensive stuff on the menu, also according to the stereotype. Bill came around. Fairly impressive for a saturday night. 15%. Not great, but good for what it was. I was happy.

My other 5 top were koreans. Not that they are particularly bad as far as asians go. But if theres one ethnicity that likes to hate on others and fight, its asians. No, I dont hate them, but asians hate it when you call them all "chinese", etc etc. 5 waters, one with no ice. Big ballers. Like the stereotype, they asked questions, prices, stuff like that. They didnt get expensive stuff, but not the cheapest. Bill time comes around after what seemed like a long time of them talking about things I couldnt understand. They brought out calculators. This means two things. One; anytime anyone gets out a calculator, they are trying to figure out exactly 15% so they dont give you too much. Two; they arent the brightest asians if they need calculators.

Again, 15%. Not bad, not good. Better than what the stereotype told me.

Moral? Stereotypes are there for a reason. Not everyone follows them. Theres no reason to follow them. But many waiters do. Is it bad? Of course. Break the stereotypes and they will go away.

Yo!

2006-04-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Working the lunch shift today. I had a table out of my section. No problem, happens quite often. I'll admit it. I forgot them. So when I passed by, one of the two ladies decided that the best way to get my attention would be to throw out a hand and yell "Yo!".

It was not my name, not a polite way of getting anyones attention, and it made me feel sub-human. One of those things that reminds you that you are a waiter and that they are "above" you. She demanded more napkins and extra dressing for her friends salad. Her friend, by the way, decided that honey mustard and ranch would be a good mix and that the two mini ramikens I gave her were not enough.

A little bit later in their dining expirience, I walked up to the table and asked the other lady if she would like another drink. My faulty memory made me ask her what she had. My phrasing was along the lines of "Did you have a regular, diet, root beer?" To which she bitchishly replied "DR, PEPPER!". Lady, I have 6 other tables and I have a bad memory. Give me a break.

They wound up sitting around until after all my other tables had left and eventually gave me %10 on their very low bill. So now I feel bad about myself and I didnt make much money because they took up a table for most of our lunch rush.

The moral today? People have names. I mention mine at least twice in my greeting. If you dont remember it, there are other polite ways of getting someones attention. I'm human too... last time I checked.

Sympathy

2006-04-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

Recently Ive had a bunch of people that come in and make larger than normal requests and make comments such as "Well make sure you get a big tip", or "I used to wait tables once". Statements like those, to me, lead me to the conclusion that I am going to get a bad tip. Why? Stingy people that dont want you to spit in their food want to make you believe that they are nice and will tip you well. If tips were up front, I doubt half of them would say it.

Dont get me wrong. Sometimes they do treat me well and/or give me a good tip. But those statements do more to make me think the opposite.

Every now and then. Ill catch a bit of conversation at a table im waiting. Its hard not to. I hear things such as "Man. Our boss doesnt treat us as well as we should be" or at least something along those lines. Do I sympathize? No. Countless times, I have been in their position but worse. Rarely will your boss pay you less simply because they thought you didnt do 100%. It happens to me. Every table is like another boss. I am being employed by that person for a short period of time. There is no expected pay, there is no HMO or 401K. I get a percent of the sales from that boss.

You have to move from an office to a cubicle. I get honey mustard spilled on me at table 13. The only better part of my position is that after a given point in time, you arent my boss anymore. You dont like your boss? Get a new job. I dont like my table? tough. I had a table tonight that sat at my largest table for over 5 hours. I got 15% on the happy hour drinks they had before they stopped drinking at 7pm.

I dont know where im going with this. Just that I dont sympathize with anyone that had to work an extra 2 hours that day. Youre salary, I work for your $5.

Arguing with a patron

2006-04-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Most people shy away from arguing with a customer. Just not, take the shit and get them what they want. Its the best way to get through your shift and not get into trouble. I, on the other hand, don't think the customer is always right. Infact, quite a bit of the time, they are wrong.

I worked from 11am today and got about an hour to myself which I spent sipping coffee at a table seeing as it would be piontless to go home. 15 min before I was due back on, the hostess approaches me and tells me that she is seating me a table of about 10 or 11 people. I mentioned that I was not due back on for another 15 min and wanted some rest before my next shift but she said "tough" and walked off. *peeved* 5 min later, my manager Rick tells me to get up and get to my table. Protesting that I had 10 min to spare, he told me that he just clocked me in.

*peeved more* Modifying employee hours is illegal and really makes me angry. Still wearing my regular clothes, with my coffee cup that I put teeth marks in to make sure no one else drinks from it, I sat down at the table and mentioned that I had a rough morning and that I should have had 10 more minutes to relax. They seemed nice and let me sit for a few more until I got up and got them their orders. OK, it wasn't the professional thing to do. I wasn't in the mood to care much.

Eventually, when the last two patrons showed up, I got a lady that asked for a "Frozen, virgin strawberry margarita". I dropped off her drink and imediatly she retorted with "Theres no salt on my rim. I want salt." Now there are many ways and tones to which to frame such a statement. And to me, she put it in the worst way possible. But, I apologized and went back to the bar to get her a salted rim. When I got back I said "Here is your virgin strawberry daquiri.". Her startlingly more bitchy reply was "I wanted a virgin margarita" and said how bad it tasted.

After a few minutes of explaining that the difference between the two is basically lime juice (our sour mix has cointreau in it), I told her I would be back in a minute to get her a new one. Tee, ran some of my food to her table. While she was there, this lady grabbed her sleeve and told her that her margarita was terrible and explained again that she wanted a "Frozen, virgin strawberry margarita". Tee then told me about it. I went back to the table and asked how her "margarita" was. She said it was good.

I went about my business and 20 min later, another server came up to me and told me that a lady at my table was complaining it was taking forever for her margarita. I mentioned to the lady that I asked her how it was to see if she did want the other margarita. She pulled out a menu and said "I want this one, but frozen". I asked if she wanted it virgin and she said that she didn't care anymore. Being too lazy to card her (she was old), I started to leave to put her order in. "Excuse me sir, send by the waitress that said shed get my margarita.". She yelled at Tee about not getting her the margarita and that she wanted to see a manager. It didnt seem to appear to this lady that Tee was not her waiter and had no power to put in orders under her table. *shrugs*

A manager came by and after a few minutes told me to give him her check so he could take off all of her drinks. *peeved A Lot* I gave him her ticket. Luckily, her husband payed the check and gave me 30% on their discounted check. Although, without her discount it would have been about 11%.

The moral? Yet again it is "Bitch and ye shall recieve free stuff".

I leave you with this article on how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character

Inconsiderates

2006-04-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

As usual, I was closing cocktail. I started off my night with a nice lady. My usual greeting being along the lines of "Hi, my name is X. Can I start you off with something to drink. " I usually dont use my actual name simply because if one of our secret shopers were to come by and test me and I did badly, they wont know who exactly who I am. The secret is to use the name of someone on the staff that you dont like.

Anyway, the first words this lovely lady says to me is, "Clean the table". In cocktail, this line of thinking usually happens. It is self seating and someone is bound to pick a dirty table. My problem was more along the lines that out of the 7 tables open, she picks the only table that isnt clean and demands that I clean it. I admit that my responce should have been to apologize and clean the table.

Instead, I argued with her. trying to be nice I mentioned that I was busy and wouldnt have time to was it right away and that she was welcome to any of the other clean tables. She mentioned that the cleanliness of the cocktail area directly reflected on me and my tip. Then she asked for a fresh ash tray.

I gave her a new ash tray and gave her table to Rey. Later on she complained that she didnt get a second helping of her complimenary buffalo wings. Rey mentioned that they were only one per customer. After demanding to speak to a manager she pointed out that someone else had extra wings and that she should too. Instead of getting a fresh basket of wings, she demanded a higher prided appetizer instead. Managers being the type to not want a customer to call the home office and get them fired, she got her wish.

The moral? The customer is always right. Bitch enough and ye shall recieve free things. I, on the other hand, dont put up with that kind of shit as easily. At least I say so.

Peppers, the fun place to work

2006-04-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

Peppers is a pretty popular bar and grill in my area and ive worked here for 3 years so far. I started up from a host before I was of age to wait tables and almost as soon as I turned 18, I got into the waiting game. Fun? Sometimes. Ill admit. Sometimes this place has been the last place I wanted to be. Most of the time its my second home though.

Anyway, my whole point of this blog is to vent and show what its like from my perspective when a patron comes into Peppers. Im not saying im treated terribly by every customer, sometimes they are very nice. It varies based on the person and day. Remember that when you come in, you effect other people.

So heres my first story. Ready?

Yesterday I was waiting tables in cocktail. If you dont know, since Peppers is a bar AND grill, they separate the two areas. Its not allowed by the state to have just a bar. Or so ive heard. It was about 9:00 pm and it slowed down really fast. So as the server mentality goes, if its slow, I want it really slow. If its busy, I want it really busy. I only wanted to finish up the tables I had and go home. That never happens.

I had this fairly young looking couple walk in and sit down (cocktail is self seating, JOY). The guy immediately orders a jim beam and sprite. A manly drink that really isnt manly. I ask to see his ID, he reaches to get it. The lady orders a corona, yum. I ask her for her ID. She says that she doesnt have it. "I cant give you a drink unless you have your ID"

Ok, she looked over 21. But Ive seen 3 people fired for serving without carding. She could have been 20 and smoking since she was twelve. Our rule is, if you arent obviously grey, card them. Its my job, its what I am supposed to do. What is the responce I recieve? "Fuck this place. Youre 40 and cant get a drink? Fuck this place"

He proceeds to get up, and leave. Is it that important to drink? How can you get so mad at me for doing my job? As he left with his woman friend, I say very sternly "Thanks for coming! Have a good night!" and waved like an idiot.

My thought, one less table I have to serve. Sure I need money, but it didnt look like he was going to give me much. The moral is bring your ID.