valentines weekend

Valentines weekend, for a restaurant owner one of the biggest weekends of the year, and the busiest weekends of the year. All the hustle and bustle of couples going out early to beat the crowds on the big "V-Day". That's cool. Thankfully my wife and i don't have to work on V-Day so we are planning a full day of going out and doing stuff. I'm actually really looking forward to it.

But anyways today was a VERY long day. I went in at 11:45 this morning and left at 11:30 tonight. with a short break thrown in there. (I think that we're supposed to get one legally...)
and of course there are a few things that i was thinking of today that i could blog about tonight. first of all i want to say that this blog is going to be from my personal point of view. I try to have a good attitude throughout the shift and try to make the guest at my table feel welcomed too, but i do hear from other servers what type of people they deal with. SO this is from my perspective..
Lets talk about a busy weekend such as this one! we, servers, get that you, the guest, sometimes have to wait a while before getting sat at a table, and when you do get sat your sever isn't ALWAYS there EVERY TIME you need them to be. But please do realize that we, servers, have typically about 8-12 OTHER PEOPLE including you that we have to wait on too. patience is a virtue.
tonight though, for me anyways, was not too shabby. i was exhausted from closing the lunch shift but during my short break i was able to get a redbull and you know what they say about those..."redbull, it gives you wings!" so i was having a great time seeing all the people on dates and stuff celebrating the big v-day together. besides some pretty poopy tips i also had some pretty good ones too. so thats cool.
but there are some things that i wrote down today that i wanted to talk about here. i don't even know who if anyone reads this, but its just something that i wanted to get off my chest.
so like i said for the most part my day wasn't that bad...at dinner...lunch was kinda crazy. it wasn't really busy but i kept having to pick up other tables in other sections which is ok because every table is money to a server.
My lunch shift started great. i was in a great mood and all and then around 1:30 and 2pm i had a table that was extremely rude. (word to the wise, don't be rude to the one that handles your food and can make your life not so good.) but like i said before, i try to have a good attitude and then when i go in the back, i let it out. :) so this guy was really rude and just kind of pushed the wrong button on Jon today. but anyways i'm not bitter or anything, i promise. :)
But lets just say that you go out and something doesn't quite go your way, please don't lash out at your server.
The one thing about this couple that really bothered me was that there was no communication, unless there was a complaint. every time i went to the table they were sitting there on their cool little smart phones. which brings me to say this, if you're going out with your significant other, talk with them. listen to them. if your cool smart phone is more important than your relationship with him/her, then it's not going to be to long before it's just you and your phone.
I really like my new phone i got, but i don't get on it when i'm out with my wife.
another thing that any server will think that i would like to talk about is "sitters"
"SITTERS: people who sit at a table well after they have already payed for their food, and cause the server to stay well after he or she had too." We get it that sometimes you just want to sit and talk to people that you don't always get to see, but that's what Starbucks, or your house, is there for. especially on a busy night try to be considerate that there are other people waiting for a table too. AND the main thing here is "Tables = Money " for servers. so if you're taking up our table with chatting you're causing us not to make rent. And i'm not trying to be a jerk or inconsiderate of you, the guest. no. that's what this whole blog is all about. Just letting you know what we servers go through, and think, sometimes...

One thing i did want to say, and this is not because my GM told me he was going to be reading this, but for real. I really do appreciate the management at Mac Grill. The whole team, i think, are the best managers i have ever worked for. i know that if i ever need anything, or am in trouble with a guest, i can go to them and they will help me out. i joke around a bit, but when i say this, i am being as for real as real can be. after working for some doozies, and hearing about some of my friends managers, i really am thankful for the leadership that we have at the mac shack.

So i know this was a lot. i don't know that i ever typed this much before. and i don't know that anyone even read this or finished reading. But if you made it through to this part, thank you. and hopefully next time you go out you'll know a little bit more about what your server is giong through.