Training was an eye opening expericance for me because it was mid September and there was still a small amount of summer traffic in Destin, Fl so it meant we ( at the Lobster Cage ) were very busy. For the record, I should have mentioned this earlier on but there is no resturant called the Lobster Cage in Destin, Fl. I dont yet know how my current place of business feels about me blogging so to protect my, uh arse, and their good name I made up a fake name for the resturant I work at.Im also changing the names of the real employees there to protect their identities. I feel thats the classy and fair thing to do. I was put on two day time training shifts, and two evening training shifts and I had to train on the expo line. For those of you who have never waited tables let me regale you with a basic understanding of it all.
Day Shift= You arrive at 10 am do prep work for opening until 11 and you wait tables during the lunch and early evening. Usually till around 3:30pm unless its slow and they they begin to take people off the floor.
Evening Shift= You arrive at 3:30pm and work until the dinner crowd has come and gone. Instead of doing prep work before your shift you do it at the end when you are good and tired and sick to death of being there.
Expo= You are the one that adds all the side items and side dipping items to every entree that comes up in the window after being grilled, fried, steamed, blackened, or broiled. The cooks pop it up there you add all the stuff on the side and tray it up for the server. If its not french fries or hush puppies on that plate of meat either someone working that expo shift or your server themselves placed those morsels on your plate. If you order a soup or salad you can bet your booty that the waitress is back there prepping that for you herself. Expo shift workers only work on days predicted to be busy such as holiday weeks, spring break, and summer. Without them it would be a cluster bomb and your food would take forever. PS, yes they have clean hands and gloves.
It took me two weeks to complete these 5 simple shifts of training because of Chads schedule and we were sharing one car at the time ( damn you car that broke and retard that worked on it!!! ) but The Lobster Cage was obliging and I survived it with only mild traumatization. Oh Shannon stop being dramatic. It was not traumatizing. HA! Shows what you know!!! Im an old not so in shape girl who had been sitting on her ass infront of a computer for the past 5 years!!!!! and before that I wasnt running this much!
Durning the day you are in charge of 4 tables and at night you are in charge of 3. Sometimes those 3 or 4 tables can seat 10 to 20 per table.. and some of them only seat 4. When you are on a wait like we were when I first started you are constantly being sat ( thats when the hostess seats someone in your section of assigned tables) Rotation of section is normally followed but people that choose to be picky about where the hostess seats them can cause you to be double if not triple sat. Thats right. You can have any where from 8 to 10 or MORE people being sat in your section all at once. All thirsty, all expecting you to great them, and get their meal process going. Dont forget you have to smile, stand there in a floral coral reef looking shirt with bursting pride, and make them feel welcome. All things I am pretty good at.. until frazzled. Let me give you a synapsys of how this can go if you get double or triple sat and get stressed.
" Good afternoon ya'll Im Shannon and Ill be taking care of you today! What may I get everyone to drink? Got it two teas a water and a cocktail with a water. you want your tea half sweet and half unsweet? sure, ok, yes I can do that" another table just sitting down in your section catches your eye and your run back to the back to place the first tables drink order in the system and prepare the non-alcoholic drinks yourself. Thats right. You order some bullshit like a half lemonade and half sweet tea Im the one making it wondering why in the hell you would honestly go out to dinner and order something this stupid. Ill smile and make it anyway because thats my job but really? Stop being a dumbass and just order normal drinks. You collect the drinks you made plus Table 1's drinks at the bar, drop them off and as you pass by Table 2 who has now been sitting there for about 3 mins you smile, let them know you will be right with them and drop off the drinks at Table 1. Table 1 is usually ready to order an appetizer by then or depending if they are regulars they are ready to order their entire meal. You list the specials and take the appetizer order usually and then go place that in the system but on the way to do this you stop by Table 2 and get their drink orders. 4 different kinds of cocktails and waters? got it! You find an available POS system ( yes thats wh1at they are called ) and input Table 1's appetizer order and Table 2's drink order. You make the waters for Table 2, tray them up, stop by the bar and grab their cocktails and drop them off and then let them know you will be right back with them because Table 1 has just had their appetizer come up in the window and out the corner of your eye you see Table 3 being sat. Ok go grab the appetizer, drop that off and take Table 1's dinner order, approach Table 2\ and see if they are intereseted in the specials and then let them order dinner or an appetizer for now or both. On the way to input Table 1's dinner order and whatever Table 2 decided to order, you also stop by Table 3, smile, introduce yourself and take their drink orders. Walk back to the back, get an available POS system enter this all in, run drinks to Table 3 take the appetizer order to Table 2 and then by this time the dinner order is usually up for Table 1. So you grab the appetizer order or appetizer and dinner order for Table 3 and run back, enter this in the system and tray up your food in the back, run it out trying not to drop all of it, not to slip and fall on a slippery floor, and trying to make sure that you serve everyone what they ordered starting with the ladies first. Ok so Table 1 has their food and its time for Table 2's food to come up. Oh wait whats that? Table 1 and 2 both need refills on drinks. You do this and then run Table 2's food. By this time Table 3 usually needs more to drink. You people thinking that sweet tea actually quenches thirst so you drink 2 pounds of it.... silliness. Anyway you refill drinks, run food to Table 3. Inhale.. Exhale. Keep checking to see if drinks need refilling, more is needed from the bar, sides of tarter sauce, drawn butter, ranch, or remeloude are needed. Ok great you want dessert! We have great dessert! Ill be right back with that. I cut you a peice of cake or pie and decorate and and run it out myself and at the same time drop off your bill and to go boxes. This is a case of when everything is going smoothly. If you order soup, salad, hate the food the kitchen made, keep asking me for random things you initially forgot to order it creates a shit storm of insanity. If all of your customers sat down together, and everyone is on a separate check at individual tables, smooth sailing almost never happens for a new waitress trying to keep it all under control. This cycle goes on until everyone that is there to eat is seated, served, has paid, and has left. Then at the end of your shift you get to clean out the soup line, the expo line, the front drink area, the back drink area, sweep your section, fill your ketchup and cocktail sauces, clean your lids on your hot sauce bottles, cash all your tickets in, tip your buss boy and your expo and your bartender out. Try to ignore your feet are hurting like they havent in years and that you probably have rice pilaf in your hair and smell like crab and sweat you get to go home. Thats a GOOD night.
If you think this was an easy thing for a girl who only dealt with overwhelming email and phone calls was easy to catch on to you are absolutely dilluted. Its taken a little bit. Its January and I have been doing this since September and I am just now confident to handle a holiday rush or a busier than normal day at work. Im terrified of summer when people have been in the sun all day, they come in a wait 2 hours ( yes TWO HOURS sometimes) for a table and they are moody, you are behind, and trying to catch up catering to wave after wave of happy tourists. For all of you that dont understand this I want to talk about my fellow waitstaff. I work with some college kids, college graduates, people that have been doing this for years and are making a great living at it, and people that have worked their way to management from positions lower on the totem pole than mine. Its HARD and HONEST work. Sure we laugh, cut up to relieve the physical stress, and mental stress of catering to strangers, but they earn those amazing and sometimes awful tips left. Believe me.
From here I am just going to start telling you about my workdays going forward. My blog entires will be of days prepping for summer, stupid shit that happens to me because of dealing face to face with people, and my struggle to smile and not cross the cooks window and choke someone out because of the dumbest arguements you can imagine. I have 10 weeks until Spring Break hits and Summer season hits to learn to master this trade and then 26 weeks of hard works that will consist of hot days with no A/C, endless hordes of tourists, and double shifts. Thats right working from 10 am until ??? Join me on this journey of personal growth and stepping back into a job that is both physically and mentally demanding. First Story will debut Monday, January 9th, 2011.
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