Saturday Nights in the City

There is a reason I prefer not to work on the weekend and I realized this once again after the night from hell I had last night.

I had one of my favorite sections. It is a row of three circle booths along the kitchen wall that can fit up to 6 people in along with a table in the corner that can also flip up to fit 6. This section can be great money and it is near the kitchen so it can be very easy as well. Last night, however, it was neither of these two things.

I had 2 tables in the first hour or so I was there which were both fairly easy. Both had kids at them so the checks were relatively low, but nothing too bad and they weren't super needy. Once both of these tables finished it got crazy. I got sat with a 6 top, followed by another 6 top about 5 min later, followed by a double seating of a 4 and a 5 top within 10 min after that. Now normally even just 5 or 10 min in between is enough time to space out my tables so everything runs smoothly, but not tonight. Of course every single table only ordered drinks from the bar so I couldn't simply grab their sodas for them quickly, I had to wait for the bartenders to mix lemonades and martinis. I usually prefer these drinks obviously because its an up-sell from soda, however not when the bartenders take their sweet ass time to make the drinks and rather chat with their bar customers. One of my drinks ticket times was 15 minutes. Yea...

So this makes all my tables run into each other with timing things. Drinks were slow to be made and thus, slow to get to them. Which of course is my fault in their eyes even when I try to explain that the bar is backed up. Everything after that just happened so fast. Every table had multiple courses and needed multiple extra things. They ordered multiple rounds of drinks, but not all together, one person after another. It was all just a mess.

On the bright side, no food came out badly except one lady just did not like her lobster tail but that was towards the end of this chaos anyway. Management of course was no where to be found all night. I literally search for 20 minutes at one point for a manager. On a Saturday night at 8pm. Because, ya know being on the floor isn't like their job or anything.

What really frustrated me about this night was that I was running like crazy doing everything I could do. I was never standing around goofing off or anything. I was always running with a smile on my face and my tables must have been blind not to notice that at all, since they were all right next to each other. And yet, one of my 6 tops, a family mind you, tipped me 10% and wrote on the heck "Bad service!!!" Wow... Now this was the table with the 15 minute drinks. They also orders like 4 courses. No complaints about food. The only real problem was the slow drinks and not everything was bussed IMMEDIATELY after they finished eating, although they were hardly sitting for extended amounts of time with dirty dishes. They were also eating right in the middle of our dinner rush on a Saturday night in the city. I'm not sure what was so horrible about the service that the grandpa felt the need to write me the lovely little note but I wish they would say something to me rather than act nice and let me look like an idiot being all chatty and smiley when really they're apparently pretty pissed. That bothered me a lot.

I received 10% from a few other tables too. A bunch of 20/30 ish year old girls all dressed up and needy as hell that didn't tell me until I dropped the check that they want it split and half of them don't even tip on their portions.

And after this rush of tables from hell, my manager tells me and another server "you guys are cut" and I go thank God, because although I made no money, I was so done. So I rolled my napkins, did all my sidework, cashed out and as I was getting my sidework and everything signed out, a server tells me I'm not cut and the two tables that were sat in my section are in fact mine. I was so confused. My manager then says "I never said you were cut." What???? So I didn't want to argue at all beause I was too exhausted and I did need the money, so I took the tables and made and extra $50 which was good but still. I was stunded. Management in this place is extremely lacking.

Sorry for the disorganization of this post, it was more of a rant that I do not care to go back now and edit...