Wow! It’s been over a week since I posted anything.
The truth is, I’ve just been tired and strung out and
overwhelmed by the café for the past few weeks, and I think my tales of
woe are probably getting a little boring. I so desperately need a couple
of weeks where I can just put it on cruise-control and give myself a
little bit of a rest. Unfortunately, this "economic downturn" (read Bush
Administration cluster-f**k) we’ve been experiencing has kept me
chained to the restaurant, whether I am there or not. I cannot afford to
take labor costs, food costs, or sales for granted, not even for part
of a day.
Take yesterday, for example. First day of the Memorial
Day weekend. Last year’s numbers indicate that we will not be
particularly busy. People on their way out of town and all that.
So, after a slow lunch grinds to a close, I look
around and decide that there’s no reason to keep my tired body upright
any longer than necessary. I outline detailed instructions to the good
and faithful "D," and head for home. Where I promptly fall asleep in my
recliner. Husband arrives home a few hours later, and we decide to mosey
over to the café and let them feed us dinner.
We arrive. We sit. The place is not exactly hoppin’,
but it’s not empty either. We order our dinner, and a few more parties
come wandering in. As we wait for our food, it becomes obvious that the
floor staff is getting a little overwhelmed, so we pop up and down,
greeting and seating folks, take them drinks…take their orders…
Our food has hit our table, but we are nowhere near
it. There are seven tickets hanging in the kitchen, and nothing coming
out. No salads, no soups…I sneak back into the kitchen to help, and the
head cook starts a litany of all the things we are out of (already.) Out
of lasagna. Out of spaghetti noodles. Out of chicken parmesan. Out of
soup. Almost out of salad greens. As I run around trying to re-stock the
entire kitchen while we are trying to get orders out, I wonder WTF they
were doing this afternoon during the two and a half hours I wasn’t
here. Within ten minutes, I am speed-warming soup, have two pots of
water going for more pasta, and am flinging instructions out to the
husband in the service area, where he has set up our portable butane
burner in order to cook more marinara and Alfredo sauce.
Our dinner has
been whisked off our table and thrown into the warmer, where it will
heat up and dry out until such time as we can resume our meal.
So…..augh! It was busy, and it wasn’t pretty. And we
had to comp some stuff. But I think all the patrons left happy. If it
took too long for them to get their food, we acknowledged it and tried
to make them happy. Not like in some places where your server hides in
the kitchen until your food comes out, and you never hear so much as a
"sorry this took so long." I don’t know if we recruited any regular
customers last night. But I think we at least didn’t make any enemies.
And this morning…we were all prepped and ready for a
busy day. But last years numbers lied to us once again (surprise); so
here I am sitting in my recliner and finishing up this post I was too
tired to wrap up last night.
I would like to tear my hair out, but it’s sunny and
it’s a holiday weekend…so I think I’m just gonna go have some fun and
relax while I can. I’m sure some kind of big disaster will come up
before the weekend is over…
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