Dreams and Quitting

I now not only waitress every morning and afternoon, but also in my sleep.  I can't seem to get away from it.  I had a waitressing nightmare in which I was serving on a cruise ship.  The chef was the head chef from the Bar, and he wasn't telling me table numbers, and I was under a huge time crunch.  I had to run the foods literally a quarter of a mile to get to mystery tables full of people complaining.  It's always good to be stressed all day and all night.

The second was about the Mexican place.  They moved their location to a area under a tent, where recreational marijuana use was happening with a band playing.  I was mostly just confused and worried because the owner told me they moved there because I hadn't cleaned the tables well enough that evening (??).

Our tacos look pretty similar, but they are on double corn tortillas with pico de gallo and whatever meat you ask for, no lettuce.  Our fish tacos, probably one of the most popular items, come with lettuce, cabbage, chipotle cream sauce, and pico de gallo.

I was literally seconds away from quitting the Mexican Place the other day.  I am fed up with doing 80% of the work and splitting the tips evenly, one cook treated me quite inappropriately, one of the busboys texts all night so I have to stay late and do his work, and I HATE that it's there's no real system for the waitresses, it's far too casual, and therefore there are so many mistakes made.

I applied for another job at a breakfast location, and headed over to the Mexican Place to start the day.  I found out shortly after that the cook quit, and we're not pooling tips anymore.  On top of that, the other waitress is leaving, and we have hired a much more competent one (a retired woman who has 8 years of waitressing experience).  The other waitress was supposed to train the new one today, but she, as always, did nothing.  I helped Jody- the new waitress- out as much as possible, teaching her abbreviations, questions to ask customers on different dishes, etc.  I think I'll get along with her really well, she's super nice and a great worker.  She also gave me a ride home because it was raining.   So I'm still at the Mexican place.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I'm working at the Mexican Place and then the Bar at night,

Friday and Saturday I'm working at the Mexican Place all day.

It's not like I'm working enough already, right?

-T.H.

Sunday Service

I had my first full non-training waitressing service at the bar on Sunday night.  Usually Sundays are dead because everybody is heading home for the weekend, so I wasn't too worried.  I had four tables, and there were two other waitresses that evening, neither of which I'm "close" to, but one of which is very friendly to me.  The other is very pregnant and can come off as very moody.  There was no manager on and the owner doesn't come in on Sundays (usually a good thing- he gets in the way).  The evening turned out to be hellish.

My first few tables were fine, but then one table came in where EVERYTHING went wrong.  I totally forgot about their drinks for like five minutes (forever time when you're sitting and waiting for them, I'm sure), and the kitchen took a really long time getting out their appetizer, a small Caesar salad.  They asked me for a burger that was pink in the middle, so I suggested medium and sent it to the kitchen.  Apparently it was TOO pink when they got it, so they sent it back to the kitchen, and by that time, they just wanted it packed to go.  The kitchen apologized to me for that, and I had to comp their salad.  I apologized to them many times over, and the woman was very sympathetic and said she knew it wasn't my fault.

Amusingly, a very young woman (early to mid 20s) asked me what the shy-i-take was on a certain pizza.  I had to contain myself as I explained that "shiitake" is a type of mushroom.

Another table consisted of three young men (early 20s) who came in and ordered a barrage of drinks, appetizers, and entrees.  One fellow asked if he could substitute the vegetables with his entree for the risotto, I said I would ask the kitchen.  The kitchen told me it would be a two dollar add-on.  I didn't head right back to that table, with three other tables, I had other things to worry about.  The young man flagged me down a few minutes later (his two friends were outside taking a smoke break) and asked me about the risotto.  I told him that we could do it, and about the add on.  When I told him about the two dollars, he seemed very hesitant.  "Oh.... okay... uhm... oh."  I asked him if he still wanted the risotto, and he said yes.  A little while later, one of the more assertive young men called me over, and said that they did not know that the risotto would be two dollars extra.  I could tell that they were trying to get it comped, and I was not fazed.  I told him that the kitchen let me know that it would be two dollars extra, and I told the man who ordered it.  Furthermore, the kitchen was still working on their entrees and hadn't even MADE it yet, so I could take it off now if they wanted me to.  They backed off, defeated.

At the end of the meal, they wanted their checks separated by seat (a pain in my ass, since I had to remember who ordered how many drinks, what appetizers, etc.)  When I brought the checks over, one man, the one with the risotto add on, said "Holy shit!", surprised by the price.  He had ordered  a vodka cranberry, crab cakes, filet mignon, and the risotto, and his check was $54.00.  The bar is pretty high end, I don't know why he would be so surprised when he ordered the FILET with the prices clearly on the menu....  They then requested that I put some items on different checks and swap things around, which we just can't do.  I didn't even look at whatever tip they may have left me.

It would have been nice to have the manager or owner in that evening, as one table got VERY angry.  I was thankful the table wasn't my own.  According to the customer, the pregnant waitress spilled hot food on them, made them wait an hour for bread, gave them burned food, and didn't apologize for anything.  They complained to the bar tender, who called the manager to find out what to do.  I'm not exactly sure if the whole meal was comped, or what exactly happened.  I know that they stayed for around two hours longer and ate dessert.  The complaining man did approach me earlier and asked me if I could bring bread to the table, because he had been waiting for so long.  I started to cut it, and told him that I would bring it to him.  He responded with "I've been spilled on, and not waited on, I can't trust anybody anymore, I'll just bring it myself!"  After all that (and I brought hummus to the table with the bread) the family was very grateful to me and thanked me profusely.

According to preggo, she spilled mussel juice on the ground and it splashed up onto the man's leg.  She apologized and asked if she could do anything about it, and they said no.  I don't know how that's going to be resolved.

The kitchen is supposed to close at 9:30, but for some reason the hostess sat somebody at 9:45.  I don't know WHY I got stuck with this table, a deuce that wasn't even in my section, but I had it.  They ordered apps, entrees, AND dessert, and while I'm supposed to be able to go home at around 10, I was at the restaurant until TWELVE.  The couple was very nice to me, and said they were so sorry about making me stay late, etc etc.  They didn't leave me any phenomenal tip, however.  I was the only waitress left, and the bar was cleaning up when I left to go home.

I went home and passed out from exhaustion.  Made about 100 in tips.  Worth it?

I'm baaack.

So quite a few things have happened since my last post. I am no longer working at the cafe, but now at a Mexican restaurant and a bar/restaurant.

I started not feeling well one day at the cafe, I knew I was coming down with something, my throat was hurting and I could sense this was not just a cold.  I told the managers about it, they gave me some tea and told me to drink it all night.  The next day, it hurt to breathe.  I called in sick, and they sounded less than sympathetic on the phone.  Since I have just moved and don't have a regular doctor here, I had to try to find someone who would take a walk in.  With no success, the next morning at 7 am we drove an hour to get an appointment with the CVS minute clinic.  The rapid test said no strep-- so I drove back to work, even though I was in agony.

I walked in, ready to start the day, when the managers dropped the bomb on me.  They were letting me go because they thought I was too overwhelmed with the work.  I was really upset about this-- I had done so much work for them, memorized absolutely everything, and was doing FAR more work than the job description required.

Disappointed, I went home and received a call from CVS saying that I did have strep throat.  They prescribed penicillin 2 times a day.  A week later, I was still awake at 4 o'clock in the morning, putting ice cubes in my mouth and crying because it hurt so badly.  I have never had strep before.  I headed back to my old home to see my regular doctor, and found out that I was being severely under medicated.  CVS should have had me taking the medicine 3-4 times a day.  I went on a huge dose of medicine with codeine and such, and after an extra full week, I was finally feeling better.

I job hunted for a few days, walking up and down the main street and applying to the few businesses that were hiring.  On a whim, I stopped in at a hip bar/restaurant which I was always too intimidated to enter before. I filled out an application and left.  Then I headed over to a new Mexican restaurant.  I had had their food before, it's super amazing with very fresh ingredients, and I had talked to the owner a few times before.  I asked if they were hiring, and he told me to start working that moment.  It worked for me.  I speak Spanish, so I can communicate much better with the Argentinian chefs, whose English isn't the greatest.  In the middle of the shift that day, I got a call from the bar-- the manager wanted me to start training the next day, even though she had never met me in person or given me an interview!

I just finished training on Sunday, and will work busing and waitressing shifts at The Bar (will refer to the establishment as such from now on) on Sundays and Thursdays and any other days that waitresses want off.  It's pretty easy.  Everything has a system, and it has a nice ambiance, even though the music is a bit loud, making it difficult to take orders.

The Mexican Place is very laid back.  No dress code, you work when you want and leave when you want, and there's no real system for taking orders.  That's the one thing that irks me, we don't have our own section of tables, and the owner insists on taking some orders-- and NEVER writes down what table they are going to, so we have to guess when they come out of the kitchen.  I get free food all day from the Place, and it's either extremely dead, or HECTIC as hell.  We also pool tips, which annoys me because sometimes customers find me specifically and hand me a large tip.  The other waitresses are less enthusiastic and personal with customers, which just hurts me.

Nothing I can do about that.
Anyways, I'll be posting when I'm not exhausted from working both jobs, as I do have some interesting stories to impart.
Muchas gracias,
T.H.

Update

Ah, it's been a little while, I have been slacking on posts here.
Well, a lot has changed.  I suppose other posts will explain more, but for now, the bigger things.
Cathy was fired.
Her replacement?
Yours truly.
I am the official COUNTER GIRL.

Which isn't completely a bad thing because when I saw how busy it gets, I wanted to cry for them.  It's crazy stuff, especially for me, an inexperienced waitress.  What this means for me, however, is more hours/days, less stress, and a constant baseline salary plus (OMG DOLLARBILL) counter tips, which actually do add up to about an hour or more worth of working a day.

And unlike Cathy, I do try to help out as much as possible when I have nothing specifically to do.  Making up tea bags from loose tea leaves, helping with drinks, serving, busing, cleaning.  I'm trying to organize their crazy stock room and other such things.  If I help enough on busy days, the waitresses give me 10% of their tips.  It works out just fine for me.

I do act as a waitress if somebody needs to be covered, but not during any really busy time.  Things are okay with the job.  Thursday and Friday are my days off, but the days go by quickly.

Hopefully I will be posting with more frequency again shortly, probably with customer pet peeves.
Enjoy your meal,
-T.H.

This is exactly what I look like whilst serving people.  Spot on.

Small Things.

It's the little things that get me through the day.
A very young girl was in the cafe with her family, sporting a bright baseball cap and a Hello Kitty t-shirt.
I have a soft spot for little Asian babies/small children.  I don't know why.  Probably because they have the most pinch-able cheeks and look far more innocent than anything else in the world.

Anyways, I always try to engage with the children at least a bit, even though they're usually super shy or playing a video game right at the table.
I cautiously told the girl "Your shirt is so pretty!  I love Hello Kitty!"
She shot right back at me, "I love Hello Kitty more than you do!"
It was more of a fact than her being defensive.  It made my day.  I followed up with a large smile and "I bet you do!"

There were no interesting customers today except a woman who asked me for no particular reason if I just got married.  I wasn't wearing a ring of any sort, and hadn't said anything remotely marriage related.  I don't know that I should post a ranting post, which is the only thing banging around in my skull.  We'll see where the blog posting gods take me.
-T.H.

Father's Day

Sent home early today because it was so slow in the cafe.  What kind of society are we turning into, where fathers don't demand tea on holidays?  What blasphemy is this, I ask you?

I met the busboy (BB) today, he's 15 and related to all of them.  Nice kid.  I figured he would slum around in the kitchen all day with his cellphone, but he actually stayed in the front of the house with Cathy and I when he had no dishes to wash.  I think BB has a little crush on me; it's cute.  Every time he came back from the kitchen he would wave enthusiastically and say hello to me.
BB: I waved at you!
TH:  Yes, I noticed.
BB:  You didn't wave back!
TH:  I just saw you five minutes ago.  I'm sorry.  I'll wave back from now on.
A little strange, but I'll chalk it up to weird hormones.

A customer came in to get an iced coffee to go, and when he put a dollar in the tip jar, Cathy ACTUALLY exclaimed OUT LOUD, IN FRONT OF HIM:
"Finally!  A dollar!"
I wanted to apologize to him, I felt completely embarrassed.  I gave a wimpy smile and mumbled for him to have a good day instead.

I headed out at 2:30, with good intentions of doing some work at home, but promptly fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.  My next day off is Wednesday.  So sore, considering getting a massage.

-T.H.

Counter Girl

Chatty Cathy is a just-turned-18 redhead with an immature air about her who, you guessed it, loves to talk.

Cathy has a job position which is new for The Cafe, working the counter.  What she is supposed to do is seat people, keep track of the seating charts, ring up checks, and take care of retail orders.  Since there isn't a lot of that right now, she does a whole lot of nothing.  We ask her to do some things for us, like pour waters for a table or something of the sort, but she mostly just stands around talking or singing to herself.  

When I am working, no matter the job, I always like to stay busy.  If I'm on the clock, I only feel content if I'm doing SOMETHING.  So I'm always looking out over The Cafe to make sure that customers aren't looking for assistance and everything is running smoothly.  Cathy prefers to talk to me while I'm doing this.  While I'm typing in complicated orders on the register (which she should really be doing), she talks to me.  While I'm trying to make three different pots of loose leaf tea, each with their own sides of lemon, honey, milk, a timer, tea cups, saucers, and tea spoons, she talks to me.  I'm good at multitasking, but I CAN'T reply to you while I'm trying to keep track of orders in my head!  Cathy's nice enough, don't get me wrong.

There's a small tip jar on the front counter, and she frequently checks this while customers are around, which I personally find quite tacky.  She complains all the time about how there are no dollar bills in it, and makes a big ordeal out of counting out the change in her tips before she leaves.  CATHY, you are not considered a tipped employee!  You are paid minimum wage!  I will soon have to start relying on tips, and if she continues this, I will go crazy.  If you are unhappy with the tips you are getting, pay more attention to the customers who are walking in the door.  If I don't have anything that I need to do right away and a customer comes in, wandering to the front counter and not sure of whether they want to eat here, to go, or whatever, I always try to hook them in, offering a menu for them to look at, a to-go menu if they'd like to return, showing them the pastries in the display case, answering questions... she does none of this, and is quite abrupt with the customers.

Cathy, once you take orders, make sure the kitchen is on top of your food, type in your own checks, serve your food, check on customers, make complicated drinks, and bus tables, THEN you can complain to me about have no dollars in your tip jar.

I sound like a jaded waitress already.  Success.

Teenagers.

I did very well today!  I took some tables by myself, I only have a few more things to memorize before everything is down pat.

One man asked for half and half with his coffee, which yesterday manager A told me we would just make ourselves, pouring half milk and half cream into a small pitcher.  When he ordered it, A told me that we actually had some, and procured it from the kitchen.  A few moments after the drinks were served at the table, it looked as though something was wrong... I walked over, and the cream had curdled in his coffee.  I felt AWFUL, and apologized profusely.  He said it wasn't a problem and didn't look too upset.  Even though it technically wasn't my fault, and the date on the half and half was fine, I still felt really badly.

It was a bit of a slow day.  We had quite a few bigger parties, but nothing extraordinary.  The problem with the big party of tourists is that usually they come in, not sure if they want to sit or not, while other people in their 'group' are still shopping on the main street.  The original group sits, orders, and then all of a sudden their friends/family/herd of long lost cousins comes in and wants to join them, after the original food order is already sent in to the kitchen and the check is in the system.  It's not too much of a pain, though.

What WAS a pain was that at 4:45 (we close at 5), a group of ten teenagers came in.  They insisted that they didn't need tables put together-- we only have four tops and two tops.  They sat at three tables, only ordered one slice of cake and a bit of tea, and asked for separate checks for everybody.  THAT was annoying.  After painstakingly entering each of their check amounts alone, they ended up leaving a total collective tip of one cent.   Even though I'm not making tips right now.... THANKS, GUYS.

We generally get an older crowd, so hopefully this won't be a common occurrence.

A also told me that British folks either tip close to nothing or ask for change-- apparently they don't do tipping over there.  Fancy pants.

Day One: Training

Today I shadowed one of the owners of the cafe as she acted as a waitress.  I bused tables, made tea, served, and tried to pitch in any other way I could.

I found out that I'll be paid minimum wage with no tips instead of as a tipped employee until the first week of July.   The owners said because it's slow right now, I wouldn't make too much on waitressing.

It was a pretty good day, mostly locals in the beginning, but then it picked up.  I'm hoping that I'll get accustomed to the small details soon.

Only one bizarre thing really happened.  There are homemade cupcakes and other pastries on the front counter, with signs and prices.  An elderly person came in and asked about our dessert selection... while we were listing them, she started just... eating the cupcakes. She left frosting all over the front counter, and when she saw that, she wiped it up with her finger and spread it under the front counter, like an 8th grader hiding gum under a desk.  She finally ordered a slice of cake and sat down at a table.  She opened some packets of Splenda and spilled them over her table.  We charged her for her cupcakes and cake, and when she turned to leave, she suddenly turned back and ordered a crabmeat salad.  I don't think that her mind was all there.

I'm exhausted, and going in early tomorrow for a staff meeting.
Hopefully all goes well.
Enjoy your meal,
T.H.

About this blog

Today is my first day of training at a restaurant working as a waitress in a tourist town.  I do want to record my experiences, but I usually give up on handwritten journals in just a few days.  I'm hoping to write about my life daily on this blog, we'll see how that works out.

All names will be changed, etc. etc.

And yes, the blog title is shamelessly ripped off of an old British comedy.  The title will probably be changed at some point, if you have any somewhat creative ideas for the title, feel free to contribute.

I'm sarcastic and genuine, but I can certainly charm people.  Let's hope this is going to work in my favor.  I've had some serving experience at a family camp (which also included scrubbing toilets--- but that's a story for another day.

Heretofore, I will lovingly reference myself as "T.H.", or "The Help".  A moniker for my bosses, co-workers, and restaurant will soon be established.

Today is my first day of training.  after listening to a few energizing Queen songs and putting on make up to make myself look halfway decent, I think I'm ready to do my shadowing work for the day.

Enjoy your meal!
T.H.