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So because GM wanted me to start with a few other newbies because it makes paperwork/payroll all that jazz easier I start again tonight. Why he thinks its a good idea to train new FoH staff over dinner on NYE, I do not understand, but he did say something about training a GM to replace him, so this may be a final "gently caress you" to the store as well. All I know is he called me and went "You still wanting hours? Great, I really need back of house tonight" On the bright side, since it's a short-order place, it's not going to be super busy, but still. To all of you working in the sort of upscale places that get packed on this and valentines day, good luck to you all.
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Dec 31, 2013 19:04
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We've got 300 on the books for tonight. That's a slow Friday night in July or a solid one in October. Our last rezzo is 10:30. We're doing offering a 4 course mar y tierra menu with complimentary sparkling wine. It's going to be a happy new year.
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Dec 31, 2013 20:55
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I get off work at 7:30 tonight and our business doesn't ever get hectic until after my shift, which is good news for me in the stress department. The questionable part is whether we'll get busy, period, since we're not in the 'entertainment district' where all the revelers are going to be, mostly rely on students who are presumably still home with their families, and focus on delivery orders. (Because our corporate masters decided to place us in an urban sprawl zone just off campus rather than one of the pretty historic buildings downtown. All because we want to capture student business. Well you know what? Pick one: stable, predictable numbers, or student feast/famine cycle.) On one hand, telling my night crew to have stuff prepared for a midnight madness would be good if we get one, but if we don't, prep for a mad rush is much different than prep for the next morning or even normal baking schedule. My gut says we're gonna get blue balled again. Fortunately, there's no corporate mandate saying we need to waste money on extra labor tonight. I'll do my morning prep early, tell the night crew that they can use it if they get hammered, and go get hammered myself. Happy New Year!
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Dec 31, 2013 21:29
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300 NYE tickets sold, no walk-ins allowed, on top of what promises to be a busy dinner service. Flappers and Dappers 20's themed, mixing classic cocktails (vespers, sazeracs, bees knees, daiquiris, champagne cocktails) all night. I'm in for the long haul - got here at 4 and I'll be out by 1230 if I'm lucky. We had a 30s theme for our Prohibition party earlier this month and it blew up. We were slammed at the bar and it was a blast. Everybody else out there break a leg, happy new year industry family!
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Jan 1, 2014 03:30
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I'm at a one of the highest end cocktail bars in this city and watching a stream of assholes complain about them not having bud light or ordering patron shots while ignoring the rather nicely put together specialty cocktail menu they've assembled just for tonight. Now I recall why I didn't miss going out on holiday/event nights. It's just embarrassing when these rather wealthy 30 somethings act like a bunch of college kids/line cooks on payday. Fuzzy Pipe Wrench fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Jan 1, 2014 |
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Jan 1, 2014 04:23
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We're closed today/tomorrow, but Japanese traditions demanded that we come in to do a full restaurant cleaning. The sight of what basically appeared like a restaurant under construction and a printed sign stating we were closed posted at eye-level on the locked glass door didn't stop people from knocking to ask if we were open. So good luck to those of you on the line and the floor. I'll have a drink for you in addition to the ones you'll no doubt be having. (Good luck to you on the new job too, Black August!)
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Jan 1, 2014 05:06
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I got my poo poo rocked tonight. But the GM poured the staff out a toast of the Roederer Estate L'Ermitage 2002 from a magnum he sabered at midnight. That was some incredible wine. I also gave each of the dishwashers $20. Gotta take care of your dishwashers, especially when there's a 4-top still sitting around at 1 am.
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Jan 1, 2014 13:15
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Goddamn omelette cook didn't show up this morning. It's gonna be a lovely first day of the year.
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Jan 1, 2014 13:32
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Slowwww last night. And a fun round of "let's haze the new girl." with throwing me in the dishpit (not a problem, everything that goes out goes out disposable, but drat do we go through a lot of cambros in a shift.) so between cambros from the shift and pre-closing poo poo (and then closing poo poo, and then pretty much everything but the drat grill got closed before 10 in a place that seats til 11) I knock all those out, and then it was a case of "well, hey, before you leave, take out the trash?" ...in -15 weather, while I'm still half soaked from getting used to a high pressure sprayer to do dishes again. However, I forgot how much I missed it and cannot wait to go back again and actually get a shift with a rush.
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Jan 1, 2014 14:52
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I finished work at 4:30am and I'm still up and can't sleep. Pretty much got slammed when all the drunks started coming back after their festivites. Half the time they passed out by the time their food got to their room and our poor room service waiter would have to bang on their door or have front desk call the room if they didn't answer.
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Jan 1, 2014 15:40
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I asked the same thing in the general questions thread but thought it'd be good to ask here I need some ideas for baked eggs for my cafe menu, we only do Spanish (chorizo, onion, bacon, leek, mushroom and spinach) and Ricotta right now and wanted to have a variety in the menu refresh.
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Jan 3, 2014 03:03
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Summer tourist time in my town can suck it. The last two days we've been completely slammed on both a customer and prep level and there's still Saturday and Sunday to go. The only thing that's making it worse is the lack of a dishy rostered on. There's only so many services being both a prep chef and dishy that's good before you wear yourself out and have nothing left to give
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Jan 3, 2014 14:01
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bowmore posted:I asked the same thing in the general questions thread but thought it'd be good to ask here Could a hash-type dish work? Two baked eggs on shredded potatoes with some chorizo, onions, and cheese mixed in with the potatoes? Maybe some peppers, too, depending on what sorts you might have.
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Jan 3, 2014 14:49
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bowmore posted:Baked eggs. Our baked egg dish is two eggs baked in a house made tomato sauce, with oil cured olives and house cured bacon. During lunch we serve it with toasted baguette.
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Jan 3, 2014 22:28
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bowmore posted:I asked the same thing in the general questions thread but thought it'd be good to ask here I saw one the other day that was italian sausage, onion, tomato, and spinach with a sharp italian cheese of some kind. You could also go irish: lamb, potato, onion, bacon, carrots. Basically the ingredients to coddle.
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Jan 4, 2014 06:21
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Ughhhh. The new Sous chef is kinda being crazy and trying to establish dominance or something. I got yelled at today when a co-worker asked me how to do something, I told him the way I did it, and the sous sees him doing it, yells at him he is doing wrong and then yells at me for going behind her back since I told him what to do and stormed off. The Owner/exec came in a couple of minutes later and talked with me and asked me to stop undermining the new sous. I told the Exec that all I did was answer a question and wasn't trying to do anything to the new sous. The Exec seemed like she understood and said i didn't do anything wrong but just direct anyone asking questions to the Sous which I agreed to do. The new sous hasn't been very popular due to her lack of cleaning or prepping of anything and pawning off work, so it seems like she is going to go the loud and angry route to try and get respect.
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Jan 4, 2014 07:51
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I started my first real restaurant job in June of 2013: Downtown Seattle, upscale neighborhood, working dinner on Christmas Eve and NYE as a dishwasher and when asking the suate cook if I could get her anything she immediately said "a lobotomy"  Now I know why that sous chef told me to "get out while you still can" when asked for advice. (Nice guy, we have 2 sous' living together  )Every one of the brutal dinner services running saute pans and politely asking the managers to have the bussers clear glass and flatware from my back station is an excellent reminder to study harder. I like berserking in the dish pit: cooks love it because it keeps them from double-duty as my backup, and servers don't gently caress with you as much because they don't know if you really are crazy or what is going on in your head. After 6 months and a holiday season - I do enjoy the fast pace and the rush of a balls-to-the-wall service (not to mention something in my mind about a girl sprinting in a t-shirt and yoga pants) , but is too exhausting and... the look on the girl's face when she said that to me still kinda makes me wanna cry. I'm not considering it as a long-term career choice, though it is something I'd like to have some skill with for parties and storytelling purposes.
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Jan 5, 2014 04:18
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bowmore posted:I need some ideas for baked eggs for my cafe menu We did some kind of eggs, prosciutto, spinach, buffalo mozzarella, and tomato sauce at a restaurant I used to work at. Can't really tell you much more than that since they threw it into the pizza oven and I was working saute, I can't say I was super wild about it since the 800 degree oven usually cooked the yolks all the way through and cooked yolks + tomato sauce is kind of gross. breadingbutter posted:I like berserking in the dish pit: cooks love it because it keeps them from double-duty as my backup In my experience keeping the cooks from bitching about how they always have to hold your hand in the dishroom is the #1 way to get promoted out of the dishroom, just remember your original plan to get out while you still can. After 7 years I'm almost out, and it would've been a lot less painful if I listened to the first guy who told me to get out while I still can.
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Jan 5, 2014 08:01
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You've worked a dishpit seven years trying to be a cook? If this isn't French laundry or something you've made a terrible mistake
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Jan 5, 2014 11:16
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pile of brown posted:You've worked a dishpit seven years trying to be a cook? If this isn't French laundry or something you've made a terrible mistake I think he means that he started as a dish and (likely after getting promoted fairly early) is now getting out of the industry.
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Jan 5, 2014 13:51
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Reiz posted:In my experience keeping the cooks from bitching about how they always have to hold your hand in the dishroom is the #1 way to get promoted out of the dishroom, just remember your original plan to get out while you still can. After 7 years I'm almost out, and it would've been a lot less painful if I listened to the first guy who told me to get out while I still can. If you're a chump, it's also the #1 way to make sure you never get promoted out of the dishpit. Good dishwashers who show up on time and work hard and don't require endless supervision are like unicorns that poo poo gold, and managers won't want to replace them in the pit. Often, you have to show your willingness to quit and go somewhere else to get that promotion to prep cook.
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Jan 5, 2014 14:36
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Wroughtirony posted:If you're a chump, it's also the #1 way to make sure you never get promoted out of the dishpit. Good dishwashers who show up on time and work hard and don't require endless supervision are like unicorns that poo poo gold, and managers won't want to replace them in the pit. Often, you have to show your willingness to quit and go somewhere else to get that promotion to prep cook. This is absolutely true. I used to have barbacks that were the same way - they rocked out, never demonstrated they were willing to move on, so they never got promoted. Nevermind that they made as much as the bartenders, but it would at least have been a lot less work for them.
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Jan 5, 2014 17:24
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Shooting Blanks posted:This is absolutely true. I used to have barbacks that were the same way - they rocked out, never demonstrated they were willing to move on, so they never got promoted. Nevermind that they made as much as the bartenders, but it would at least have been a lot less work for them. (Not that I'm even in the industry anymore, but) if I was getting paid the same as the bartender, there's no way in gently caress I'd want to be promoted to Deals Directly With Customers And Remembers A Huge List Of Mixed Drinks/Names/Faces, so that's not a huge shock. But then, I like humping heavy things around and making sure everything's where it needs to be for the frontman's night to run smoothly.
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Jan 5, 2014 17:45
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Splizwarf posted:(Not that I'm even in the industry anymore, but) if I was getting paid the same as the bartender, there's no way in gently caress I'd want to be promoted to Deals Directly With Customers And Remembers A Huge List Of Mixed Drinks/Names/Faces, so that's not a huge shock. But then, I like humping heavy things around and making sure everything's where it needs to be for the frontman's night to run smoothly. Even if it means working an extra 4 hours each night?
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Jan 5, 2014 18:45
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Shooting Blanks posted:Even if it means working an extra 4 hours each night? That sounds more like getting paid half as much as the bartenders. 
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Jan 5, 2014 19:53
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Splizwarf posted:That sounds more like getting paid half as much as the bartenders. I said the money is the same, not the work.
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Jan 5, 2014 20:14
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Wroughtirony posted:If you're a chump, it's also the #1 way to make sure you never get promoted out of the dishpit. I noticed that: the guy who was an rear end in a top hat and complained and basically didn't do poo poo got promoted (and failed out of his promotion (but kept his pay before quitting  )). I have a dilemna where I'm busting my rear end AND training new recruits AND adjusting my schedule so kid can go to school, but I'm so damned lucky that I'm being paid a decent wage (also hotel = benefits) and working close to where I live... My 6-month review is up... I've been kicking rear end in the dish pit (first time a prep cook had to help me was New Year's Day), I do prep work when people ask me to (not perfect, but I learn). My big question is: HOW should I introduce the idea of a raise? I was thinking a mention during the review interview, or maybe a note on the super-official review form. OR should I demand a raise tbd seek work elsewhere. e: on re-read, I'm happy with my dishwasher position. I still want a raise, though. breadingbutter fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Jan 5, 2014 |
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Jan 5, 2014 20:29
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Wroughtirony posted:If you're a chump, it's also the #1 way to make sure you never get promoted out of the dishpit. Good dishwashers who show up on time and work hard and don't require endless supervision are like unicorns that poo poo gold, and managers won't want to replace them in the pit. Often, you have to show your willingness to quit and go somewhere else to get that promotion to prep cook. This is true of moving up from any lovely position to any less lovely position. No host or foodrunner ever got to be a server without being willing to walk.
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Jan 5, 2014 21:09
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The more reputable the restaurant is the more reliable dishwashers are valued over cooks. If you have 3 michelin stars or are on the world's top 50 you have a nearly endless supply of experienced cooks emailing you every week, many willing to work for free. At one of the places I worked we had a dishwasher who had been there for about 3 years and we half-joked that he was the highest paid employee.
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Jan 5, 2014 21:41
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Kenning posted:No host or foodrunner ever got to be a server without being willing to walk. 
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Jan 5, 2014 22:18
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Shooting Blanks posted:I said the money is the same, not the work. In that case, I make about the same as Bill Gates, I just have to put in a few more centuries a day. 
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Jan 6, 2014 05:23
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pile of brown posted:You've worked a dishpit seven years trying to be a cook? If this isn't French laundry or something you've made a terrible mistake Haha, yeah dude I was promoted out of the dish pit in like 3 months. I accepted another job eventually and washed dishes there for like 3 weeks before they pulled me out. I attribute both to not needing to be babysat and also making it pretty clear that I had better poo poo to do if they were going to keep me in dish indefinitely. Don't get me wrong though, I was absolutely That Chump at the first place. I ended up working there for like 3 years, got promoted into a supervisory role and it turns out that yeah, I had made it pretty clear that I was line cook material on like day 3 of dishwashing but they strung me along because nobody else wanted to do it. I didn't make that mistake again at the second place. Looking back it's pretty funny/sad how awesome I thought it would be to finally work the line, and then how awesome it would be to get promoted to _____ station, and then how awesome it would be to work the window as a supervisor. It's not, it's poo poo all the way up.
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Jan 6, 2014 10:24
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons With Spoons > It's Not, It's poo poo All the Way Up: The Industry Thread
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Jan 6, 2014 11:44
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Naelyan posted:The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons With Spoons > It's Not, It's poo poo All the Way Up: The Industry Thread looks like somebody is blessed with a happy dishwasher.
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Jan 6, 2014 13:26
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crackhaed posted:The more reputable the restaurant is the more reliable dishwashers are valued over cooks. If you have 3 michelin stars or are on the world's top 50 you have a nearly endless supply of experienced cooks emailing you every week, many willing to work for free. At one of the places I worked we had a dishwasher who had been there for about 3 years and we half-joked that he was the highest paid employee. When NOMA won the World's Best thingie, they all made a point to thank Alieu Sonko who's boss of their dishpit. Just as in Bourdain's story of Justo Thomas at Le Bernadin, there are some employees that you a) do not gently caress with and b) can't imagine your restaurant running without.
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Jan 6, 2014 14:44
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I'm going to be getting back into the industry soon, hopefully next week. I have an interview at one of the major chain Italian restaurants tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be serving, since I have serving experience. The last restaurant I worked at was small and slow, and I still made decent money, so I am excited about making more money at a busy chain with higher prices than the small restaurant I worked at. I probably will also make more in tips weekly than I did on salary at the full time job I just left. At least I'll be less stressed out and I can show up, do work, and go home.
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Jan 6, 2014 23:02
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I had zero experience in this industry when I started at my current job 5.5 years ago (Mediterranean/Middle Eastern/Italian, all fresh food essentially). Great boss/owner/chef, learned an incredible amount from him. I've often thought of what my next step would be, but he pays me more than almost any other restaurant would to be an employee, so it's been very hard to want to leave. Last week I got a call from an acquaintance who GMs at a bistro attached to a movie theater in another town, who said he was fed up with the Exec Chef currently running the place and wanted to see if I was possibly interested in taking on the job, if things went a certain way. It's double the pay, plus benefits. Fast forward to today, and the Exec has given her two weeks notice, and I have a meeting with the owner on Wednesday. I've never been more excited and scared in my life. It's an entirely new menu for me (of which I would have full control to change), a new staff, new system... but I have a family to provide for and opportunities like this don't grow on trees. Wish me luck.
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Jan 7, 2014 02:25
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Turns out that leaving the industry left me with a little present. When I was working at my last industry gig some dipshit left some tapenade on the floor in the middle of service and I took a fall, landing all of my not-insignificant bodyweight onto my right knee (I saved the oyster po'boy I was setting in the window, however). Cue a couple months and getting an office job later and I find out that I have some cartilage damage and now I can't sit (or stand) for more than 2 hours without a gradually increasing throbbing pain just under my kneecap. I won't be getting anything good for the pain, just some anti-inflammatories and physical therapy.
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Jan 8, 2014 04:56
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I've had a real job for two days. Nine to five. This is so weird.
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Jan 8, 2014 05:18
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Turkeybone posted:I've had a real job for two days. Nine to five. This is so weird. My girlfriend (also a chef) has been at her m-f 9-5 for about two months now. You'll get used to it. Also she cooks me dinner all the time now and that's awesome. Got her a kitchenaid pasta attachment for Christmas and I get fresh pasta like 4 times a week.
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Jan 8, 2014 12:18
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