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Our new server is amazing. She knows how to put in the wrong table number and not let the food runners know so they can deliver food without looking like dipshits, seat a six top without even looking to see if there's a six top or anything combinable open (there wasn't) and can take a delivery order without getting any of the relevant information, like an address, suite number (we mostly deliver to businesses) or a callback. And she's humble too, if you try to praise her for this she cuts you off She's sitting across the bar from me right now and it's taking everything I have to not choke her
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Sep 10, 2015 19:27
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pile of brown posted:"Hi, welcome to Sbarro's, *unbuttons top shirt button* my name is a man and his dog and I'll be serving you today. Just in case you were wondering, *unbuttons top button of pants* I get down . lol as if a man and his dog wears shirts with buttons  lmao
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Sep 10, 2015 19:28
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Getting to wear tank tops and sandals 10 months out of the year does indeed own.
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Sep 10, 2015 19:46
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I'm imagining you as a really greasy dude with a fishnet if you're actually wearing a male tank top.
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Sep 10, 2015 19:50
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Talked with a manager about the server. The event coordinator was there and backed me up on everything, and the manager is going to talk to the other managers about it, and other servers possibly just to see if it's an everyone problem This is the second time in like seven years I've felt the need to bring a coworker problem up with a boss, and the last time was in high school when another dishwasher hosed me on a school night and left me stuck cleaning up after bottomless wing night until 3 AM and my manager pointed it out and I promised to break the kids neck if I ever saw him in the dish pit again Good times. Good times.
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Sep 10, 2015 19:56
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nuru posted:I'm imagining you as a really greasy dude with a fishnet if you're actually wearing a male tank top. It's like 150 degrees outside and I live on the beach...
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Sep 10, 2015 20:06
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I'm sure that makes the people you shed nasty pit hair into the food of feel better. An authentic experience.
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Sep 10, 2015 22:09
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Liquid Communism posted:I'm sure that makes the people you shed nasty pit hair into the food of feel better. I'm trying to figure out how you think he's carrying plates that they'd be in danger of pit hair? I mean, the guy sounds like a douchebag, but y'all are picking on him for the wrong things. Being entitled and sexist, sure, thinking his tips have nothing to do with the quality of service, no, there's very very rarely any correlation between quality of service and size of tips. I've bent over backwards for some tables and gotten 0-5%, and I've literally forgotten tables existed and gotten 25%. On the very rare occasions I get any sort of direct feedback from tables, it's almost invariably something I had no control over, like complaints about the quality of the food written on the credit card receipt, even though I asked them twice "How is everything?" "How are we doing?" That's by far my biggest complaint about customers, people telling me they didn't like the food, while sitting in front of an empty plate, after I checked on them 2 or 3 times.
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Sep 10, 2015 22:50
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Literally The Worst posted:Our new server is amazing. She knows how to put in the wrong table number and not let the food runners know so they can deliver food without looking like dipshits, seat a six top without even looking to see if there's a six top or anything combinable open (there wasn't) and can take a delivery order without getting any of the relevant information, like an address, suite number (we mostly deliver to businesses) or a callback. And she's humble too, if you try to praise her for this she cuts you off You need to chill out tbh.
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Sep 11, 2015 00:09
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The gently caress are you guys talking about. I don't serve wearing that poo poo. It's all black clothes from head down. That's my outside gear. Smh.
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Sep 11, 2015 00:28
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The Maestro posted:You need to chill out tbh. Nah she's basically awful with everyone and came in acting like she knew everything, nobody likes her. The servers who either put down the wrong table numbers or neglected to tell us that their table moved I just talked to a manager about in the thirty seconds I had between runs as a general hey remind people at preshift about table numbers thing. I'm not totally insane. That one server is just the worst.
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Sep 11, 2015 02:40
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Literally The Worst posted:Nah she's basically awful with everyone and came in acting like she knew everything, nobody likes her. if this isn't just a problem but a repeated problem among multiple FoH staff maybe there's something wrong with the system in your joint? (I don't mean in the sense of there being a technical fault, but rather a fault in the design)
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Sep 11, 2015 03:48
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Literally The Worst posted:Nah she's basically awful with everyone and came in acting like she knew everything, nobody likes her. You've been at that restaurant less than a month, keep your loving head down for a minute. Vent here all you want, it's healthy, but being confrontational at a new job isn't great.
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Sep 11, 2015 03:52
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JawKnee posted:if this isn't just a problem but a repeated problem among multiple FoH staff maybe there's something wrong with the system in your joint? (I don't mean in the sense of there being a technical fault, but rather a fault in the design) Nah it's a human being issue. It amounts to the front not communicating with the back so the back can fix poo poo, and if some of the people I had to talk to about it hadn't gotten mad pissy about it I wouldn't have even gone to management, would've just talked it out and been done. But I gotta run trays of food for six hours straight by myself I ain't got time to get in pissing matches trying to tell people how to make everyone's day easier. That's why I have managers and pre shifts. Man this post is rambling as gently caress. I need beers to unwind after that hell shift
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Sep 11, 2015 03:58
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Also I know I come off as a wild rear end in a top hat rn but I gotta point out that I also do whatever I can to help people out and do approximately three jobs at the same time most nights, which is why it's super galling when people can't take literally ninety seconds to say "hey that deuce on 105? it rained after they ordered, they moved to 115" so that I don't wander around like a douchebag looking for their table
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Sep 11, 2015 04:07
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Literally The Worst posted:I ain't got time to get in pissing matches trying to tell people how to make everyone's day easier. I think I found your problem how about, don't tell people things? I'm telling you this to make your day easier. just relax and accept I'm right. I don't have time to get in a pissing match!! I'm very busy.
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Sep 11, 2015 04:41
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mindphlux posted:I think I found your problem "You should let me know your table moved, so that I'm not looking like an rear end in a top hat asking people at tables near where you said it would be if this is their food, as I carry all the food, for the entire restaurant, by myself, up a flight of stairs": an unreasonable thing to tell people that would not make anybody's day easier That's not an exaggeration, either, I was the only food runner scheduled tonight. I had someone doing expo but I was doing all the actual running for the entire restaurant for all of dinner. The five minutes I spend hunting for the table that I didn't know moved, or for you to go "where the gently caress is that table", is five minutes that there's food that's ready and not going upstairs.
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Sep 11, 2015 05:42
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Ooooo you two getting salty is turning me on. Whew. So hot In this kitchen.
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Sep 11, 2015 06:22
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We just switched from quick service ( order and pay at the register then sit down) to full service (normal restaurant) and I was wondering how to manage the flow of business better. I run the wheel, and my biggest issue is that the servers are ringing in bunches of tickets at the same time, effectively weeding the kitchen constantly. We have an expectation that every ticket should be no longer than 20 minutes, but lately i've had a few 30 minute tickets, and it sucks. This is especially a problem if they weed a particular station (usually sandwich during lunch, saute during dinner). I've talked to the servers constantly about how this is hard on my cooks, but they just shrug and say "well the hosts sat me 3 tables, so it's not my fault." Am I expecting too much for them to pace out their tickets? i've brought it up with the GM and the assistant GM, but nothing seems to have changed. This is my first true restaurant gig, so I don't really know any other system, not to mention I have exactly zero FOH experience. I think another part of our problem is that we only have one rail, so when a station gets crazy I have to not call tickets so they concentrate on selling what they have, which shoves them further behind. Basically, what are some tips from experienced ticket callers, and how do I get my servers to stop being dicks. Ever since we switched, my stress levels have been through the roof. They said we were going to slow down, due to slower turnaround, but we've had double digit increases over last year every day since. I want to have this go smoothly for everyone, especially my guys and the customers, but i'm not sure how to make things better.
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Sep 11, 2015 07:18
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A good server shouldn't need to bunch up orders like that all the time, they need to get their poo poo together (of course, they're getting used to your new system too, so that problem may take care of itself). Basically reinforce that as long as a table has gotten an initial visit and a drink order they can wait an extra minute or so while another table's food order goes in. From a server perspective it does suck when you get 3+ tables at once, but what I used to do was just hold on to tickets myself for a couple minutes at a time based on whomever I got to first. Of course if you're a lousy server this can lead to even more fuckups so you may just want to punch em in and leave it to the kitchen to sort it out, but that's the business man.
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Sep 11, 2015 07:25
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Murkyhumor posted:We just switched from quick service ( order and pay at the register then sit down) to full service (normal restaurant) and I was wondering how to manage the flow of business better. I run the wheel, and my biggest issue is that the servers are ringing in bunches of tickets at the same time, effectively weeding the kitchen constantly. We have an expectation that every ticket should be no longer than 20 minutes, but lately i've had a few 30 minute tickets, and it sucks. This is especially a problem if they weed a particular station (usually sandwich during lunch, saute during dinner). I've talked to the servers constantly about how this is hard on my cooks, but they just shrug and say "well the hosts sat me 3 tables, so it's not my fault." Am I expecting too much for them to pace out their tickets? i've brought it up with the GM and the assistant GM, but nothing seems to have changed. This is my first true restaurant gig, so I don't really know any other system, not to mention I have exactly zero FOH experience. Getting the hostess to make people wait a couple extra minutes between seating parties, even if there's an obviously open table in front of them can ease the pressure on both the kitchen and the servers.
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Sep 11, 2015 07:26
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Skwirl posted:What restaurants don't auto-grat on large tables? I've never worked at one that didn't and I've never eaten in one with 6 or more people that didn't. I worked at one restaurant where the tips were so lovely that we changed our policy from auto gratuity with 6 or more, to auto gratuity with 5 or more. I work at a place t hat doesn't do autograt, it's terrifying, but the bad tips are rare as hell. On the upside, our dining room only seats 50, so we don't usually get HUGE parties. On the upside my tips are great, and I'm a very good server. I make more money serving and bar tending than I do at my career day job.
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Sep 11, 2015 09:03
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Mezzanon posted:I work at a place t hat doesn't do autograt, it's terrifying, but the bad tips are rare as hell. On the upside, our dining room only seats 50, so we don't usually get HUGE parties. I work in a diner that auto-grats at 6 people, and I honestly wish I could auto-grat tables of 5 or anything over 50 bucks. Because I had a 3 top leave me 3 dollars on a 70 dollar check and I did nothing wrong and their food was perfect,checked on them multiple times, refilled drinks without needing to be asked, cleared empty plates without pressuring them. After they left I just sat on the patio giving them the stink eye while they walked away.
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Sep 11, 2015 09:15
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I mean, at the end of the day the tipping system is a way to transfer risk from owners to workers by relying on the good will and cultural savvy of customers to provide a fair compensation for FOH employees via tips, rather than providing that compensation in payroll and raising prices to balance out the labor cost. It's an inherently unjust and unsustainable system and any move away from it will be positive for the industry.
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Sep 11, 2015 09:35
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We don't autograt any more because of the law change in CA last year. Any autograt gets added to our paycheck and is subsequently taxed. Even before then, it was kinda fun to play autograt roulette. Does the host look like the kind of person who can afford the party and the gratuity? Are you confident enough in your service to pull the trigger? Are you going to discreetly remind the host that gratuity is not included? God I wish I could've auto'd the party of 30 that took up my whole bar and lounge for 2 hours, spent $350 mainly on drinks (I'm the bartender) and tipped 10%. It sucks when that happens to servers because they tip me 10% of all wine/beer/alcohol and they can wind up losing money.
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Sep 11, 2015 10:04
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Skwirl posted:I work in a diner that auto-grats at 6 people, and I honestly wish I could auto-grat tables of 5 or anything over 50 bucks. Because I had a 3 top leave me 3 dollars on a 70 dollar check and I did nothing wrong and their food was perfect,checked on them multiple times, refilled drinks without needing to be asked, cleared empty plates without pressuring them. After they left I just sat on the patio giving them the stink eye while they walked away. If it's any consolation for some reason I get paid well above minimum wage for managing one day a week. I had a bad two days last week, barely walked out with 10% after tip-outs, which is insanely low. This week Has been much closer to 18%, which is significantly better. You take the good with the bad, and make it up on the next table. Also I don't work in a chain anymore, that feels much better.
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Sep 11, 2015 10:37
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The Maestro posted:We don't autograt any more because of the law change in CA last year. Any autograt gets added to our paycheck and is subsequently taxed. Even before then, it was kinda fun to play autograt roulette. Does the host look like the kind of person who can afford the party and the gratuity? Are you confident enough in your service to pull the trigger? Are you going to discreetly remind the host that gratuity is not included. Ah, servers. 'Man, it sucks, I have to pay taxes .' gently caress that poo poo industry wide. Pay a wage.
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Sep 11, 2015 14:49
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Generally speaking the server has the least amount of care in the restaurant about the state of the Rail/Window/Whatever so it's usually not wise to rely on them to help manage it. There is a certain skill level that is reachable as an expo that makes the amount of tickets on the rail/in the window/whatever a non-issue. I worked an expo station for 2 years where my board was full and tickets are printing out onto the floor and our motto was "it's fine, relax". You just need to get used to working in a buffer because ticket time doesn't matter. It's good to set goals but it's also good to be able to zoom out for a second and realize that, theoretically, if you print the entire restaurant at the same time there is no way the last 5 orders are meeting your time goals -- so gently caress the time goals. Getting everything out in (more or less) the order that it came in as soon as possible is the goal, and you accomplish that by not loving up. Staring at the time on the ticket and constantly comparing that to the clock isn't going to help anybody not gently caress up.
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Sep 11, 2015 15:17
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We have a terrible manager in training that is constantly telling you ticket times. Nobody gives a gently caress if anything is sub 16min Christiffany's! And that well done filet is always going to be 20+, SO STOP loving ASKING WHEN ITS GONNA BE DONE.
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Sep 11, 2015 15:32
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One thing that is helpful is that if the kitchen is in the weeds - inform the servers so they can let their tables know it will be a few minutes. This will not only set better expectations with your customers, it will also let them potentially sell more drinks and help your kitchen relax a bit more if they're stressing about times. gently caress the times.
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Sep 11, 2015 19:41
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Your goal ticket time is 20 minutes?! drat, that's high. And for a sandwich?
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Sep 11, 2015 19:45
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Your goal ticket time is 20 minutes?! drat, that's high. And for a sandwich? What?
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Sep 11, 2015 20:06
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I never really considered that FOH folks manage time to keep the kitchen moving. Like, it makes perfect sense and seems obvious but it never occurred to me. Very interesting stuff.
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Sep 11, 2015 20:56
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bunnielab posted:I never really considered that FOH folks manage time to keep the kitchen moving. Like, it makes perfect sense and seems obvious but it never occurred to me. Very interesting stuff. it's in FoH best interest to do so, and I don't just mean in keeping the folks behind the line from wanting to strangle you getting 3+ tables worth of food up at once is hellish, especially if you have other poo poo to take care of, staggering your orders is the best way to ensure that you keep doing your job without frenetically jerking around all over the drat place
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Sep 11, 2015 20:58
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So, ten years ago as part of culinary school, we worked three weeks at the US Open. Today, my boss was like, "we got company tickets, let's duck out of here" and I had some Goose and some wines and we watched Serena lose and I almost caught one of the post-game balls.
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Sep 11, 2015 21:04
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Sorry. I didn't really read all of the original question. I don't really know what you mean by "run the wheel" but wheels are kind of lovely IMO. Get a rail, when it's busy make sure that if the cooks/stations have their own rails that nobody is using them and they are only listening to expo. Be really good at expo, this requires you to know your cooks and your stations and just about how much work one station can take before it starts to get lovely. Depending on the layout of your kitchen I've always found that inside expos work better than outside expos (sometimes you want both). A big benefit to inside expo is that if you see a ~6-7 ticket window where one station is just absolutely loving slammed, take the least slammed station and have that dude jump on the slammed station while you take over his. Careful cook juggling got me through ~$30k sales days and we were running a full service restaurant with actual cooking times usually taking around 2/3rds of the time goal. Ticket time goal there was 15 minutes and the only time we went over that was when the FoH staff got weeded and started turning entire sections at the same time. Whether you meet or don't meet your ticket goal time is relatively unimportant and depends mostly on context but If we're running ~15 minutes at a full service restaurant with ~$22 per person and you guys are struggling to keep it under 30... something is wrong. The only thing I can think of that I've ever worked with where 30 minutes is "normal" was a fatass double-cut broiled pork chop with veal demi, and despite our insistence the customer wanted it well done for whatever reason. Also pizza can get kinda silly but usually you have to gently caress up for it to be over 20. So, I guess some context about what the menu items are would help more. But in general I've found that, during extreme volumes, the less your cooks actually have to think the better off you're going to be. Finding/keeping good expos is pretty hard, though, and the way most places I've worked handle this is by promoting inside expos from, well, inside the kitchen and having them act in more of a supervisory role. Take your dudes that can work every station and give them a rail and a printer until someone stands out -- thats your dude. Usually you can get people to agree to shorter shifts under the guise of it being the side effects of a promotion, too. Should save you some money. 12 rats tied together fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Sep 11, 2015 |
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Sep 11, 2015 21:07
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Secret Spoon posted:What? How are you confused by that? The poster said they shoot for 20min ticket times but are currently running upwards of 30. They mentioned the dishes that get bogged down the most are sandwiches at lunch and dishes that come from sauté at night. 20 minute ticket times, short of huge, thick chop or dishes that just physically take longer than that to cook no matter what is on the high end in comparison to the rest of the industry.
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Sep 11, 2015 21:39
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:How are you confused by that? The poster said they shoot for 20min ticket times but are currently running upwards of 30. They mentioned the dishes that get bogged down the most are sandwiches at lunch and dishes that come from sauté at night. 20 minute ticket times, short of huge, thick chop or dishes that just physically take longer than that to cook no matter what is on the high end in comparison to the rest of the industry. I didn't read the huge wall of text and you didn't quote who you where talking about. Hth.
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Sep 11, 2015 22:05
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Concentrating on having first in first out for food also helps the servers, it's easy for me to explain that the kitchen is busy so everything is taking longer. That gets a lot harder when they are sitting next to a table that ordered 15 minutes later than them gets their food first.
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Sep 11, 2015 23:16
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Liquid Communism posted:Ah, servers. 'Man, it sucks, I have to pay taxes .' Look, when you have serious substance abuse issues and most of your income is cash, taxes loving suck.
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Sep 11, 2015 23:31
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