Pet Peeves? Boy, Have I Got Them.
We all have those things that simply drive us up a wall. You know, pet peeves. I have plenty! Like the shoppers that go through the self-checkout line for the first time ever(with TONS of produce) when the market is PACKED. Or how about the person that stands way to close to you in a line? I swear there have been times when I could feel their breath on my neck! But this particular post, I will be dealing with my restaurant pet peeves. Those annoying things, that when I am dining out, absolutely make me insane.
Pet Peeve #1- The Absentee Hostess. Don’t put up a sign that instructs me to “Please Wait To Be Seated” and then have an empty host stand. I HATE this. My husband and I once stood at a host stand for 15 minutes waiting for the hostess, who was flirting with the bartender, to come and seat us. By the time she sauntered over to the host stand and sighed , ” Two?” I was ready to take her head off. Lesson: Restaurants, if you are going to have a host stand, please make sure there is a competent, attentive host standing at it. This is a first point of contact for your guests and can elevate or taint the rest of their experience at your establishment.
Pet Peeve #2- The Forever Hold. First, let me make a disclaimer, here. Having worked many years in the restaurant business, I make sure to call with questions, reservations, etc. during off hours. Read, NOT during the lunch or dinner rush. Please don’t call a restaurant during prime service times and expect fabulous phone service. That being said, my pet peeve is about when I call during off hours and am still placed on hold for more than 3 minutes. I don’t know about you, but I hang up. AND I am angry and at times, no longer even want to dine at said restaurant. Lesson: Restaurants, train your staff about the importance of phone etiquette. Again, this is a first point of contact. Guests, don’t call a restaurant between 11:30-2:30 and 7:00-8:30, they are in service rush.
Pet Peeve #3- The Ice Cold Butter. Really? Is it that hard to take the butter out of the refrigerator before service? That rock hard butter is not going to spread on the bread, period. Lesson: Restaurants, take the butter out of the cooler so it can be soft and spreadable.
Pet Peeve#4- The Charge For Bread Service. Stop it. Remember in the olden days (like a year ago) when you would dine out at a restaurant and after you sat down they would bring you bread? And, if you wanted more, they happily brought it to you? I do. This charge for bread is petty and short-sighted. I understand that the economy is rough, bread costs money, etc. But this is NOT the place to save. Lesson: Restaurants, charging for bread makes you look petty and ungracious. Guests, don’t be the people that greedily eat up four loaves of bread and then share a half salad. You are the reason why these restaurants started to think charging for bread would be a good idea. Stop ruining it for the rest of us.
Pet Peeve #5- The Gum Chewing. Don’t get me wrong, I love gum. I chew gum. Gum is my friend. But I do not chew it in professional settings and neither should ANY restaurant staff. Excluding of course, the diner type establishments where this is part of the schtick. Nothing is a bigger turn off than being greeted by a hostess with a wad of gum in her/his mouth. Or a server that is chomping on a piece as he/she is reciting the specials. Lesson: Restaurants, instruct your staff to just say no to gum while they are working.
Pet Peeve #6- The Sitting Check. You know what I mean. You have eaten your meal, you have placed your cash or credit card in the pretty folder and then you sit. And sit. And sit. Even if you have had a fabulous time up until this moment, this sitting can ruin it. It is just as important to be prompt with the check as it is to be prompt with the greeting. Also, might I add, don’t make me wait endlessly to even get the check. Lesson: Restaurants, make sure that your team knows that the end of the meal is as important as the beginning. Managers, HELP! If a server is slammed, run the check for them.
Whew! I feel better! Do you have any restaurant pet peeves? If so, please share them with me here. Trust me, you will feel much better…
Food Network’s Chef Hunter- The Stuff of Nightmares
I am addicted to yet another show! And of course it is about food: Chef Hunter, airing Thursdays on the Food Network. Even though I have a sneaking suspicion that many of the restaurants are involved with the show solely for the marketing opportunity and that many of the people involved are “playing” to the camera, it is still the most realistic look at how restaurants run to date. Realistic in a way that brings back all the really stressful bad memories of the years I spent working in restaurants. Don’t get me wrong, there were good times too, but unless you have worked through a VERY busy dinner shift at a popular restaurant, you really have no idea how stressful trying to serve food to non-starving people can be… Unless you watch Chef Hunter.
The premise is simple really. A restaurant needs a new Executive Chef, so a head hunter brings in two candidates to compete for the job. Each Chef is given a night to plan a menu and run said restaurant. At the end of the show, one of the Chefs gets the job. What could be stressful about that, you may ask? EVERYTHING! First of all are these poor Chefs. Most of them seem legitimately talented and really want AND need the job. But remember, they are coming into established restaurants that already have popular menus. For example, Border Grill was featured on an episode and the Two Hot Tamales basically said, “We want a chef that can cook our food.” What’s the big deal? Well, most highly trained chefs want to cook and create their own food. Not follow a recipe. Which is why I find it strange that part of the audition is always for the chefs to create and cook their own menu. Why? If they are all simply tasked with properly following a recipe, then wouldn’t that be a better test? But, I digress. Secondly, are the managers and corporate chefs. I have worked with guys like I see on chef hunter. I am sure you all have too. You know, yelling, degrading, sarcastic and generally just VERY nasty. It saddens me to see so many very popular restaurants ran by such shitty managers. Thirdly, the staff. Both back of house and front of house. The line cooks have to take direction and learn the trial chef’s new menu. Sometime the chef IS a jerk, but many times the line cooks are less than enthusiastic. Then you have the food runners and servers yelling at the chef for food, then going back to tables and explaining why a cold ceviche dish is taking 30 minutes to come out.
So, you may be asking yourself, after reading the last paragraph why I watch the show at all? Why not save myself from PTRD (Post Traumatic Restaurant Disorder) and change the channel? Because I can’t. LOL! It is the proverbial train wreck. You are horrified, yet can’t look away. Last week the Corporate Chef of Merriman’s in Hawaii, screamed at both chefs, was sarcastic to both and put down both of their menus. Think he didn’t hire either? Think again! That is what is so crazy. If both chefs performed so poorly that you felt the need to be abusive, then why hire either? My husband and I both said, “Poor guy.” Not about the loser, but about the chef that was hired! I mean, whom would want to work for people like this? It does make for good television, though.
Is it good that the general public, most of whom have not worked in the restaurant business, to see this? Yes and no. Yes, because maybe it will give guests at restaurants a new respect about what it REALLY takes to deliver that perfect dish to your table in a timely manner. And no, because of the very same reasoning for yes. It dispels the “magic” of a night out at a restaurant and maybe makes it too real.
I will continue watching Chef Hunter and continue reliving every stressful moment from my restaurant career… Besides, as harsh as the reality can sometimes be, at least it is reality (or so it is edited so we believe so!). Unlike so many others before and currently. Remember The Restaurant with Rocco Di Spirito? What a contrived mess that was! Or Hell’s Kitchen? Anyone who has watched Chef Ramsay on Kitchen Nightmares KNOWS that his persona on Hell’s Kitchen is strictly an acting job.
So, thank you Food Network, for at least ATTEMPTING to create a show that tackles the stress of running a restaurant.
Is Service Dead?
I thought I was alone. I thought there was something wrong with ME! I thought a lot of things and then I read Alan Richman’s review of M. Wells in New York City in GQ… And realized it wasn’t me at all. What is it? The decline of service in restaurants. I really had started to develop yet another complex (to go with all my other ones) about the service I was receiving at various restaurants. Time after time, I left restaurants feeling like I had just been waited on by a surly “frenemy”. You know the type. They are everywhere. Eye rolling, sighing servers who act like you are lucky that they brought you the wrong order. But then smile and tell you to, “Come again”, as they drop the check. But apparently this is an epidemic. The service Mr. Richman received at M.Well’s was appalling and dare I say, the new norm. He went on to talk about the poor service he has received elsewhere and that maybe it is a new wave in restaurants. That they are just “too cool to care”. My question is, “Is service dead?”
To answer my own question, I would say, “No.” But it is on life-support and the prognosis is negative. I think that it has become even more important as of late, due to the fact that so many of us don’t go out to eat as much. Blame it on the economy. But if you are like me, I go out to a sit down meal once a week now. I used to go out three times a week. So when I do go out, I want to enjoy myself. I guess service was easier to ignore when I could apply the law of averages. You know, I went out twelve times last month and I got really good service four times. But when you go out four times a month and three out of four times the service is lousy, well, it becomes a problem. Is it the “too cool to care” syndrome? Is it that we have taken “casual” service to the edge of the envelope where it is walking into “couldn’t care less”? I don’t know the reason, but I do know that in this economy, restaurants that want to thrive will pay attention not only to food, but also to service.
So, let me tell you about my most recent run in with a surly “frenemy” server. My husband and I went out to celebrate our second anniversary. We made an early reservation, because, well, we like to eat early. We get hungry! No 7:30 reservations for this couple. No. We are the ones in line with the seventy year old at 4:30 waiting for the doors to open. I keep thinking that when I am seventy, I will finally want to eat after 5:00. So it is early and empty. We are seated and are in a great mood. Why not? Anniversary, beautiful restaurant and the anticipation of food, really, what else do you need. We went to a local Italian restaurant that is very popular. It IS beautiful, but the food leaves much to be desired. But we know this and went for the romance of it. The server greeted us then told us the specials without PRICE! Is it me or is that just rude? Then it took 20n minutes for my husband to get an iced tea. It just gets worse from there. We asked for more bread three times. Finally had to flag down the bus boy to get it. Left ALL the inedible appetizer we ordered. Server removed it and actually said, ” Aren’t these just fabulous?” Ummm, huh? I ordered a second glass of wine and the server poured the remainder of my first into it! Wow! He never checked back on entrees and then while removing my full plate of food (it was that bad), said “Aren’t these mushrooms just to die for?” Then I couldn’t take it and told him, “No. They weren’t to die for. They tasted like lighter fluid.” He actually recoiled from me. Long story short. We paid $90.00 for the meal, without the entree and I STILL tipped him $20. Why? Do I want the server to “like” me?
The next weekend we went to another popular local place. Yes at 5:00. But it was packed! The hostess seated us immediately, even though we had no reservations. The server greeted us nicely and promptly. Brought me all the bread I wanted and checked back during every part of the meal. The place is also beautiful and the food just alright. I would say about even with our anniversary disaster meal. But guess what? EVERYTHING seemed to taste better because we were happy and receiving good service. That, restaurant owners, is what you need to know. Service definitely affects everything. From how pretty the place is to how good the food tastes. You can have the most beautiful restaurant in the world, with the best tasting food (at unbelievably low prices), but if you also have lousy service, it will all be ruined. I’m not talking about chilled salad forks and stuffy service. I mean servers that give a damn. And guess what? If the owners don’t care, neither will the servers.
So, there you have it. Service counts and it is on its way to an untimely death thanks to poor management and untrained, unsupervised staff. It is also up to patrons to let management know the good and the bad. I am guilty of leaving a good tip AND not telling the management when we have lousy service. Which happens more times than even okay service. Why? Because I was a server for many years. A good one. I cared, knew the menu and sincerely wanted my guests to have a fabulous dining experience. So, it has forever left me giving the benefit of the doubt, even when it is not warranted. You know, maybe he is tired… Or maybe her boyfriend broke up with her… Not that either thing is an excuse. If you can’t leave it at home, then don’t come in. But, I am a softy when it comes to servers and try to be the guests I always liked when I was serving. Patient, understanding, nice and a good tipper. Okay. So, here I am the good guest. Now all that is missing is the good service.
So, let’s breathe some life into these non-nonchalant, clueless, surly servers stat. Because if we don’t and service dies, then so does the restaurant business.
Restaurant Wars-The Real Deal
For once I am not referencing a reality television show… I am talking about the REAL restaurant wars. The ones that go on, unsaid between diners and servers. First let me say that I worked my way through college and beyond in restaurants. I have been a server, a take-out person, bartender, cocktail waitress and catered. So, I have been THERE. And anybody who reads my blog knows I LOVE to go out to eat. So I am writing this from both sides of the coin.
First from a servers perspective. Most servers WANT to give you the best possible service. They want you to enjoy yourself, have a great meal and leave happy. But there are some things that are out of a servers control. I will probably miss a few things, but here is the list: the design of the restaurant, the noise level of the restaurant, the Chef, the kitchen, the staffing, the prices and the food. The server can do their absolute best to make sure your order comes out as you wish, but because they aren’t cooking it, there is only so much they can do and/or control. So please don’t punish your server if you are unhappy with the food. But really, the most important thing, I think, is that you tip a server for their SERVICE. Were they attentive? Did they genuinely care? Were they timely? This is what you base the tip on… Not if the restaurant was too cold or noisy. I know it seems simple, but you wouldn’t believe how many times my tip suffered because a guest was too cold or couldn’t hear.
Now, as a diner. As you can see, I KNOW what a server can and can’t control. But let me share some of my pet peeves as a diner with all those servers out there… First, smile. As harsh as it sounds, I don’t care if you had a bad day, lost your dog or broke up with your significant other. I am out to eat to enjoy myself. If you are that upset, stay home. Check back promptly after delivering food and if you see I am not eating a dish, find out why and try to rectify it… This part of the food IS in your control. If you don’t know the answer to a food or wine question, go ask somebody that does, don’t lie. People have food allergies, you don’t want to lie and then get somebody sick. This is my pet peeve, don’t be too personal with the table. Friendly, yes. All the details of your life? No. I am out to eat with the person I want to talk to, don’t monopolize and hover a table. Don’t deliver the check, unless I ask, while I am still eating my entree. And always offer dessert. That’s it, really. And guess what, I will always tip on service alone, not on all the other stuff. I know it is not your fault.
One final word. TIP! Don’t try to save money by scrimping on the tip. It isn’t right. Servers work very hard and earn every penny. Plus, they have to tip out bus boys etc. on their SALES. So when you under tip them, they take the fall. TIP WELL. This means 20% + for good service. I do believe tipping is Karmic. It really does come back to you, the good and the bad. Now, go out to eat and enjoy!
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