Friday, February 15, 2013

Welcome, February 15th. Servers Love You.

It is February 15th and we have survived another year serving on Valentine's Day. We all know it was horrible; two-top after two-top streaming into the restaurant trying to have their very own private special moment while crammed into a section that normally has three tables but on this day has five. Yes, we made money. Yes, we we worked hard. Yes, we welcome February 15th with open arms.

Here are some of the highlights of my  Valentine's Day:

  •  Getting to work and seeing that the whole menu had been reprinted and everything was one dollar more than it was on February 13th.
  • The mother and father who told their four year-old, "This is Mommy and Daddy's night, so we need you to be really quiet and play on the iPad." Cut to two hours later when the kid interrupts their lovemaking to ask for a glass of water and they just scream out for him to go play Angry Birds.
  •  Amanda and her two girlfriends who could not understand why it was going to take an hour to get them a three-top.  The restaurant was set up for couples and it takes forever for two two-tops that are next to each other to leave at the same time. Amanda and Company left after twenty minutes, presumably to go home to their dates for the evening: Ben and Jerry and big side of lonely
  • The man who called at 7:30 asking for a reservation. Hey, buddy, you're lucky we even had time to answer the phone. Any guy calling at 7:30 on Valentine's Day has poor time management skills and a really pissed off girlfriend. You're worse off than the men I saw at CVS yesterday afternoon scouring the picked over aisle of candy. Plan ahead, dude.
  • Brian who called at 9:15 to see if we were still on a waiting list. I told him that we only had two people on the list and I expected it to be slowing down in the next half hour or so. He showed up ten minutes later as part of a five-top and got pissed off that there was no table for them. "I just called, like two minutes ago and someone told me there were only two people on the list!" he tells me. "It was me you talked to, it was about ten minutes ago and people have continued to come in since then. And you did not tell me you were a party of five." They waited at the bar for thirty minutes until I was able to shove them into a booth that was way too small for five people.
  • The moment my manager finally cracked a smile. It didn't happen until almost 10:00. I expected him to have a managerial boner about the potential cover count but I guess the stress was too much to make him excited. He couldn't relax until he saw the light at the end of the "Closing at 11:00 Tunnel."
  • My co-workers who opened up a can of kick ass teamwork and made the night smooth and tolerable and almost enjoyable.
  • Telling people "no substitutions" all night.
  • Leaving work only forty-five minutes later than planned but still before closing.
  • Getting home to a surprise dinner of chicken and penne with homemade vodka sauce, salad and warm bread accompanied by pink tulips and a chilled bottle of champagne, followed by chocolate cupcakes with vanilla ice cream. Yes, I have a better husband than my husband does.
And how was your Valentine's Day??



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17 comments:

anne marie in philly said...

what a loving patient husband you have, bitchy!

quiet for me & spouse; we will go out on sunday to eat after the frou-frou has died down.

have a great weekend!

Unknown said...

We went out on the 12th and really avoided the big ol' rush.

JoeinVegas said...

Someone said (on your Facebook questions) that tips were lousy (only night out for some) but volume didn't make up for all of the work.
How did you do? Sounds like your getting home was the best part.

Ghadeer said...

"Getting home to a surprise dinner of chicken and penne with homemade vodka sauce, salad and warm bread accompanied by pink tulips and a chilled bottle of champagne, followed by chocolate cupcakes with vanilla ice cream. Yes, I have a better husband than my husband does"

Sounds lovely! :')

Anonymous said...

My dude made vodka sauce too!

Anonymous said...

Awww......
You should clone your husband, BW, he's perfect! And the world needs more perfection.
:-)
~PolishSpring

Anonymous said...

Let's see, morning shift that apparently needed to be over staffed so I made $25, The future father of my unborn baby decided he just can't deal with my 5 year old, and that the new born will be a separate entity from her, and my very same 5 year old got kicked out of catholic pre/school. This waitress is overjoyed it's a new day!!!

Anonymous said...

Thankfully this girl didnt have to work on vday, just got to stay home with my man all day and then go out to sushi (woot!!) yesterday. My coworkers were a little disappointed in the day: i work in a bar & grill so it was mainly bitter people getting close with good ol Jack.

Practical Parsimony said...

My exbf came here to help me with things I cannot do. I cooked him a huge lunch rather than the pbj or cheese sandwich he usually gets at lunch. At the end of the day, I got spiffied up (curled hair that I don't usually curl, wore earrings that were dangly, put on makeup. and wore red), and we went to a regularly scheduled church dinner.

Before we left, I forced him to pay a compliment by asking about how I looked, and teased him into a kiss. He acted annoyed but he was enjoying it...lol.

I knew the dinner would be junk food and it was. That is why I made us a lunch with real meat and fresh vegetables. The dinner was hot dogs and chips...yuck.

After midnight i drove to Walmart for something and found V-Day candy half off so had a $1 box marked to $0.50.

I was pretty bummed at not having a bf, but none beats a bad one.

It was a boring celebration but a productive day.

Rusty said...

Our store rocked. I live in a very warm resort town and this weekend has been off the hook with people taking their 3 day vacation to come here and get away from the cold north.

Our team is the best and it was fun. Everyone made lots of money, we broke 3 sales records, all guests were happy but most importantly our team was in good spirits.

Anonymous said...

I was just happy not to work. No reciting a fake "special" for a ribeye, house salad, baked potato and chocolate cake for the exact same price as it always is. Our managers just add up the cost of the ribeye dinner and the cake and make us recite it like its some insane discount, and dear god do people fall for it every year. Not to mention the hell of every table being a two top who just wants to sit there forever staring at each other. I stayed home and cooked my man venison sirloin topped with bleu cheese, bacon, and mushrooms.

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write my essay for me said...

Thankfully, this gal didn't have to work on Valentine's Day; instead, she got to spend the day with her guy and then go out to sushi (woot!!) the next day. In the day, my employees were a little disappointed: I work in a bar and grill, so it was mostly bitter folks getting close to good ol' Jack.

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