It's just after 1am - I just got home from work. I am exhausted.
My job tonight was to "follow the flow". This puts me right in the middle of the experience the entire night. First, I start at the door and spend time with the hostess greeting and seating guests. Then, after the first wave is sat in the dining room, I go to the bar and help with drinks. Next, I make my way to the kitchen and work the expo line. Expo is like the last line of defense in a restaurant kitchen. When the chefs finish cooking each plate they put it in the service window and the expo reads the order ticket and compiles the meal on the tray for the server to deliver. Expo physically looks at and touches every single plate that goes to a customer. This does not happen slowly, as you can imagine. It is a good place for a manger to be for a number of reasons. I can watch the ticket times which tells me how long guests are waiting for food, I can catch errors before they are seen in a dining room, I can monitor the quality of the product being served, I can control portion sizes, and I can influence presentation. After expo, I go back into the dining room and do table visits and talk to guests. I don't visit every table (that's annoying). Instead I find a reason to approach random tables (clear a plate, pick up a napkin, etc.) which makes conversation easier. Finally, I return to the hostess stand to thank people and ask them to return. Begin wave 2 - greet and seat - then the process starts over.
Following the flow is extremely difficult.
I got in a fight with a jar of mayonaise and it won - I need a shower.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
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