"We get a lot of interesting regulars, including the owner's coke dealer. He mostly hangs out at the bar.

So I guess keep your friends close, but keep your coke dealer closer."

--Waiter at a jazz spot

.......

Every waiter has a certain method or rhythm for keeping everything in flow. It can be overwhelming. You've got a number of tables and they're all at different points in the meal and you've got to know for each table when to go back to get more drinks, bring out entrees, drop off dessert menus, make sure the appetizers were brought out, bring out the check, etc...

But it all works, it does have a nice movement. Here's Mark talking about how he holds it all together. He works at an Italian place south of NYU.

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The worst thing is if you're not busy or...it's better if you're busy, because the time goes faster. You make more money. Actually, you get in a good flow. You do better work when you're busy.

When you're not, when you're...you forget. You make all your mistakes and you're slow. Right? When it's slow you make your mistakes. When it's busy, everything just clicks and you do a really good job.

Probably everybody has their own rhythm. Their own way of handling their station. Because you have a station, and you have all these things happening, and you have to be able to know what's happening at all your tables all the time. You really do.

It's almost like you're a puppeteer and you're pulling strings. And you pull that string there, and you let that one go down. Do this. Do that. And you have that much control. And it could be ten tables, but you know that at THAT table you're going to have to get desserts in two minutes, while you're bringing the drinks to another table. And then you're going to tell the specials to a third table.

And then you have desserts coming to the table and you're wondering when they are going to come out, and then you see two more tables being seated, and you might look at the people and tell they can wait, or they aren't the kind of people who can wait. Some people you know you can get away with more than others.

You can get a sense if they are tolerant people or very demanding people, I guess. It's nice to have tolerant people. Demanding people are tough. You don't want them to be too demanding.

You have to be in control, you have to know what you're doing. You're focusing on your station and you know everything that's happening and you know you have to do this and get through it. And you have to know what your priorities are. What you have to do first, second, third and you have to be on top of everything all the time because there's always the X factor.

There's always these points where something's going to happen to throw you off. And you have to neutralize that thing by always being on top of it. At least that's the way I feel about it.
8:48:28 AM     comment []