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I work in a fantastic pizza restaurant as both a host and a server.
(It’s great- amazing bosses, amazing coworkers, and they feed us all
the time.)
I hosted for two years before starting to serve, but I loved it so
much I still host on Friday nights. These are some things I see all
the time- I just can’t believe how much some people don’t understand
how restaurants work.
A party of 14 will walk in at the busiest part of dinner, without
calling ahead or making a reservation, and are shocked and demand to
speak to a manager when I tell them there will be an hour and a half
wait. (And the front of the restaurant and the waiting area is TEEMING
with other people waiting.) Folks, you’re not the only people in the
area who want to eat here tonight. Learn to use a phone, even if you
only call half an hour away.
Our seating list is written on a white board on the wall next to the
host stand, and occasionally I have people stand and watch it like a
hawk. My favorite was when I erased the list to rewrite it neatly, and
a woman immediately ran up and asked if this meant I had taken her
name off the list.
We only do reservations for parties of ten or more, but we have call
ahead seating- and I train every host to make sure they are VERY clear
a call ahead party will still have to wait for a table when they
arrive. However, at least twice a night, I’ll get a “what do you mean
we have to wait 20 minutes? I have a reservation!” No, no you don’t.
Go sit down. The party behind you who didn’t call is waiting an hour,
stop complaining.
The classic “you know you have open tables, right? I can just bring
myself over…” Oh, you mean there’s open tables? Right there? I
probably don’t have a good reason for not saving them, like a
reservation, or a lack of server, or that I’m about to add it onto
another table for a big party…you better go sit down.
We write down the time people walk in and the wait time we tell them,
as well as tell the people what time it is when we take their name.
Once, I had a woman *insist* she walked in a full twenty minutes ahead
of the time she actually walked in, and that she was over her wait.
She was so furious we ended up getting her in faster- but I can’t
believe some people can be so infuriating.
My favorite story, and the one I tell to all the trainees, happened to
a fellow host one Sunday night. It was starting to slow down, and an
elderly gentleman (who had been quite nice to us earlier in the
evening) exited the bathroom, which is across from the host stand. He
walked over to us, put his hand on my coworker’s shoulder, and said,
“There’s no soap in the men’s room.” He even slid his hand down her
arm as he walked away. She, of course, freaked out and ran to scrub
her arm as I died laughing, and had one of the busboys go change the
soap before anyone else went in there.
I had a customer tell me once, “Everyone who wants to eat at a
restaurant should have to work in one for a week,” and I only wish it
was reality. Still, I love my job, and even on nights where my whole
body hurts and and I can’t wait to go home, I still leave with a smile
on my face.
- Caitlin
