Campers

When servers are talking about campers, they are talking about the people who sit at the table long before the meal has been paid for.

I had a bad case last night of that. It was Friday night and we were at a 45 minute wait from all the people that were waiting to be seated. One of my tables decided to sit for about 30 minutes after I handed back their check. This becomes very frustrating. I wish people could understand how much money that is actually costing me. On Friday night I could have gotten at least one more table and made more money.

If you want to continue to drink alcoholic drinks or eat dessert that is acceptable. When guests are just sipping on sodas which have free refills, servers are losing money. Maybe these people could find coffee shop, or bar where they could sit and talk. I understand that people meet each other and they typically haven't seen each other in a while. I think servers would appreciate it if they would take up one of their tables somewhere else where it more acceptable to stay for long periods of time.

Reducing Waste

Check this article out: reducing waste.

I really enjoyed reading that article. I experience how much waste goes on in restaurants first hand. It gets pretty carried away. When I grew up my parents are stressed the importance of conserving things and making sure to recycle what was possible. At times it seems the principles in a restaurant are the exact opposite of that.

A lot of food gets wasted, there is no doubt about that, but I think paper needs to be reduced a lot as well.

Food can get wasted many ways. A server can ring in the wrong thing and usually the food is basically unusable after that. Also restaurants portions can be generously described as excessive. A lot of food that gets put in front of guests is pretty much impossible for one person to eat. At Red Lobster guests get salads and biscuits before their meal. I usually never pick up empty salad plates. Usually someone either doesn't eat all of their salad or else they leave the onion, cucumber, and/or tomatoes that come with the salad. Another main waste as far as food is concerned is the sides that Red Lobster provides along side the entrée. Examples of a side would be mashed potato, baked potato, french fries, rice pilaf, or broccoli. Usually a guest gets so full from eating the salad biscuits and their main dish that these sides get ignored. It would be interesting to see what impact composing food would have.

I believe that paper gets wasted more than food at Red Lobster. Everything that is done is pretty much written down. Obviously servers write down orders but paper is also used for many different things. Managers are constantly using paper to assign tables to servers or post messages. Schedules are always printed out and posted. Sales numbers and guests compliments are getting posted on paper. Receipts can be wasted a lot as well. Just a credit card payment alone the guest gets three copies of the receipt. Many mistakes can be made which requires receipts to get reprinted. Hosts are always using paper to write down what tables to be sat and what tables are full.

Some of these things I think would be hard to eliminate the use of paper. Going more electronic things would certainly help out but the main thing that should be done is recycling. Anything that is written on or else has paper involved should be recycled. Currently there is no paper recycling going on. The only thing that gets recycled is cardboard boxes. I am just giving an example of one restaurant in Cedar Rapids, IA. Thinking about the restaurants worldwide is kind of sickening thinking about all the waste.

Looong Weekend

The picture above is what my shift felt like on Saturday!!
Long work hours at during the weekend definitely make the weekends go by faster (like I needed help with that). This weekend I spent a total of 23 hours on the clock. 10 and half alone on Saturday. I think my tables could sense some fatigue setting in around the end of my shift on Sunday.

Overall it was a good weekend money wise. People seemed to be in good spirits and happy to be out to eat. That always helps work go by faster. Being able to have an engaging conversation with guests I think helps me to be a better server. Sometimes I need to be careful that I'm not spending too much time with a single table and make sure I pay attention to them all. Having a friendly conversation with your server, as opposed to just giving orders, makes their time and more than likely yours as a customer more worthwhile.

Body language when I first show up to a table usually signals me on how to treat them. Its kind of comical when you approach a table and can tell there is some tension in the air (usually siblings or middle aged couples). Being open to conversation will usually help you out to be able to effectively communicate to your server what you want. I guess the number one excuse I could give to a customer is to lighten up and your dining experience will be more enjoyable for yourself and your server.

Lobsterfest!

I am sure many people have been annoyed with the Red Lobster commercials recently but yes it has been Lobsterfest for almost a month now. This is by far the busiest promotion of the year. It is no coincidence that corporate has scheduled this promotion to be active during lent.

Lobsterfest is basically a big celebration of lobster throughout the menu. One of the big selling points for servers is the Lobster Lover's Dream that is on the promotional menu. The picture to left is the Lobster Lover's Dream that is featured. One of the reasons I usually point it out to guests is because it cost approximately $30 for the dish. It actually is a really good deal considering we are in the Midwest, not an ideal location to get seafood delivered to.

Lobsterfest also features many different dishes paired with lobster. There is snow crab legs with lobster and shrimp, also an entrée that features grilled lobster with two skewers of grilled shrimp. Guests can also choose from dishes of lobster paired with a sirloin, or else stuffed Tilapia with lobster in a cheese sauce poured over top.

If you have never experience Lobsterfest or Red Lobster in general this is a great time to come and try it. Red Lobster also features a grill that actually burns Oak wood. I would encourage anyone to try some grilled food at Red Lobster. I actually enjoy the steaks there more than I do at Texas Roadhouse, the wood fire grill makes all the difference. Hurry and try it out before Lobsterfest ends on April 26th. Also ask for the best server this side of the Mississippi!

Child served alcohol in Michigan brings up a funny memory

Over the weekend a child in Michigan was served alcohol at an Applebee's. Read the story here. This story is very surprising to me. I don't know the way Applebee's operates but at Red Lobster there is no way this could accidentally happen. It sounds like at the Applebee's they had a different way of operating. The containers are very clear as to what is in them. Different liquids have different colors (that clearly stick out from one another). Most of the juices that we have on hand are in the container they come in. So cranberry juice for example is in a typical cranberry juice container you would see at a store.

I have seen this story on various news sites which makes me believe that this doesn't happen very often. I am surprised that simple mistakes like this aren't more common. I'm sure the fact that Applebee's is a corporate restaurant that is popular around the country is one of the reasons it is making national news. It would be interesting to know what kind of consequences resulted from this happening. If a table told me I sold their child alcohol I think I would laugh at them. This just seems pretty ridiculous.

My sophomore year of high school my family went to Seattle for my cousin's wedding. Oddly enough this sort of thing happened to me. I ordered a root beer and the server accidentally brought me out a beer. My parents politely alerted the server the mistake he had made and he got me a root beer. This mistake is a little more understandable. Most restaurants only carry root beer in the bottle, which tend to look very similar. If I can remember correctly this restaurant in Seattle took pride in brewing its own root beer. They must have made the mistake of creating a very similar bottle to their beer. This was obviously a mistake by the server that is understandable. He doesn't have control over what the bottles look like. As more details emerge from this incident in Michigan it will be interesting to see who was at fault.

An End to Servers!?

I was shocked when one of my friends said that automated servers existed. I had to go online and find for myself if one actually existed. There were many different examples of restaurants that had made the switch to computers serving customers.

I don't really know what to think about robots as being servers. I'm not really surprised at the idea considering these days everything gets changed to a computerized or more efficient version. Thinking of all the running around I do especially on busy nights; I'm sure the robots could serve a lot more efficiently than I could.

I am skeptical if this could ever actually work. Guests are always going to want to complain or have some sort of interaction with staff at the restaurant. Also refills of drinks or any other condiments would have to be taken into account. Also boxing up food could be an issue. As the world continues to find new technology you can expect this to become more and more popular!

Here is another example from Asia:

Experiences at the lob: 4/7

Since some classmates of mine suggested I make posts about actual experiences at work here is my first one. Tonight was a pretty slow night at Red Lobster. I started my shift at 5:45 and waited probably 10-15 minutes to get my first table. My first two tables (were only allowed to have 3 tables at a time) were sat pretty close to the same time so I got pretty occupied in trying to get to their needs in a timely manner. While I was tending to these tables I noticed the hosts were setting up a "large party". At Red Lobster this means a table that is going to have 8 or more people sitting at it. Corporate only allows for one server to be responsible for 7 guests at one table at a time. That is why a table with 8 or more guests at it is considered to be a "large party".

Anyways, once I got the first tables situated I looked into the party situation. 6 ladies were sitting at the table and my partner who was serving the table with me had already gotten them drinks. When I went over to introduce myself I asked how many more they were waiting on and they said only one more guest would be joining them. At that point my partner decided to take the party on their own since it was only going to be 7 people. These situations are actually pretty common. Hosts will set up a big party because a guests comes in and tells them a certain number of people will be joining them. This occupies two server's tables at the same time. When the guest number is reduced to allow one server to take the table; the other server who was planning on waiting on that table is out of a table for a certain period of time. The time I had to wait for a third table was half an hour from when my second table got sat. This is pretty frustrating because as a server you are hoping to constantly have three tables at time to hopefully maximize the tip money. The half hour I went without a table turned out to be the busiest part of the night so I unfortunately lost out on some money.

After the whole party situation got cleared up and I received a third table the night ran pretty smooth. It was an average weeknight at Red Lobster; not too slow or busy. I am not sure about other restaurant's policies on how many people can sit at a table before another server has to help out. Always be sure how many people will be joining you when going out to eat. Being 1 or 2 people off isn't usually too big of a deal, everyone understands it can happen.