Aches, Pains and Free Pastries

Having worked most of my life past the age of 15, four years of which were in investment banking where 90 hour weeks once in awhile were expected, I can honestly say that for the same number of hours, working at a restaurant is definitely more exhausting. I am more tired from a 5-6 hour shift at a restaurant than a 12 hour day in banking. It's been an interesting, challenging and humbling experience these past two days.

Yesterday, I got to the restaurant around 9:30, and followed my manager around to learn what needs to be done in the 'opening' process. Everything seemed pretty self explanatory so far. Then around 10:30 we sat down for breakfast ... eggs ... loved it! At this point, I'm thinking, wow, all I've done is cut lemons and I get free breakfast, this isn't too bad. After breakfast, I learned a bit about table numbers and how to put orders into the computer system. After 11am, people started coming in for lunch, and I started hosting. I was supposed to host for the day and then follow around the server as part of my training. But since we only had one server (we were shorthanded, to say the least), it didn't matter where I seated people, the one server had to take all the tables (he is an amazing server). A second server arrived to help out after noon, and by then, we had at least 20 tables filled! So I started taking drink orders and bringing out drinks. Another hour later, my manager actually gave me 4 tables to practice serving! It was so chaotic, he and the COO were both helping the servers too, but it was a great team effort and we got through the lunch rush!

Serving is A LOT harder than it looks. I only had 4 tables, and it was STILL difficult to remember everything. At a table of 2, I'd forget who ordered what drink when I brought them out, I felt really stupid, but the guests were really nice and didn't give me a hard time. At one point, I literally could not remember if I put in the order for one of the tables that I was helping out with, I got SO nervous! It's difficult also because while you're heading to the kitchen to get drinks, another table may stop you and ask you for something, so then you have two things to remember, and then your manager asks you to do something else before you even get to the drinks.

At the end of the day, my feet and legs were SO sore, and the shoes I wore were definitely not appropriate. They were the only flats I had, but they were not comfortable. The skin on my heels were completely scraped off (sorry if this is gross). My feet hurt so bad that I drove straight to Macy's, got to the shoe department, took off my shoes and walked around barefoot. I bought another pair of flats that hopefully will not scrape my skin off, plus a couple of black shirts for work. By the time I got home, I just wanted to sit and stare at the wall until I fell asleep, which I did a little after 10pm.

**Oh, and a really interesting thing happened yesterday. My manager asked me if I had written about the fact that I was working at the museum restaurant on my blog. I didn't even tell him I had a blog! Apparently, the museum has something set up where any myspace, facebook, blog entries about the museum would get filtered into their system. So when I wrote the museum name in my blog entry, it popped up on their filter and they actually read my entry and found that he hired someone from NYC. LOL! How cool is THAT?! So now I have to be careful about what I write on here, who knows what other 'filters' are out there? I guess it's a smart tool to have as an organization, so you know what other people are saying about you.**

This morning I got in to work at 10am, we didn't have time for breakfast, so we just prepared for lunch. It was busy today but we had 3 experienced servers so it was manageable. I had a small section of my own today, so I am officially a server. It was an 'easy' section, as they are small tables and not as busy, so I can handle them at a slower pace. I think I'm starting to learn the 'flow' better, but I still have a long ways to go from being decent. I broke a glass in the kitchen today, oye. My manager asked me to try taking out 3 plates at a time, and I looked so shaky that he ended up taking one out of my hand for fear of me dropping them, double oye. I don't know which is more embarrassing, not being able to pull a trigger or not being able to balance a plate on my arm. I'm also having difficulty carrying a tray of glasses on my palm, not sure why that is. No one else seems to have that problem.

Anyway, it's really been a humbling experience. To be the oldest person, knowing the least, and already learning that it's probably not something that I'll ever be amazing at. And learning to be okay with it. I had a couple of wonderful tables who were extremely friendly and tipped well. Then I had a few who didn't tip as well, including one who took every penny of his change. I have to assume that some people just don't understand the tipping system. Yes servers get a 'base', it's something like $3-4 per hour, almost all of which is taken away in taxes because we have to pay taxes on the tips we make, which gets deducted from our hourly paychecks. PLUS, from the amount that we make in tips, we have to 'tip out' the host(ess) AND people who work in the kitchen. On average today, I ended up with about a 15% tip across all my tables, which is not too terrible. But since I had so few tables, I made $25 in tips, haha! Seriously, that's $5 per hour. I am glad I'm not doing this for a living, because I'd be starving and homeless, haha. Well, servers with experience can make pretty good money in one day, since they can handle the high volume. I think the manager felt bad for me that I made practically no money today, he gave me some pastries to take home (they can't sell them the next day anyway). Chocolate raspberry cake, so good, I shared it with my aunt.

Hopefully, I'll get to rest my feet this weekend and let my skin grow back before I have to work on Monday, haha. But I realized today that now I actually have a reason to treat myself to a spa day here in Phoenix. Apparently, the city is known for its many amazing spas, and while I've considered going to one while I'm here, about a week ago I thought, why would I go to a spa, I just hang around the house and go to museums, I'm not doing anything stressful or physically strenuous. So while it would have been nice to go to a spa on my 'vacation', it's extra nice to go after a few weeks of serving!

We'll see how next week works out :) My manager says he'll try to add a table a week to my section as I get more comfortable with it. So that's about it on my first couple of days in the restaurant business. As difficult and tiring as it's been, it really has been a fun experience. The other servers have been really patient and helpful in teaching me, and I'm getting to burn some calories while eating free meals and pastries, haha! If nothing else, this experience has given me a newfound respect and appreciation for people who work in restaurants. I am a pretty good tipper, but I now understand why friends who have worked in restaurants tip ESPECIALLY well. It is not an easy job, so please keep that in mind the next time you're eating out :)