Back in the game

Alright, so I sort of suck as a blogger… consistency is clearly not my thing when it comes to online journal-keeping. However, I’m feeling a bit inspired; maybe this time will stick.

The semester is finally over which means more shifts at work, a very good thing for someone with an ever-increasing credit card bill and a car payment. The nice thing is, since I mostly bartend, I get plenty of shifts and lots of shifts with hourly pay instead of the paltry $2.13/hr servers get. No one’s really making much money right now with the way people are spending less and less, and fewer people are even going out to eat anyways, so its nice to have any little leg up.

While its nice to be back at work a little more, its nice to be moving onward too. Since I only have one semester left in school, this was my summer to score an internship or even another job where I could start to work with my major a bit more. I jumped the gun a bit and signed up to be a summer tutor at the Carnegie Center, thinking an internship was going to be impossible to come by, but I got accepted with the Kentucky Women Writers Conference! I think my General Manager is more than a little disappointed that I’m not looking to stay at TR’s for life, or at least as a 4th manager for a while. But, after 5 and a half years, I’m definitely ready to move on.

A serving life is a tough life, on your body, on your wallet, and primarily on your sanity. It feels good to look back and know that I’ve done well, and look forward and know that there’s something else there. But before I go giving my two-weeks notice, there’s still a whole summer and another semester ahead of me (make that 6 years!) and we’ll see how low the credit card bill can get by then…

 

Let Me Eat Cake…

Thank God we’re not one of those restaurants who sing to people on their birthdays. I’m not sure why there are still restaurants that do that anyways. Every time the servers start streaming out of the kitchen clapping their hands and singing grotesquely out of tune birthday chants, NOBODY in the surrounding area looks happy. All it does is disturb the other patrons, disrupt anything the servers have going on, and the birthday-person gets a miserable embarrassed look on their face (unless they’re drunk and surrounded by 14 drunk friends.) At TR’s we bring out a brownie sundae with a smile on our face and some extra spoons and walk away unembarrassed and much more dignified. However, on the rare occasion that a large group brings their own cake, all are guilty to submitting to shameless acts of birthday gaiety to try and score a piece and/or the rest of the cake.

Last night was one such instance. We had a group of 30, super annoying, raucous guests, who first came and sat at the bar where Joel and I had to deal with all manner of crazy requests from them. Finally, they sat down with poor Jessica who had been having a rough night as it was. The entire time they were sitting, no one stayed put. They all wandered around and visited with the other end of the table, and delivering food was a nightmare since no one was sitting where they were supposed to. I felt sorry for Jessica, and the other patrons who had to put up with all their noise and commotion. However, the end brought hope (and a $70 gratuity!) They had one of the most amazing cakes I have ever had a taste of at TR’s. Thick, fluffy, whipped cream frosting and a spongy, moist, white cake made us all smile ever more broadly and manipulate service ever so cunningly to sample the heavenly sheet cake. And Eureka! When they left, they left the rest of the cake for us poor, lowly service people- who promptly devoured it with little to no decorum back in the server alley.

 

Trainees…

This week we’ve got A LOT of trainees coming through, which is really nice because we need a lot more servers to fill out the staff and make scheduling easier. Last night, I was “mentoring” Kevin (I think using the word mentor is appropriate since who doesn’t want to be a little bit more like me?) He did great, especially considering it was only his third shift. He did well enough that he ran the entire shift; he took care of all the tables including a 7-top, which is big stuff for a new person. But the best part about having a trainee (other than having someone to do all your work for you) is that people tip waaaaay better. I’m not sure if its because they think we have to share our tips (I did last night b/c he did all the work, but don’t tell anyone since its against the rules!) or they feel sorry for the new guy, and so they give him more money. But whatever it is, definitely makes my job better (not to mention the pay increase and free food for being a trainer!)

Next week, a bunch of the servers from Louisville are coming down to re-train with us as well. I think its supposed to be all the staff members who are committed and dedicated to trying to make the Louisville franchise a lot better. That poor restaurant has had so many troubles recently. I’m really excited for them to come down and see how close are staff members are here in Lexington, and how we work together really well. I’m pretty jealous though because Norm and Jabo (our Director of Operations and Owner) are putting them up in a hotel to stay while they’re here. The Lexington staff needs a hotel party for sure! Well, maybe not, considering we got banned from the Hilton after last year’s Christmas party…

Tonight, Joel and I are bartending together so I’ll let you know how that goes! Hopefully there won’t be any crazy drunk men and/or big parties to clog everything up!