Top Of The Table

Christopher De Voss

Sept. 23, 2001

In the restaurant business we tend to forget that our paychecks rest solely in the number of patrons who walk through our front doors. Days can be long in this industry, tempers can flair, and the thought of home can be buzzing in the back of your mind like an annoying insect.

This is especially true at The End Of The Night. It's the magical moment in any restaurant professional's life: The End Of The Night. We all work for that hour, some of us even pray for that hour to come fast. It's the hour of breathing easy, and for all the smokers, the hour to fill that gnawing craving. It's the hour of determination and concentration to put to plan any necessary actions in order to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. I've seen people put more effort into leaving the restaurant than working the previous eight hours. Hey, I've been there too. I understand completely. I usually spearhead the countdown to The End Of The Night, and ring it in just like New Year's. Come on everyone, put on your party hats!

There is one person who sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of The End Of The Night celebration, and that's the guests. We cannot forget about them, as they sit in a mostly empty restaurant, with a mostly empty drink, sending up signal flares to try to get anyone's attention. Sure, it's annoying when they walk in, 5 minutes to close, but technically the restaurant is still open. My only advice to not having people show up on your doorstep at 5 minutes to close is to change the hours of operation sign. Let's say it reads 4 to 11, change it to read; 4 to 11 but you have to order before 10:30. I think that there is a national 5 Minutes To Close Restaurant Society, and these people thrive on the challenge of hitting various restaurants across the country at said time.

Try to remember the last guest is as important as the first guest, even though they sometimes tend to ruin the magical End Of The Night, by making it; The End Of The Night With One More Table That Just Walked In.

Bastards!

Recently the company I work for has decided to lay people off, due to lack of guests. It's a scary thing. This company has a thirty-year history, and for most of those thirty years people have flocked to it. It was already a bad year before disaster struck on September 11th, and that just made it even worse. Some really good servers and managers are going to lose their jobs, and they really should not.

One thing we cannot forget, and that is the guest is everything to us. No guests equals no restaurant. You read this and say Duh…or even Duh Dude…and the classic No Shit Sherlock…but when that last guest comes in, they want to spend money. It's our job to make them spend as much as we can, and make them come back and spend some more. Great service and great food is a winning combination; you cannot successfully guarantee return guests without it. You can have one with out the other, but that only guarantees a 50% change of guest return.

"Well, the food was good, but the service was horrible…and we are almost out of flares anyway."

Or,

"The service was great, but the food tasted like old, leftover, prison grub. Where did the chef go to school? Cell Block 5?"

Take care of everyone, no matter how early or how late they enter your establishment. Many a night my last couple of tables made up for a night of lousy tips.