If you have ever seen the movie Waiting, I would highly recommend it. Its premise is simple: never piss off the people who serve your food. As a waitress I can very much relate to that sentiment. I also work as a host at my restaurant once a week, which helps deal with those pesky taxes at the end of the year and has given me an important perspective in how restaurants work.
Today was Mother's Day, a day of celebration of moms everywhere, a supposedly happy and joyous day to treat your mother to a nice champagne and mimosa brunch. For many this was true, but for a select few they managed to turn brunch into 4 hours of hell.
In honor of this day, I would like to present a list of APPROPRIATE behavior in a restaurant. Today I will focus on the hosting side of things.
1. Reservations. Do not come to a busy restaurant in Georgetown, on a weekend night, and expect to be sat right away. We are obviously glad you are here, but we also have 300 reservations that called ahead.
2. Furthermore, if you arrive a half hour early for your reservation, don't be surprised when we can't seat you right away, or you may have to wait for a table to open up. This is just as important if you are late for your reservation. CALL AHEAD, its courteous and hosts will be more likely to be accommodating.
3. This is particular to restaurants on the waterfront, BUT the outside patio is first come first serve. That being said, expect to wait for a table when its busy.
4. Sit where you are sat. Simple enough, but the amount of people who request to be moved is positively mind blowing, and often they ask after they have ordered their food. If you are really dissatisfied that you are not right next to a window, ask, but often times when you move, you are moving to another section with another server. That means tables and food must be transferred and if that new server is busy you are actually hurting the quality of the service you receive.
5. We have a rule about full entree dining only in the restaurant. First our liquor license requires it. And second, servers are not cocktail waiters, they are here to serve you dinner, not to let you sit on the patio for 4 hours with your buddies while there is a 2 hour wait of families. Go to the bar for that.
6. Anger looks good on no one. Getting angry at the host will make them less accommodating and less likely to work hard to get you that really nice seat. Sometimes I wonder who has the patience to dine with these rude people, but I have been screamed at by patrons who are irrationally anger. I am sorry but I cannot create a table of 9 out of thin air, we have to wait for a table to get up and pay in order to seat you.
7. No other restaurant allows incomplete parties to be sat, so what makes you believe we will? Yesterday we almost had to call the police on an irate man who was in complete shock that we would not seat his party of 11 when only 3 of the people were in the restaurant. Learn some manners.
8. I am not stupid and don't judge me. I am about to graduate college, and I did not go to school for four years to be looked down by you. I work hard to pay my bills and my loans, and while you may think that this job is beneath you, I take great pride at being good at this one.
9. Service, but at what cost? The most common misconception is that at a restaurant we are "yes-people," that is the customer is always right. While we try our best to please the customer, we have to look at the well-being of the entire restaurant and all patrons not just you. We can not break the law just for you or tell a table that is already sat that they must get up to accommodate your needs. From the server's perspective this can be much worse (example: eating an entire plate of food and then complaining about it being terrible and wanting a refund).
10.Say thank you. On a holiday, especially when I am spending time away from my family its nice to have people say 'Thanks' or a simple 'Good Morning.'
That's it for now, my insomnia is slowly going away. Perhaps later this week I will create the server portion of this list, maybe with a little help from Flash who can relate to the woes of the service industry.
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