It's 9:45 pm on a Saturday night and I'm working the closing shift at the restaurant. We were abnormally slow-feeling but I don't think we were actually slow per-se, we just had a lot of servers on and a lot of support staff so we weren't running around like crazies. Anyway, I had had a so-so night and I had one last table finishing up their dinner, the rest of my section was clean and reset and I was starting on my closing side-work.
In walks a couple and their two small children, and guess what, they get seated in my section. I am a little annoyed at this since it's so close to closing time, but it's to be expected as a closer. You expect to get one or two late two-top tables in the last half hour before close, but they are usually pretty quick. I'm more perturbed by the fact that these people are bringing their young kids (both under 6 I am guessing) out to dinner at ten o' clock at night. Shouldn't they be in bed, or getting ready for bed?
As a co-worker and I are discussing this (she has kids of her own) in strolls a walk-in party of TEN with four adults and SIX CHILDREN under eight. At 9:55 pm, five minutes til close.
The second I see them I know it's gonna be an even longer night. I overhear the hosts say that the only place to fit them is in my section. UGH. Of course.
Let me just lay down some really basic things you should know if you ever eat out at a restaurant. Let's call it customer etiquette:
1. If your party is over 4, odds are the restaurant is going to have to make special seating accommodations for you as the majority of tables in a restaurant seat four people max. So make a reservation. Even if it's a Monday afternoon at 3 o' clock. Even if it's the same day and you can only call a few hours ahead of time. It's just common courtesy. You wouldn't want fourteen people showing up unannounced at your doorstep at dinnertime (or bedtime) would you? Neither do we.
2. I know our hours say we close at ten. That means the kitchen should shut down AT TEN. If we wanted to stay open til 10:30, or 11, we would have those be our hours. However, if you are seated before then we technically have to stay open until you order and your food is made, and until you leave so we can clean up. As a server on a busy night we are usually in the eighth straight hour (at least) of work with no break when you come waltzing in five minutes before close. To take that one last table means that we have to stay what usually amounts to an extra hour and a half. This means the kitchen staff, wait staff, cooks, bussers, managers, etc are on the clock for an extra 60 to 90 minutes. Take the hourly wage for all those people and add it up. Then compare it to your $40 tab. You are, quite simply, wasting the restaurants' money. So just don't do it. If you are desperate, order quickly and pay and get the heck out. Respect the restaurant and the server's time. More often than not your measly tip on top of their even more measly hourly wage just doesn't make it worth it for anyone involved.
3. And finally, be aware that the staff is going out of their way for you. Make it worth their while. I know a lot of servers grumble about tips, but the majority of the time it is not really the actual amount of a tip that makes or breaks the night for us. It is what it symbolizes. To us, there is a big difference between 10 and 20 percent, even if monetarily it is only a few bucks. If I give you good service and you recognize that I went out of my way for you after hours (and your six children who are driving down my check average and my gratuity) leave a couple extra dollars. Honestly, five more dollars added on to your 18% automatic gratuity (on your pathetic check because of all the kids meals and all those waters and free kids drinks you had that you made me refill three times--because really who wouldn't want their kids to have three sodas at eleven o'clock at night) isn't going to make or break my night....or YOUR wallet for that matter.....but it's the gesture and the principle of the thing.
(And you'd better believe that as pissed as I was about the situation, I gave them excellent and prompt service with a big old smile because that's how good an actor I am :))
So, at the end of the night, around 11:30 pm, after they have left and I have bussed and cleaned and reset the tables I go to cash out my remaining open checks. The party of ten? Their tab came out to under 90 dollars making my %18 gratuity a mere $16. Did they leave A CENT over 18%? You'd better believe they didn't. And the kicker? The family of four, who didn't have automatic gratuity added, left me $5 on a $50 dollar check. But, I guess it's to be expected...the fact that you are even there at all in that situation tells me you are socially retarded. And congratulations, you just proved it to me.
It's like how every server knows that on "special occasions" like V-Day and New Year's they are going to have lots of tables of crazy people who are bad tippers. People who only come out from under their rock once or twice a year and clearly don't know how things work. That's how we know that when you walk in the door five minutes before close our night just got a whole lot longer and a whole lot crappier. I knew it, all the other servers who were shooting me pity looks knew it, and my manager who graciously bought my dinner because he felt bad for me knew it.
So yeah, next time you get hungry and your favorite place's dining room is closing in fifteen minutes? Skip it and go to McDonalds.
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