Gordon Ramsay’s Dwarf Porn Double Found Dead in a Badger Den in Wales | thetelegraph.com.au

Best headline ever!

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/weird/gordon-ramsays-dwarf-porn-double-found-dead-in-a-badger-den-in-wales/story-e6frev20-1226137951576

Waiter hits Batali with harass suit – New York Daily News

This is a slightly older story but worth sharing. Plus, it will keep this blog in life support!

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-12-22/news/30548900_1_babbo-lawsuit-charges-joseph-bastianich

Angry CEO Allegedly Breaks Waiter’s Finger – ABC News

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/angry-ceo-allegedly-breaks-waiters-finger/

Time to give the finger back…

…AND lighten the wallet a little…

Languedoc – France’s lab for a new wine wave

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2012%2F01%2F08%2FFD0Q1MKP3B.DTL

Nice article for wine geeks.

Here’s to a safe and prosperous New Year!

I wanted to pop in and hope that each and every one of you is safe this New Year’s Eve. For those of you who have to work, I hope that the guests are generous and cheerful and I remind you that you’re getting off work about the time that crazy, drunk motherfuckers are getting behind the wheels of their cars. Be careful and make sure that you’re not one of those crazy, drunk motherfuckers.

For those of you who are dining out on New Year’s Eve, I hope you get the best service and I hope you have a little patience with your service staff. And, by all means, be generous, both in money and in spirit.

I hope to be more prolific in the coming year, but I haven’t been very successful in getting back in the swing of things. Keep your fingers crossed!

Be cool, jewel.

Holidays

Well, the holiday season is officially started. In many restaurants, this week is a sort of calm before the storm. Next week is when it gets started in earnest.

Now’s the time to get into the correct head space. Things worth considering:

Shifts, especially lunch, get longer. Cuts usually can’t happen when they usually do and this can be tough since we tend to get into a groove and a rhythm. Might as well just accept it now.

The closer you are to the mall or shopping areas, the more stressed out shoppers you’re likely to encounter. Try to be a little more patient with people when they seem to be on their last nerves. It’s hard when they don’t seem to understand that you’re just as stressed, if not more so. But this is the time where a little bit of compassion can pay dividends in the form of higher tips from grateful diners. Try to accommodate this as much as you can and you’ll find that it will pay off more often than not. This isn’t the time to really push table turns, even if you’re getting that pressure from management. A good manager will realize that table times are just naturally longer, but, as we know, not every manager is a “good one”. It’s hard to veer away from your normal practices but I guess I’m saying just try to roll with the flow of each table.

Be more aware of alcohol consumption and remember that sometimes, guests might already be coming from parties or other gatherings where alcohol has been served. Start watching guest behavior early and try to keep them safe.

Try to be as upbeat as possible, even as you’re getting your butt kicked or having the holidays kicking your butt just as your guests are experiencing.  This goes without saying, but sometimes it’s just hard to reflect a joyful spirit when the shifts are long, the diners testy, etc. Here’s one way of getting through it – remember that for most of us, December is like June and July combined. Your wallet will thank you.

And speaking of that, now is the time to squirrel some of that extra cash away, whether it’s to add to your tax withholding for the next quarter or as an emergency fund for the slower summer months (assuming of course that you aren’t in a tourist area that’s busy during the summer).

And, of course, now is the time to count your blessings, stake stock of your personal situation and plan for the next year. Just don’t make any resolutions please. Most of the time, they are just stupid and get forgotten by Valentine’s Day.

Happy Holidays from me to you and yours!

Waiters are people too

Did you see the special guest commentator on CBS Sunday Morning last Sunday?

If not, go here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7388992n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

 

 

Business dinners redux redux

In part one, we discussed the beginning of the business dinner.

We’re going to wrap up the discussing in this post.

After presenting and serving the wine, it became clear that they weren’t going to need a lot of entertaining, as people kept talking about this and that to each other. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason or any particular direction that the various conversations were going in.

So, this was my cue to ask if they wanted me to order some appetizers. Which they did. And I did.

 This gave me another clue as to how to wait on them. I suspected that they wouldn’t even need me to give them a song and dance about “The Specials”. Sometimes you can just tell that they are simply going to order directly off the menu. When this happens, the best thing to do (especially with a group of 6 or more) is to simply start going around the table and quietly ask each person if they’ve decided. This accomplishes two things. First, it establishes that the meal is going forward and, it gets the menus out of their hands. Menus can be a real distraction if you have appetizers coming.

So I started around the table and, sure enough, I got an order pretty quickly.

The rest of the meal was pretty standard. Appetizers were served and eaten, app plates bussed and new silverwear marked, salads dropped, salad plates bussed, silver marked and entrees delivered.

Finally, about 3/4ths through the entrees, one of the principals started making a low-key pitch. Apparently, they were trying to entice a couple of potential new account managers. At this point, I made myself scarce, although I stayed within eyesight most of the time. Whenever I had to refill a glass or remove a plate, I did it as silently as I could. I was like a Ninja!

As is the custom with a lot of this type of group, when they finished their meal, they were pretty much ready to wrap up the eating.  I gave them a cursory “W0uld you like to see a dessert menu”, knowing that they wouldn’t be interested. I did have a couple of coffee and espresso orders though.

At the end of the meal, I presented the check and the guy said, “Great service as usual”. I was pretty sure that this wasn’t the kiss ‘o death that it usually was. The bill ended up $1150. I thanked him and shook his hand and them proceeded to shake each of the other guests’ hands one by one.

The tip?

$240.

Nice.

I guess the thing that I’m trying to get across is that the business dinner can be lucrative if you follow the cues that your guests are giving you. Not every business dinner is going to go this smoothly or have a huge payoff.  The key is to go where they lead you, establish yourself with the table, and try not to step all over whatever business that they might be conducting. Just remember this as well - they don’t have to be overtly discussing business to be conducting business. Sometimes, the dinner IS the business.

From Tip20! – The right to do your own server accounting…

An interesting “Dear Tip20! question was posed to the blog. I’m going to reproduce the question and answer and then give my own viewpoint:

Tip20! User Question:

“Hi,
I’m a server at a breakfast place and some really shady stuff has been going on! I’ve always worked in places where I have my own bank and we have POS systems. This place is not like that! They have a cash register and we hand right tickets, ring it in to an ancient register, staple it and turn it into the kitchen. Anyhow, my concern is all tickets are cashed out as cash.. even when that ticket is paid for on credit card. So me and my fellow servers started noticing we weren’t making as much on the day’s we have a particular hostess aka asst. manager! Therefore, I started making copies of every ticket I printed out for that day! At the end of the day I look at my end of the day checkout to see how much sales, togo’s, and housed items I have! Well, management does not like this and has stopped letting me look at my checkout slip! My question is, Isn’t it my right to see MY checkout? At other places i’ve work I actually had to print my own checkout and sign it! very curious what you think…”

Dear “What are my rights”,

As always, I must state that I am not a lawyer and am not qualified to give legal advice…

It does seem obvious that there are shenanigans going on at your work place. But whether you have “rights” or not is a fuzzy grey area.

Not knowing your exact work environment – and/or owner involvement it seems that you are in a pickle. If the Managers have final say in everything that happens in the restaurant, then in my opinion you are screwed. There is a conspiracy of some sort that you are fighting against and are unlikely to win. You really have no “rights” to speak of, as you are employed at their whim. If you feel you are being stolen from, then it seems only fair to yourself to confront the issue with management. Is the owner a player in this? If so, I would definitely let them know that you feel you are being taken advantage of. Often the problem with smaller mom-and-pop operations is that you can end up with uncomfortable situations and inappropriate work conditions.

I believe you should be able to review your slips and keep good accounting. But if they don’t let you, I believe that is their prerogative. having said that, I would not work very long under those conditions personally. Is there anyone in the company that you can go to, to air your concerns?

Tip20!

I will also say that I’m not a lawyer. I’m also going to assume that the writer is in the US.

One thing that Tip20! doesn’t address is the fact that, according to US current labor law interpretation by the Department of Labor, tips are considered the sole property of the employee and must be allowed to retain all tips, with the exception of tip pooling to other “normally tipped employees”. This precludes tipouts to others not normally tipped, such as managers, kitchen employees, custodial employees, etc. – more about this in a moment.

In order to assure that you aren’t participating in a “tipout” that you didn’t agree to (a tipout to the hostess/assistant manager could be allowed as a tipout since the assistant manager is “technically” a hostess, which can be a tipped position), you should have the right to have access to your own daily sales report.

There are some wrinkles to what I’ve written above though.

First of all, there are states that don’t allow a tip credit, states that already mandate full minimum wage for all employees. Oregon is a such a state, as are California and Washington, all of which mandate a higher minimum wage than the Federal minimum wage for all employees. Here’s some insight about how Oregon treats tips:

Oregon law fails to address tips and tip pools and, therefore, BOLI does not enforce any standards regarding tips.  While the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) establishes regulations regarding tips based on the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the DOL and the courts interpret the law differently.  Recent cases within the United States District Court for the District of Oregon have held that the FLSA does not regulate tips if the employer does not claim a tip credit (and Oregon prohibits employers taking a tip credit).  Employers are also free to make the tip pooling arrangements they dictate a condition of employment. As a result, even though the Department of Labor regulations grant restaurant workers control over their tips, those workers cannot currently assert those rights in Oregon courts.

They go on to describe the Federal standard quite succinctly:

Below are the standards set by the U.S. Department of Labor on the topic of tips.  Be aware, these interpretations are specific to DOL and the FLSA and are not meant to be confused for Oregon employment law.

Tips:

All tips that an employee receives are his or her property.  The law forbids any arrangement between the employer and the tipped employee whereby any part of the tip received becomes the property of the employer.

Tip Pools:

The requirement that an employee must retain all tips does not preclude a valid tip pooling or sharing arrangement among employees who customarily and regularly receive tips, such as waiters, waitresses, bellhops, counter personnel (who serve customers), busboys/girls and service bartenders.

Tip Pool Criteria:

• consists of traditionally tipped employees: waiters, waitresses, servers, bartenders, counter personnel (who serve customers), busboys/girls, and hosts
• cannot include owners or managers in the tip pool
• cannot take more than a “customary and reasonable” amount of each employee’s tips (15% of tips or 2% of sales is customary and reasonable according to the Department of Labor)

When non-traditionally tipped employees are included in a tip pool, that is when the system has to be entirely voluntary—each employee can decide how much (if any) of her tips to share with anyone else.

Here is the whole blog page:

http://pdxrwa.org/category/know-your-rights-a-restaurant-workers-survival-guide/introduction/tip-pooling-tip-out/

This is the reason why kitchen employees in Oregon are tipped out in quite a few restaurants. In my state, tipping out kitchen employees wouldn’t be allowed because I live in a $2.13/hr state.

The other wrinkle is whole “hostess/assistant manager” thing. If she is acting as a hostess, then she falls under the “traditionally tipped” category and is entitled to a tipout if she is part of a tip pooling arrangement that everyone has agreed to.

What’s interesting is that the DoL used to have “interpretations” of the US Code that apply to tipped employees on their website. These no longer exist. It’s possible that, with certain court rulings in certain states like California, they no longer offer these “interpretations” because of uncertainty in some areas. Or they might just have revamped the web site.

Business dinners redux

I know I’ve discussed the concepts around serving business dinners but I recently waited on one the other night and, well, I need to get back in the swing of things, so I thought I’d dissect  this particular one.

It was a 7 top. They were all late 30s – mid 40s. Dark suits. Well groomed but not stuffy. They were all talking with each other as they sat down. As they settled in, they were all engaged in conversation, joking a bit and smiling.

At this point, as I brought them their menus, I scanned the table and saw that every one of them was either laughing of smiling and they seemed to be in the mood to enjoy their time together. As I passed out the menus, I asked them if they wanted the wine list. One pointed to the other, who pointed to another and two of them pointed to another guy. So I said,  ”Guess you’re elected by popular vote”, which elicited some chuckles.

At this point, I knew that they were going to be a pleasure to wait on.

I’m going to stop here to say that it’s the initial impressions of a business table (or any table for that matter) that will determine what your service strategies are going to be. They were all dressed very formally but their demeanor was one of relaxation. Had they conveyed seriousness when they sat down, I would have been more formal. Or, had they been dressed more casually but seemed to be “all business”, I would have been similarly more reserved. I think what I’m trying to say is that you have to be sensitive to all aspects of the table, from their dress to their mood, to their body language.

So, rather than wait for a wine choice, I immediately asked first for their water choice and if they wanted cocktails. Which they did.

For those of you who haven’t waited on a lot of business people, take note – a lot of the time, the first thing they want to do is have a round of cocktails, even if they’re going to have wine. So don’t try to jump the gun and force a wine choice out of them. A cocktail round helps you as well –  it gets them settled. Usually cocktails are accompanied by either idle chitchat or work discussion or both. In this case, it was both.

After delivering the cocktails, I went to the guy with the wine list and we discussed wine. He was discussing some wines in the $100 category so I mentioned a particular wine that is a real sleeper at about $115 and he thought it sounded good. I might have been able to move him to $150 but, AND THIS IS IMPORTANT, with a table like this, greed should be the last thing on your mind. Especially when he orders a Pinot Noir as well. The fact that he ordered a Pinot as well as taking my advice showed me that he knew wine, was looking out for the welfare of the others at the table,and was also confident enough in himself to trust the waiter.

So, I ordered two each of the bottles. Did I ask him? Nope. First of all, in my restaurant, I can return an unused bottle. Second of all, I have no idea how many are going to drink Pinot and how many are going to drink Cabernet. And third, I’m pretty sure that I’m going to sell at least a second bottle of one or the other and what happens if the bartender forgot to tell me that I was buying the last bottle or that there was only one left and another table orders it before I can. Always hedge your bets whenever you can. Now this doesn’t mean that I’m going to pour the entire bottle of either on the spot. However, I don’t know how many people are going to want Pinot or the Cabernet. So, I asked how many people would be drinking the Pinot (guessing correctly that there would be fewer people drinking it). Now I know that up to 5 people will be drinking the Cabernet. So, after I present the bottle, I go around to the Pinot abstainers and pour about 4 oz for each person (turns out that all 5 guests wanted wine, which might not have been the case). This left about 5 oz in the decanter. Why didn’t I pour the whole thing? Because I knew that we’d be into a second bottle pretty quicker. Basically, I’m telegraphing that I’m not out to gouge them or drain every single penny out of their wallets.

I poured a little more for the two people who wanted the Pinot, but it was still less than a full glass. With two people, I figured that I probably wouldn’t get a second bottle unless I really manipulated them and I wasn’t about to kill the goose that might lay the golden egg. Yeah, I could have probably forced a second bottle, but they probably wouldn’t drink a lot of it. I would have another $70 on the check, but heck, it was going to be a pretty good check to start with. And I’m firmly convinced that some guests are able to tell when you’re trying to get the last penny out of them and will penalize you for it when the time comes.

The main lesson that you should take away is that you should NEVER pour the whole bottle on the first go-round. You should always leave a little in the bottle. If you are pouring a bottle for 8 people, then only pour a couple of ounces per person.  Obviously, in that extreme case, you would ask if you can bring two bottles because you know that there’s no way that anyone’s going to get more than a sip or two. And if they say that you can pour from two bottles, then by all means, pour 5 ounces. But make sure you leave some in the second bottle.. Don’t try to force a third bottle.

OK, I’m going turn this into a multi-part page turner. This has officially turned into part one.

It might be a day or two before I do part two, but I’ll be continuing the lesson shortly.