For many years people thought that only cheap wine had a screw top, but going green has hit the wine industry as well and many people don’t realize that we are seeing many many wines internationally and domestically coming to us with screw top caps.
Alas alack some of our customers unaware of this trend seem to have many preconceived ideas about this new trend.
Last Friday evening, a woman came in with what we determined was her son and daughter in law for dinner. They ordered a bottle of Bonny Doon Rose. When the bottled arrived at the table the Mother saw that the wine was screw top and from Santa Cruz. She seemed to believe that she would be sick if she drank the wine because it was screw top and that the only thing that happened in Santa Cruz was surfing and that no good wine could possibly come from there. So, she had a diet coke and refused to drink any wine.
Sometimes, folks come to our restaurant thinking they well, know more than we do about wine. Sometimes people do, but for the most part, we have a very good grasp on what we are selling. Last Saturday, someone insisted that our French Riesling should have bubbles. Now being open to a mistake, I did take time to double check to make certain one can't buy a Riesling with bubbles and in fact, no bubbles in Riesling everybody. Where our patron got that idea and then refused to accept our information that they don't have bubbles, I really don't know.
Finally, my favorite this week was..... "Excuse me, I'd like a Mimosa refill please." I guess they thought they were in a buffet....
Really everybody, trust us..., we want to make you happy. Maybe for April Fools Day, I should try to sell a made up bottle of some sort. I know, I will try to sell a screw top bottle of Riesling and call it our newest sparkling white from Santa Cruz, and call it Surfer's Wave. Nah, that's not nice!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
You Can’t Believe What We Have Seen Around Here
It’s been a while since my last entry, but for those who follow my little Blog, here’s a selection of stories from the last few weeks at Ferry Plaza.
Many people, who visit the Ferry Building, think for some reason, it functions much like a food court. Even in a food court however, most people get that if you eat at a Chinese food restaurant, you don’t take napkins, forks etc. from the Taqueria to eat your Chinese food. Well, we had an incident the other day where a gentleman bought a meal at another restaurant and apparently needed a fork. Why he didn’t simply return to the restaurant he got the food from and acquire a fork we don’t know. One of our servers saw him and watched him take one of our rollups (restaurant language for a cloth napkin with utensils rolled up inside) unroll it and pull out stainless steel fork and leave the rollup on the table.
Excuse me, “What are you doing?”
“I need a fork.”
“You are stealing our fork.”
“Well, I needed a fork.”
“Then you should go get a plastic one at the restaurant where you purchased your food.”
So he left without apology and a bit baffled as to the fact that he was confronted for stealing.
Last Saturday, a large table of appx. 10 or 12 people sat down for lunch. We were really happy because apparently a few weeks earlier 2 of the people in the party had enjoyed lunch with us and then brought back this large group. We brought all of the beverages out which included one hot tea. We serve tea in a cup with hot water and an accompanied caddy of tea selections. After we dropped one hot tea, the gentleman next to the woman that had the tea took another tea bag out of the tea caddy and put it in his pocket. Then a couple of minutes later he ordered a “cup of hot water” not another hot tea. So essentially he stole a tea bag and then ordered a hot water so the table saved a couple of dollars for the additional cup of tea. I have never seen such a thing. Why did he do that? It was so odd and frustrating. In any case, because we saw all of this happen, we charged the table for the second cup of tea. This gentleman was a guest at the table and didn’t have to pay for his meal anyway. I thought wow, people have no shame.
People will try absolutely anything to scoot around rules. Restaurants have to cover a lot of costs in replacing lost items. This is really tacky. A woman took a glass from Hog Island across the aisle from us, and brought it to our restaurant. When our manager asked her if she would like a glass of wine, the woman said no thank you, I already have some. So our manager asked why she had a glass from Hog Island, in our restaurant, she said “she wanted to finish her wine.” Why is it so hard to imagine that it is inappropriate to drink another restaurant’s wine in our restaurant? We of course walked the glass back over to Hog Island.
My question would be, listen I haven’t finished my wine, would you mind if I pour this into your glass and return this one to Hog Island. Of course we would prefer that she drank our wine, but at least that would have been a more honest approach.
Finally, need I say more: Don’t take the Tabasco. We have these big bottles of Tabasco, I mean these are about 9” tall. Our manager has seen people stick the whole bottle in their bag. Of course, she asked for it back. I like to think they will think twice one day before they steal something from another restaurant.
Many people, who visit the Ferry Building, think for some reason, it functions much like a food court. Even in a food court however, most people get that if you eat at a Chinese food restaurant, you don’t take napkins, forks etc. from the Taqueria to eat your Chinese food. Well, we had an incident the other day where a gentleman bought a meal at another restaurant and apparently needed a fork. Why he didn’t simply return to the restaurant he got the food from and acquire a fork we don’t know. One of our servers saw him and watched him take one of our rollups (restaurant language for a cloth napkin with utensils rolled up inside) unroll it and pull out stainless steel fork and leave the rollup on the table.
Excuse me, “What are you doing?”
“I need a fork.”
“You are stealing our fork.”
“Well, I needed a fork.”
“Then you should go get a plastic one at the restaurant where you purchased your food.”
So he left without apology and a bit baffled as to the fact that he was confronted for stealing.
Last Saturday, a large table of appx. 10 or 12 people sat down for lunch. We were really happy because apparently a few weeks earlier 2 of the people in the party had enjoyed lunch with us and then brought back this large group. We brought all of the beverages out which included one hot tea. We serve tea in a cup with hot water and an accompanied caddy of tea selections. After we dropped one hot tea, the gentleman next to the woman that had the tea took another tea bag out of the tea caddy and put it in his pocket. Then a couple of minutes later he ordered a “cup of hot water” not another hot tea. So essentially he stole a tea bag and then ordered a hot water so the table saved a couple of dollars for the additional cup of tea. I have never seen such a thing. Why did he do that? It was so odd and frustrating. In any case, because we saw all of this happen, we charged the table for the second cup of tea. This gentleman was a guest at the table and didn’t have to pay for his meal anyway. I thought wow, people have no shame.
People will try absolutely anything to scoot around rules. Restaurants have to cover a lot of costs in replacing lost items. This is really tacky. A woman took a glass from Hog Island across the aisle from us, and brought it to our restaurant. When our manager asked her if she would like a glass of wine, the woman said no thank you, I already have some. So our manager asked why she had a glass from Hog Island, in our restaurant, she said “she wanted to finish her wine.” Why is it so hard to imagine that it is inappropriate to drink another restaurant’s wine in our restaurant? We of course walked the glass back over to Hog Island.
My question would be, listen I haven’t finished my wine, would you mind if I pour this into your glass and return this one to Hog Island. Of course we would prefer that she drank our wine, but at least that would have been a more honest approach.
Finally, need I say more: Don’t take the Tabasco. We have these big bottles of Tabasco, I mean these are about 9” tall. Our manager has seen people stick the whole bottle in their bag. Of course, she asked for it back. I like to think they will think twice one day before they steal something from another restaurant.
Friday, November 13, 2009
What Are We 5 Years Old?
I took a few weeks break from my usual passive aggressive blog, but you know, I needed to get back to some more silly server stories so here’s this week’s memories:
Seriously I have never had someone ask me, even before they ordered their food, the following question: “Do you have free refills on soda?”
Not only have I never been asked that as a priority question, I personally have never even thought about free refills when I go out.
I did tell the woman yes we do, but I have to say, I was wondering if the dumb bread discussion was going to come again since that’s how we started our interaction together. Fortunately, she and her husband had a lovely lunch and everything worked out well.
A table of 6 came into the restaurant, 3 couples. Anybody who has ever been a server knows that when a table this size wants to have separate checks, it’s going to be “oh so fun” to serve them. There was one woman that was particularly well, not demanding, but high maintenance. When I originally approached the table the woman was putting in packets of Crystal lite tea into her water. When she ordered she requested a cup of clam chowder and a Crab Caesar Salad with no dressing. The rest of the table essentially ordered soup and sandwich combinations and some other basic lunch items.
As the self elected spokeswoman for the table, our discussion went something like this:
“Which chowder would you like, Manhattan or New England?”
“Oh, Manhattan of course that New England is fully loaded with so many calories, I mean who can eat that!”
I was thinking to myself wow, nice way to make anyone within ear shot feel guilty about eating their New England clam chowder and insulting our soup, but you know ok, you are entitled to your opinion.
“Now on your salad, you said dressing on the side yes?”
“No. No dressing at all.”
I was thinking wow, it’s going to be a dry salad, but that’s what she wants.
“Should I bring bread for the table?”
“No. She jumps in.”
“No bread right? You don’t want bread it’s so fattening.”
Guess not. I mean if I was at that table, I think even if I wanted it, I wouldn’t eat anything but lettuce and water in front of her. It must have been a super fun day out for the rest of them.
“Ok great. I will be back with your soups.” I said.
I came back with the soups for the table and they began eating. Out of my peripheral vision I see a hand waving me down as if she was calling a cab:
“Excuse me Miss…. Excuse me….. Excuse me Miss?”
“Yes…”
“Does this Manhattan chowder have any wine in it?”
“Yes, it does.” I replied.
“What?” She drops her spoon as if she had been stabbed in the heart….
“Who puts wine in chowder?”
“Well our Chef does Mam.”
“Well, I can’t eat this, I am allergic to wine. You should have told me it had wine in it.” She said.
“I apologize; I will take it away and off your bill Mam. I wasn’t made aware of your allergy to wine.”
So she continued to rant and rave about how we put wine “FOR SOME UNKNOWN AND ACCORDING TO HER, UNCESSARY REASON IN OUR CHOWDER” while everyone else ate their chowder in virtual silence.
The remaining food arrived and here’s the best part of the whole story. She puts another Crystal lite in her water and from her purse on top of her Crab Caesar Salad she busts out a bottle of Ranch dressing. She then proceeded to use the ranch dressing on the salad. I swear I have never seen anything like that. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that she put Ranch dressing on the salad or the fact that she had her own personal bottle of salad dressing with her.
Anyway, I was so happy when they left and those 3 separate bills were only a couple of dollars difference. I don’t know why I could have just paid the bill with 3 cards rather than creating 3 separate checks.
People are really odd sometimes. Another woman came in with her husband or boyfriend and another couple. They were from New York. I always get along with New Yorkers because they are so straight forward and to the point. They had a super simple order 3 Crab Louie salads and 1 sandwich. The sandwich part is still a mystery to me, but let me mention the issue with the Louie dressing first.
One of the women says to me, and my supportive readers, I am not making this up: “Do not let me see the Louie dressing anywhere near my plate or next to my place setting. It’s going to make me throw up if I see it. I just want lemon, lots of extra lemon.”
Wow! Ok, are we five years old? I was thinking to myself. Immediately, her table mates said, don’t worry, so n so, we will keep it on our side of the table.
But this table get’s better. The guy that ordered the sandwich hated Mayonnaise so he said he wanted a crab sandwich with just crab on bread.
“Sir, are you sure you want that, because you’re sandwich is going to be really dry without any condiment on it. Maybe you could have a Crab Louie with vinaigrette or lemon like your friend and have a little bread on the side from Acme.”
He said, “Nope, I just want a dry Crab Sandwich. I hate Mayo, it’s so disgusting.”
I was like, wow, these two must be together they speak the same way.
I don’t get it though who wants to eat dry crab on a dry sandwich. Whatever, I’m just here to serve. In the end they were really happy so that’s all that matters.
Seriously I have never had someone ask me, even before they ordered their food, the following question: “Do you have free refills on soda?”
Not only have I never been asked that as a priority question, I personally have never even thought about free refills when I go out.
I did tell the woman yes we do, but I have to say, I was wondering if the dumb bread discussion was going to come again since that’s how we started our interaction together. Fortunately, she and her husband had a lovely lunch and everything worked out well.
A table of 6 came into the restaurant, 3 couples. Anybody who has ever been a server knows that when a table this size wants to have separate checks, it’s going to be “oh so fun” to serve them. There was one woman that was particularly well, not demanding, but high maintenance. When I originally approached the table the woman was putting in packets of Crystal lite tea into her water. When she ordered she requested a cup of clam chowder and a Crab Caesar Salad with no dressing. The rest of the table essentially ordered soup and sandwich combinations and some other basic lunch items.
As the self elected spokeswoman for the table, our discussion went something like this:
“Which chowder would you like, Manhattan or New England?”
“Oh, Manhattan of course that New England is fully loaded with so many calories, I mean who can eat that!”
I was thinking to myself wow, nice way to make anyone within ear shot feel guilty about eating their New England clam chowder and insulting our soup, but you know ok, you are entitled to your opinion.
“Now on your salad, you said dressing on the side yes?”
“No. No dressing at all.”
I was thinking wow, it’s going to be a dry salad, but that’s what she wants.
“Should I bring bread for the table?”
“No. She jumps in.”
“No bread right? You don’t want bread it’s so fattening.”
Guess not. I mean if I was at that table, I think even if I wanted it, I wouldn’t eat anything but lettuce and water in front of her. It must have been a super fun day out for the rest of them.
“Ok great. I will be back with your soups.” I said.
I came back with the soups for the table and they began eating. Out of my peripheral vision I see a hand waving me down as if she was calling a cab:
“Excuse me Miss…. Excuse me….. Excuse me Miss?”
“Yes…”
“Does this Manhattan chowder have any wine in it?”
“Yes, it does.” I replied.
“What?” She drops her spoon as if she had been stabbed in the heart….
“Who puts wine in chowder?”
“Well our Chef does Mam.”
“Well, I can’t eat this, I am allergic to wine. You should have told me it had wine in it.” She said.
“I apologize; I will take it away and off your bill Mam. I wasn’t made aware of your allergy to wine.”
So she continued to rant and rave about how we put wine “FOR SOME UNKNOWN AND ACCORDING TO HER, UNCESSARY REASON IN OUR CHOWDER” while everyone else ate their chowder in virtual silence.
The remaining food arrived and here’s the best part of the whole story. She puts another Crystal lite in her water and from her purse on top of her Crab Caesar Salad she busts out a bottle of Ranch dressing. She then proceeded to use the ranch dressing on the salad. I swear I have never seen anything like that. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that she put Ranch dressing on the salad or the fact that she had her own personal bottle of salad dressing with her.
Anyway, I was so happy when they left and those 3 separate bills were only a couple of dollars difference. I don’t know why I could have just paid the bill with 3 cards rather than creating 3 separate checks.
People are really odd sometimes. Another woman came in with her husband or boyfriend and another couple. They were from New York. I always get along with New Yorkers because they are so straight forward and to the point. They had a super simple order 3 Crab Louie salads and 1 sandwich. The sandwich part is still a mystery to me, but let me mention the issue with the Louie dressing first.
One of the women says to me, and my supportive readers, I am not making this up: “Do not let me see the Louie dressing anywhere near my plate or next to my place setting. It’s going to make me throw up if I see it. I just want lemon, lots of extra lemon.”
Wow! Ok, are we five years old? I was thinking to myself. Immediately, her table mates said, don’t worry, so n so, we will keep it on our side of the table.
But this table get’s better. The guy that ordered the sandwich hated Mayonnaise so he said he wanted a crab sandwich with just crab on bread.
“Sir, are you sure you want that, because you’re sandwich is going to be really dry without any condiment on it. Maybe you could have a Crab Louie with vinaigrette or lemon like your friend and have a little bread on the side from Acme.”
He said, “Nope, I just want a dry Crab Sandwich. I hate Mayo, it’s so disgusting.”
I was like, wow, these two must be together they speak the same way.
I don’t get it though who wants to eat dry crab on a dry sandwich. Whatever, I’m just here to serve. In the end they were really happy so that’s all that matters.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Don’t be a Crabby Trout!
A few weeks ago there was an article in sfgate.com talking about restaurants turning to trout. Trout is a wonderful, tasty, less expensive fish to order when you go out to eat. Many restaurants including yours truly are including trout on the menu.
Did you know Salmon costs up to three times as much as Trout and California is banned from fishing salmon for the third year in a row.
Last week we had a really great fish called Corvina. For those of you that aren't familiar with this fish, it's a type of SeaBass like Bluenose or Striped Bass. It’s found on the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean.
We serve our fish baked in olive oil with simple salt and pepper, some seasonal sautéed vegetables, Japanese brown rice and sliced seasonal fruit. Right now we are serving our fish with persimmon.
Other fish we commonly serve based on availability are as follows:
Sole
Black Cod
Ling Cod
Wild Salmon
(We get it from the Columbia River near Seattle Washington)
Halibut
Mahi Mahi
Moving into November always means 2 of my favorite meals. Thanksgiving and our annual family Dungeness crab feed. Every year my family has a crab feed the day before Thanksgiving. We pick up one crab per person, some nice white wine and some beer add some melted butter, a loaf of Acme bread and get cracken!
This meal is perfect for a few reasons: 1.) There’s virtually no prep if you get your crabs cracked and cleaned prior to bringing them home. 2.) There’s hardly any table set up: A few crackers, poking utensils, a small bowl of melted butter per person, a couple of large metal bowls (figure one bowl for every two people) for catching shells, and you are done.
The whole point of this is to spend quality family time so don’t make it fancy just have a great time. I highly suggest a pair of jeans or sweat pants and simple tee shirt you can down and get crabby!
In San Francisco, our Dungeness crab season is from about the middle of November to the beginning of May.
You can always call us to see if we have whole Dungeness crab in house for purchase.
Originally posted in November of 2009.
Did you know Salmon costs up to three times as much as Trout and California is banned from fishing salmon for the third year in a row.
Last week we had a really great fish called Corvina. For those of you that aren't familiar with this fish, it's a type of SeaBass like Bluenose or Striped Bass. It’s found on the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean.
We serve our fish baked in olive oil with simple salt and pepper, some seasonal sautéed vegetables, Japanese brown rice and sliced seasonal fruit. Right now we are serving our fish with persimmon.
Other fish we commonly serve based on availability are as follows:
Sole
Black Cod
Ling Cod
Wild Salmon
(We get it from the Columbia River near Seattle Washington)
Halibut
Mahi Mahi
Moving into November always means 2 of my favorite meals. Thanksgiving and our annual family Dungeness crab feed. Every year my family has a crab feed the day before Thanksgiving. We pick up one crab per person, some nice white wine and some beer add some melted butter, a loaf of Acme bread and get cracken!
This meal is perfect for a few reasons: 1.) There’s virtually no prep if you get your crabs cracked and cleaned prior to bringing them home. 2.) There’s hardly any table set up: A few crackers, poking utensils, a small bowl of melted butter per person, a couple of large metal bowls (figure one bowl for every two people) for catching shells, and you are done.
The whole point of this is to spend quality family time so don’t make it fancy just have a great time. I highly suggest a pair of jeans or sweat pants and simple tee shirt you can down and get crabby!
In San Francisco, our Dungeness crab season is from about the middle of November to the beginning of May.
You can always call us to see if we have whole Dungeness crab in house for purchase.
Originally posted in November of 2009.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Try something new. It's fun!
I love the nights when a group of people sit down and you ask them what they would like and they say “Whatever you think it good.”
What happens then is a dialogue about food that turns an otherwise ordinary meal into something extra ordinary and special. Last Friday, a really nice group of 4 came in and they started off with our oysters and some wine and sparkling wine selections.
From there they had our Crab Cake, Crab Tower, sautéed Calamari, and a few different types of fish as I recall. I find in general that if I describe something the way that I would describe it if I was talking to a friend, it becomes less esoteric. For example, I could say our Crab Cake is a combination of Dungeness crab, whipped egg blended with mayonnaise, mustard, herbs, celery, and 2 types of Acme bread. It’s then baked in a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper served over mixed greens.
Ultimately folks just want to know, is it yummy? Or not? I just tell them “It’s not a gooey little hockey puck, like so many can be.” And that it’s “High and light, served on a simple bed of mixed greens.”
I often get asked “What should we get here?” I always say our Calamari, or fresh Albacore sashimi, or any of our fresh fish. I always try to get folks to try something that not every seafood restaurant has. Every seafood restaurant has a Louis salad for example or a Crab sandwich of some kind, but I try to steer folks to something they may have never had fresh or something interesting. That’s part of the fun of eating out and part of the joy I experience when I am serving someone something they never had, but really loved.
Anyway, back to my table of 4: The evening was so fun and they tried lots of things all based on what I thought they should have next. They ended with some snuggly fleece blankets, a little port and a yummy sweet treat selection of Pot du Crème and Panna Cotta with huckleberry and elderflower sauce over top. My favorite part of the evening was what the table said, “Everything you chose for us was great!” I was glad that they trusted me and I had a great time serving them.
This week, I wanted to thank all you folks out there that trust your server to steer you in the right direction and challenge you to think outside the box!
What happens then is a dialogue about food that turns an otherwise ordinary meal into something extra ordinary and special. Last Friday, a really nice group of 4 came in and they started off with our oysters and some wine and sparkling wine selections.
From there they had our Crab Cake, Crab Tower, sautéed Calamari, and a few different types of fish as I recall. I find in general that if I describe something the way that I would describe it if I was talking to a friend, it becomes less esoteric. For example, I could say our Crab Cake is a combination of Dungeness crab, whipped egg blended with mayonnaise, mustard, herbs, celery, and 2 types of Acme bread. It’s then baked in a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper served over mixed greens.
Ultimately folks just want to know, is it yummy? Or not? I just tell them “It’s not a gooey little hockey puck, like so many can be.” And that it’s “High and light, served on a simple bed of mixed greens.”
I often get asked “What should we get here?” I always say our Calamari, or fresh Albacore sashimi, or any of our fresh fish. I always try to get folks to try something that not every seafood restaurant has. Every seafood restaurant has a Louis salad for example or a Crab sandwich of some kind, but I try to steer folks to something they may have never had fresh or something interesting. That’s part of the fun of eating out and part of the joy I experience when I am serving someone something they never had, but really loved.
Anyway, back to my table of 4: The evening was so fun and they tried lots of things all based on what I thought they should have next. They ended with some snuggly fleece blankets, a little port and a yummy sweet treat selection of Pot du Crème and Panna Cotta with huckleberry and elderflower sauce over top. My favorite part of the evening was what the table said, “Everything you chose for us was great!” I was glad that they trusted me and I had a great time serving them.
This week, I wanted to thank all you folks out there that trust your server to steer you in the right direction and challenge you to think outside the box!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Random thoughts of food and people or things that make you say wait what?
Why is it that no one can accept change?…. Some folks just complain for the sake of complaining. Yesterday we changed our Louie Salad by adding a few things to it. The day before a woman came in and had the Louie Salad and really liked it. The next day, she came in and she ordered it and then said that it’s not the same and she wasn’t happy. We of course said it’s the same salad, it just is on a bigger plate with added carrots, hard boiled egg, cucumber and additional tomatoes. She asked us to put all the new items on a separate plate.
The funny thing is, this customer comes in every so often and apparently always complains about something each time she comes in. I think it’s odd that she keeps coming back, but true that you just can’t please everybody.
One of the things I ask myself all the time is would I say something or ask someone to do something like that for me?
I mean just the other day, I went to dinner with my folks and we had some left overs we brought home. We had a nice dinner and I went to this restaurant cautiously because some years ago I ate there and while I liked the space itself,the food was just not yummy. I was surprised and happy because we all thought it was good.
I brought our leftovers home and my partner said that the short ribs were burnt and we should have sent them back. She said she couldn't eat them. We noticed they were a little "over carmelized" is what my Dad said, but honestly we didn't think much more about it since aside from that, they were good. So I guess it's just not my nature to send food back or be "difficult." When I do send something back though it's got to be horrible.
The other day I was browsing our endless critics on YELP and couldn’t believe that the bread charge is still (my goodness aren’t we over this boring topic yet?) a hot talk topic. Seriously, I thought I had been boring my own readers with it by this point, but people still continue to bring it up.
They likened our bread charge to charging for water and asked if that was next thing we would charge for. This particular critic wanted us to “just add the .50 cent healthcare charge to our overhead somehow.” These are of course the very same people that complain that all our food is too expensive and that they can’t eat in our restaurant for less than $20.00 which I know is in fact not true. Additionally, people are just crazed that we don’t have crackers (Oh Lord!)and they get this desperate look in their eye when I say, "No, we just have bread." I know what they are thinking, "Yea, bread you...... charge for....."
By the way, I thought about crackers for a minute, and I think people who are really into crackers at a restaurant are either a.) cheap and looking for something free or b.) Genuinely into crackers in their soup. It has never occured to me to put crackers in my soup in my life. I think I just don't get it and well, I'm ok with that.
Anyway, lest I digress.... It's so odd to me that you take an item like bread which you can take or leave and charge for it and that offends people somehow. But....some people would rather not know and simply pay more overall for their meal just so they don't have to know about it. Wait what?
Oh, this was exciting in my little world of waitressing at the restaurant. This woman came in and sat at the bar. There was a gentleman on her left and then 2 women on her right separated by 2 seats as I recall. She asked for a Stella and I said we don’t have Stella, the closest we have is Sapporo so she said ok. I walked back to pour the beer and I just felt that something wasn’t quite right about her, but whatever, that feeling happens a lot in the City and I’m used to it.
So I served her the beer, and realized she had a bunch of bloody scratch marks all over her arms and then I was thinking to myself, oh, she’s probably a drug addict, but whatever that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the right to eat or drink out. While she sat next to the people at the bar, she began singing to herself, but it wasn’t really to herself, because even I could hear her from a good 15 feet away. I decided after a while that all the folks in the bar next to her were definitely uncomfortable and that I should probably have her quietly removed from our restaurant. She was removed about 20 minutes later and the people around her were relieved.
Ironically, the gentleman sitting next to her was a Psychiatrist and I felt badly because he was trying to wait her out, but he just said he needed to leave since she kept singing and touching him with her creepy looking arms and glassy vacant eyes. He said I handled it well given that she was definitely high on something. He said to not to let things escalate is the best move in that scenario. Anyway, it was interesting to have that little scenario happen as one of my first hours back from a holiday away for a week and a half.
After the woman was escorted out about 20 minutes later, a tourist and his wife sat down and ordered a seafood platter, but he wanted to know the size of the prawns on the platter.
I took my pen out and illustrated the size of the prawn and he said:
"Can't you just show me one on a plate?"
I was thinking to myself once again, I so wouldn't ask to see prawn if I was on his side of the counter.
I said, "Ok."
I got a prawn and showed it to him and he said:
"Well it's really a large shrimp, but ok, let's get the platter."
Why do people, complain, and then order the dish when going into it, they aren't happy? Plus I was really thinking what, were you born in a barn, who acts like this in a restaurant(Thank goodness our customers aren't mind readers)?
Anyway, so after that, he said,"you seriously charge for bread?"
I said yes sir "it's for healthcare."
"That's ridiculous" he said.
I said "would you like some bread then?"
He said "No." I was thinking what a shmuck (I was using more explitives in my head though to be honest).
He and his actually ate the platter had some steamed clams and were really happy in the end. I mean I guess so because they bought some of our Hot Lime Sauce and left a nice tip. I don't know like I said, I think some folks just like to complain or perhaps they like to be heard.
This is classic: Now you know I've talked about this concept of outside food, but this story I think is really a self absorbed tale of nonsense and disreguard for any social edicate.There were 4 people inside at 2 two person tables. 2 of the patrons were children about 10 or 11 upon quick evaluation and 2 were older adults. The children had food from another restaurant, I mean burgers, fries, sodas etc. spralled all out and were quietly eating their food. So I came to the two adults and I said "Hi there, tell me are you joining us for dinner?"
The gentleman said "Yes."
I said "Are these two children part of your party?"
He said "Yes."
I said "Well we don't allow outside food and most especially not at a table for two where none of the food is food that we have made in our restaurant."
I went on to say my usual.... "Sir this isn't a food court, this is a restaurant, and we want you to eat our food together."
He said "Well what do you suggest we do?"
"If you would like to sit together, we can do a to go meal for you from our restaurant and you can join the children at the communal tables outside of Peets. It has the same view and then you can all sit together eat whatever you want. Or, we can set up a table for 4 and you can enjoy our food all together."
Can I just tell you that the man looked at me as if I was the most rude person ever and gathered up his family and stormed off. We of course put away the linens the silverware, the water etc. that we had put down for the 4 of them and sat our next patrons. What are people thinking?
Anyway, another day, another dollar.......
The funny thing is, this customer comes in every so often and apparently always complains about something each time she comes in. I think it’s odd that she keeps coming back, but true that you just can’t please everybody.
One of the things I ask myself all the time is would I say something or ask someone to do something like that for me?
I mean just the other day, I went to dinner with my folks and we had some left overs we brought home. We had a nice dinner and I went to this restaurant cautiously because some years ago I ate there and while I liked the space itself,the food was just not yummy. I was surprised and happy because we all thought it was good.
I brought our leftovers home and my partner said that the short ribs were burnt and we should have sent them back. She said she couldn't eat them. We noticed they were a little "over carmelized" is what my Dad said, but honestly we didn't think much more about it since aside from that, they were good. So I guess it's just not my nature to send food back or be "difficult." When I do send something back though it's got to be horrible.
The other day I was browsing our endless critics on YELP and couldn’t believe that the bread charge is still (my goodness aren’t we over this boring topic yet?) a hot talk topic. Seriously, I thought I had been boring my own readers with it by this point, but people still continue to bring it up.
They likened our bread charge to charging for water and asked if that was next thing we would charge for. This particular critic wanted us to “just add the .50 cent healthcare charge to our overhead somehow.” These are of course the very same people that complain that all our food is too expensive and that they can’t eat in our restaurant for less than $20.00 which I know is in fact not true. Additionally, people are just crazed that we don’t have crackers (Oh Lord!)and they get this desperate look in their eye when I say, "No, we just have bread." I know what they are thinking, "Yea, bread you...... charge for....."
By the way, I thought about crackers for a minute, and I think people who are really into crackers at a restaurant are either a.) cheap and looking for something free or b.) Genuinely into crackers in their soup. It has never occured to me to put crackers in my soup in my life. I think I just don't get it and well, I'm ok with that.
Anyway, lest I digress.... It's so odd to me that you take an item like bread which you can take or leave and charge for it and that offends people somehow. But....some people would rather not know and simply pay more overall for their meal just so they don't have to know about it. Wait what?
Oh, this was exciting in my little world of waitressing at the restaurant. This woman came in and sat at the bar. There was a gentleman on her left and then 2 women on her right separated by 2 seats as I recall. She asked for a Stella and I said we don’t have Stella, the closest we have is Sapporo so she said ok. I walked back to pour the beer and I just felt that something wasn’t quite right about her, but whatever, that feeling happens a lot in the City and I’m used to it.
So I served her the beer, and realized she had a bunch of bloody scratch marks all over her arms and then I was thinking to myself, oh, she’s probably a drug addict, but whatever that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the right to eat or drink out. While she sat next to the people at the bar, she began singing to herself, but it wasn’t really to herself, because even I could hear her from a good 15 feet away. I decided after a while that all the folks in the bar next to her were definitely uncomfortable and that I should probably have her quietly removed from our restaurant. She was removed about 20 minutes later and the people around her were relieved.
Ironically, the gentleman sitting next to her was a Psychiatrist and I felt badly because he was trying to wait her out, but he just said he needed to leave since she kept singing and touching him with her creepy looking arms and glassy vacant eyes. He said I handled it well given that she was definitely high on something. He said to not to let things escalate is the best move in that scenario. Anyway, it was interesting to have that little scenario happen as one of my first hours back from a holiday away for a week and a half.
After the woman was escorted out about 20 minutes later, a tourist and his wife sat down and ordered a seafood platter, but he wanted to know the size of the prawns on the platter.
I took my pen out and illustrated the size of the prawn and he said:
"Can't you just show me one on a plate?"
I was thinking to myself once again, I so wouldn't ask to see prawn if I was on his side of the counter.
I said, "Ok."
I got a prawn and showed it to him and he said:
"Well it's really a large shrimp, but ok, let's get the platter."
Why do people, complain, and then order the dish when going into it, they aren't happy? Plus I was really thinking what, were you born in a barn, who acts like this in a restaurant(Thank goodness our customers aren't mind readers)?
Anyway, so after that, he said,"you seriously charge for bread?"
I said yes sir "it's for healthcare."
"That's ridiculous" he said.
I said "would you like some bread then?"
He said "No." I was thinking what a shmuck (I was using more explitives in my head though to be honest).
He and his actually ate the platter had some steamed clams and were really happy in the end. I mean I guess so because they bought some of our Hot Lime Sauce and left a nice tip. I don't know like I said, I think some folks just like to complain or perhaps they like to be heard.
This is classic: Now you know I've talked about this concept of outside food, but this story I think is really a self absorbed tale of nonsense and disreguard for any social edicate.There were 4 people inside at 2 two person tables. 2 of the patrons were children about 10 or 11 upon quick evaluation and 2 were older adults. The children had food from another restaurant, I mean burgers, fries, sodas etc. spralled all out and were quietly eating their food. So I came to the two adults and I said "Hi there, tell me are you joining us for dinner?"
The gentleman said "Yes."
I said "Are these two children part of your party?"
He said "Yes."
I said "Well we don't allow outside food and most especially not at a table for two where none of the food is food that we have made in our restaurant."
I went on to say my usual.... "Sir this isn't a food court, this is a restaurant, and we want you to eat our food together."
He said "Well what do you suggest we do?"
"If you would like to sit together, we can do a to go meal for you from our restaurant and you can join the children at the communal tables outside of Peets. It has the same view and then you can all sit together eat whatever you want. Or, we can set up a table for 4 and you can enjoy our food all together."
Can I just tell you that the man looked at me as if I was the most rude person ever and gathered up his family and stormed off. We of course put away the linens the silverware, the water etc. that we had put down for the 4 of them and sat our next patrons. What are people thinking?
Anyway, another day, another dollar.......
Friday, September 11, 2009
“No” is not a four letter word
Has life come to such a place that when one hears the word “no” it’s considered rude and shocking. It’s almost as if nowadays if we don’t all agree to let everybody do whatever they want then there is going to be a problem. I think part of this is a result of everybody trying to not step on everybody else’s toes or offend them in anyway.
In our society, rules seem to be loosely open for interpretation, a guideline, not an absolute, rather than something that is in place to keep peace and order. For example, a red light should mean “stop” unless you think it is “pink” which means you can make it through the intersection before it is “really red.” Who hasn’t been with a friend that at some point has said, “that wasn’t red it was pink, I didn’t run the light.”
People also like to ignore rules or comments in print. People will say things like “oh, I didn’t see that sign” or “I didn’t read that.” The assumption is that it doesn’t apply therefore. I missed it or didn’t see it so it doesn’t apply to me……
How does this relate to the blog this week, well I’ll share my inspirations for this week’s thoughts:
4 people came to the restaurant sat down and ordered ice teas and beer. After the server gave them their beverages, he asked them if he could get them something else and they said, “no, just the drinks” and then proceeded to open 4 togo boxes.
The server was new, and our Manager asked him why the whole table was essentially picnicking at our restaurant. She said, “Remember no outside food in our restaurant.”
She went over to the table and she said, “I’m sorry no outside food.”
The people said, said they had purchased the drinks.
She said “I’m sorry I can pack your drinks in a togo cup for you, but not the beer.”
The gentleman at the table said “You are rude.”
She said I am sorry it’s stated on the menu “no outside food.”
He repeated “You are rude!”
Why is it so hard to simply say “Oh, ok, didn’t see that and can you tell us where we can go to eat our lunch?” And besides that, who would think it is ok to bust out an entire meal for 4 in a restaurant from another restaurant?
Our Manager was baffled to say the least, and quite frankly so am I, even still. Are we not allowed to have our own rules in our own restaurant? And if you don’t like them, then do you just ignore them? If we call you on it, then we are the bad rude people.
I don’t get it.
In our society, rules seem to be loosely open for interpretation, a guideline, not an absolute, rather than something that is in place to keep peace and order. For example, a red light should mean “stop” unless you think it is “pink” which means you can make it through the intersection before it is “really red.” Who hasn’t been with a friend that at some point has said, “that wasn’t red it was pink, I didn’t run the light.”
People also like to ignore rules or comments in print. People will say things like “oh, I didn’t see that sign” or “I didn’t read that.” The assumption is that it doesn’t apply therefore. I missed it or didn’t see it so it doesn’t apply to me……
How does this relate to the blog this week, well I’ll share my inspirations for this week’s thoughts:
4 people came to the restaurant sat down and ordered ice teas and beer. After the server gave them their beverages, he asked them if he could get them something else and they said, “no, just the drinks” and then proceeded to open 4 togo boxes.
The server was new, and our Manager asked him why the whole table was essentially picnicking at our restaurant. She said, “Remember no outside food in our restaurant.”
She went over to the table and she said, “I’m sorry no outside food.”
The people said, said they had purchased the drinks.
She said “I’m sorry I can pack your drinks in a togo cup for you, but not the beer.”
The gentleman at the table said “You are rude.”
She said I am sorry it’s stated on the menu “no outside food.”
He repeated “You are rude!”
Why is it so hard to simply say “Oh, ok, didn’t see that and can you tell us where we can go to eat our lunch?” And besides that, who would think it is ok to bust out an entire meal for 4 in a restaurant from another restaurant?
Our Manager was baffled to say the least, and quite frankly so am I, even still. Are we not allowed to have our own rules in our own restaurant? And if you don’t like them, then do you just ignore them? If we call you on it, then we are the bad rude people.
I don’t get it.
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