Class reunions

Reporting my feelings and thoughts in the same vain that I reported last month's dictation on wedding rehearsal dinners, I dislike class reunion dinners too--maybe on an even larger scale than I dislike the rehearsal dinners..

What happens to people over time? Men's stomachs get bigger.. women's hair gets bigger.. Both genders have an attitude that encompasses their entire being. I guess they have to try to continue to impress those they want to school with. Whether you're 18 or 80, there are still people that try to be the loudest, most obnoxious, and rude of the group.

Things change with time, but time doesn't change everyone. Or maybe it's just a memory thing. They try to bring back those old days by acting out in the same manner that they did when they were sitting around a lunch table in high school..

I'll be there soon, too--if my class has a reunion. At some point in life, I'll be old enough to at least be invited to class reunion (maybe). And if I go, perhaps I too will act out and appear snobby to the bartender or server..

Being tested with time.. And we all fail in the end.

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I hate wedding rehearsal dinners

I don't know quite what it is about a wedding rehearsel dinner that makes the bridal party's nose go so high in the air they can't see straight. What makes the mother and father of the bride and groom become demanding.. more so than the average typical demanding customer can be..

The men huddle up into their gang of Coors Light drinkers, the women decorate and drink Cosmos. The "adults" of the party sit back and complain their coffee is too cold or the food is taking too long to be served..

Much to the chagrine of others, I often tell my fellow servers that I'd much rather wait on a funeral dinner than a wedding.. And now, I can add.. I would much rather wait on a wedding dinner than a wedding rehearsal..

Maybe it's because we are a new generation of people that believe we are entitled to everything.

Don't get me wrong, it should be a nice affair for all involved. No doubt..

But the average snobbery rate of a wedding rehearsel dinner far exceeds what a server normally must put up with.

Just a thought. OVER AND OUT.

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Restaurant nation

According to very early numbers from the week box office, Michael Moore may have to film a movie about evil restaurant owners in America to beat a rat..

The restaurant craze in America--well into its 200th year, continues in box offices. RATATOUILLE looks to be having a great weekend.. The film has been getting healthy reviews too. It's a family film with adult fanfare.. A movie about a simple cook that makes friends with a kitchen rat at a restaurant..

The entertainment industry continuing to pick up on the constant obsession with the restaurant industry. .this time animated. Perhaps a HELL'S KITCHEN film will come yet with Gordon Ramsay as superhero..

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Shut down: What causes good restaurants to flop?

I cannot proclaim to be an expert on anything.. but in my area of Pennsylvania, you can fast become an expert on how not to run a business. Restaurants, or anything else for that matter, can begin with a wonderful premise.. a sports bar named after a team that were famous football champs the beginning of last century for example? Bankrupt in two years..

So what does this?

There can be a few different ways it can happen too. Places with a base amount of customers that does NOT lose customers but still closes..

I knew of a place that actually expanded but kept its books so sloppy that it finally had to declare bankruptcy.. The business became to decline when distributors wouldn't cash checks anymore because there was no money.. it led to workers' checks bouncing because there was no money to cover the amounts.. It led to the demise of what seemed to be a flourishing restaurant/catering hall.

Maybe it's too much money being spent too quick in the beginning of a business' opening. The money that goes out for remodeling expanses of an old building can bury a new owner .. especially when it comes time to hire a staff that he or she must pay a decent wage to keep and train good people.

Staffpersons can also be devestating to a business if theft occurs. A restaurant I used to work out closed because bartenders were giving away the house in drinks after owners left each evening.. Bankrupt.

And of course it can be equally bad when the owners of the restauant plant themselves up to the bar .. people notice. The word gets out.

The restaurant business. To make it you have to be near perfect. To fail you have to just make a few little mistakes that can snowball into disaster..

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Manager sues over KITCHEN NIGHTMARES

Chef Gordon Ramsay makes at least one chef angry..

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Goat on the menu

And it causes E Coli

A slaughter of a goat in a kitchen in North Carolina leads to sickness and a Health Department investigation..

We know weird stuff happens in all kitchens. Perhaps the goat slaughter... ahh.. a little too far?

Interesting footnote to this article: I knew a man once that owned his own establishment that slaughtered goats in the alley way behind his building. Actually never served the goat--we all hope--but his family ate it himself.

I also took note to this portion of the story:

"Now, that employee says the restaurant owner is refusing to pay some former employees their checks from the last week of work.

The former employee explains that the owner told staff, "that he lost his restaurant and he’s not paying anybody nothing. The waitresses are due two weeks and the cooks are due a week’s worth of pay.""

Ahh, yes.. the age old practice of holding paychecks from hard working employees for no valid reason...

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The new fad in dining

Maybe it's because the entire world seems willing and ready to give up all of its secrets.. or maybe it's just the new trendy 'in' thing..

Either way, when you go to a restaurant in the near future, you maybe won't get as much as that romantic privacy that you once craved.

TIME MAGAZINE reports that communal tables are becoming the new way to dine.

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Minimum wage anger up north..

Foodservice industry responds to Alberta's minimum wage increase.

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Slurpy drunk in the Neighborhood

Pretty big mess up.. and pretty tough to have happen, but this championship restaurant did it: A magarita got served to a toddler in a sippy cup!

Funny got scary though when the child beecome very sick and starting vomiting..

Applebees says it will no longer keep juice and margarita mix in similiar-looking containers..

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Go ahead.. eat something absolutely disgusting..

Foie Gras back on the front burner at city hall.. according to CBS Chicago..

Very wealthy people that apparantly with really strong stomachs eating Foie Gras .. what a wonderful world -- as Louie Armstong sings..

A duck or goose fattened force fed 12 to 18 days before slaughter..

It's better than veal!

Veal is only baby cow.. this far surpassess it. Force fed duck.

TASTY..

The ban upheld..



Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

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Waited on doctors tonight.. one interesting heart doctor that walks away from the table for a half hour at a time and then comes back expecting he is going to go where he left on from.. odd, odd man. Rich, odd odd man..

Another doctor gave me that old hand signal that every wait person hates: The two fingers in the air suggesting that they're ready to order. Yep. When I have the chance Also cooked. Our cook on tonight didn't know how to make Chicken Marsala. Simple, easy meal. I helped.. another waitress made sirloin tips over linguini.. if only customers knew..

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Another blog.. not sure how many exist about the restaurant industry. I am no where near my goal in life: Owning my own eatery. But I guess no one is really ever near their true goal of happiness until they luck out and get there through hard work...

If a goal is meant to be achieved, perhaps first a realistic glance at the industry itself must be considered..

Across America, restaurants are the fasest growing business.. and fastest failing. Across America, the national rate for a tipped employee is $2.83 per hour. In the state of Pennsylvania, where I serve as a full time office worker and part time waiter nights and weekends, the tipped employee rate stays flat at $2.83 per hour even though the state minimum wage rate increased to $6.25 on January 1 of this year.. it goes to $7.15 on July 1 in Pennsylania. Oh, yea... that tipped employee rate stays flat, yet, at $2.83 per hour..

I have worked as a waiter, cook, busboy, whatever, in some form or capacity since I was 15 years old. I strayed only a few times: I was a flower delivery boy (it failed miserably.).. I was a web-team developer at a newspaper (my boss got laid off and I got fired).. and I got a full time working as a prim and proper civil servant in what someone would call the "ritzy" city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Somehow, though, even through all of the years I had full time employment, that extra "tipped employee" money was necessary.. and for some sick, REALLY sick reason, I enjoy doing it.

I enjoy the harrassment. The snotty customers. I take them as a challenge. I try to make them laugh.. sometimes they feel uncomfortable. But the magic of it all is that they can try to make me their personal slave and servant for the hour or so they are being waited on by me but I can still win. How? They can easily become my captive for the same amount of time. I can annoy them if I want. I can give them great service.. I can give them medicore. I can make lame jokes and watch in disgust their annoyance. It is a magical experience..

When one first joins the ranks of the tipped employee brigade, it can be messy. What restaurant worker doesn't have his or her story of a co worker (or even themselves) walking out in tears from a restaurant on a holiday or being frightened of the cook with a few too many ear rings.. or nose rings. Some kitchens may even have the cook that showed the body ring is a place no one should have one..

But notice through life: the bitter waitress with the bee hive hair.. The angry older man balding man that can't seem to leave the industry. It must be in the blood. The thrill of the fight..

Working in a restaurant is all chance. That table of four or five people may be the nicest most understanding and appreciative people on the face of the earth.. Or the worst and crankiest.

The thrill of the hunt. The thrill of the fight. Like urban warfare.. Go to a tables with guns a blazin'. Or quiver at the thoughts of waiting on the snobby doctor or cranky regular.

It's sick that it's fun. Self-torture.

Ahhh.. yesssss.. the restaurant industry.

A blog with dedication to the industry that has no dedication to its workers..

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