Saturday night at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone

I don't get it.. I just don't get it.

I have been watching the Hawaiian Tropic Zone live on Earthcam.com for the past half hour .. really .. I've watched bored waitresses shuffle around table place cards.. I saw a few people at the bar come and go. One heavy set fellow continuously walking up to people getting in their space until they moved.. It lost it's entertaining value after only a few minutes, but I kept watching.

The Earthcam preview of the video says I can catch pageants and beautiful waitresses.. streamed live online into my quaint Pennsylvania house.

Always live...

Fergalicious playing as another waitress yawns.

It got me thinking..

The whole idea of watching servers and customers eating and drinking is pretty natural in our modern day era of having no secrets. I would have to assume that customers to the Tropic Zone know beforehand that there would be a good chance that anyone in the world at any time could be watching them. If you have to scratch or pick your nose, the bathrooms don't have cameras.

But imagine if other restaurants go this route? I wouldn't mind it.

I'd like to see a few of them stream live into my living room.

Some could be a net sensation.. 1am at a dive bar in Anytown, USA, catch the latest fight. The latest fish net stocking ripped with Coors Light or Whiskey spilled all over it. The latest falling down drunk stumbling to the urinal behind a pool table..
Watch the wealthy as their pick their teeth with the finest of tooth cleaning instruments.. Watch the downtrodden in soup kitchens. You name it. Reality could be yours. The future is ours.

Fergalicious could play across the world! Live online! As the servers yawn away waiting for their shift to end .. so can they can be off camera and live their lives.

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When business lunches meet the restaurant world

For those that may not know, I work in two industries, two of them being polar opposites. The restaurant industry, obviously, and the business world in an office.

I worked in restaurants since the age of 15.. I got the "real job" at 21.. and still worked "part time" at a restaurant (the hours are of course, more full time anyway..)

Nonetheless.. The other day, I was pretty much made to go to a business lunch. One of those quick sandwich and soup type of things when men and women in business attire prance and dance into restaurants expressing their snotty and high browed faces. They act as though the restaurant staff doesn't breath oxygen.. maybe they live on some type of chemical, maybe they just breath in business workers' carbon dioxide.

I am usually the person at the business lunch that stacks the plates and hands it to the server.. the others at the table normally ignore the workers while they try to grab the plates.

I remember those days before my "real job" at the office when I was waiting on tables at lunch time.. It was the most dreaded time for me. These people are uptight, they normally eat tuna salad sandwiches, and they all want unsweetened ice tea. Really.. You think I believe you eat that way all the time? They go home and each McDonalds or gigantic dinners. They didn't get to be 300 pounds eating tuna salads with oil and vinegar.. who are they kidding?

In the grand order of all, I think business lunches may rank up there with class reunions on the list of "Types of events I hate working for" ..

But as a worker in both industries now, I feel comraddery with the restaurant worker much more than the office workers next to me at the table..

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HELL'S KITCHEN STILL STRONG IN RATINGS

The show doing exceptionally well with 18-49 year olds .. So far it appears the cast may be the worst of the series, but the show is continuously scoring well in spring time ratings..

I smell another season.

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One last note about Mother's Day

One of the most ignorant things a parent could do is leave their child's mess on the floor after the leave.
I know, I know. We're waiters and waitresses.. We can clean. We can re-set tables. But a giant pile of crackers, cookies, meat, spaghetti sauce, and chicken pieces littering the floor makes it a bit harder. Also, when there's carpetting? Yes.. Potatos do mash in when MOM AND DAD step on them..
Just a note.

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One of "those" types of bosses

Robert Burda of Dublin, Ohio, was fined $50,000 for not paying his workers .. Nice work, Mr. Burda.. I'm sure you made lives a living hell.

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For those out there that don't know, I work two jobs.. one is an office, and the other a restaurant. I sort of work the pounds of desk work away on weekends ..

Someone at the pencil pushing job read my post about Mother's Day. They requested that, as a waiter, I share my opinions.. I did. I sent them the post.

They had no comments.
They were actually a little mad at me. They thought I was a bit insensitive.

But of course, the source of this is someone that orders takeout for lunch, but quickly complains minutes later for insinnificant details of her food.. Too much lettuce in a salad, not enough sausage on her meat lovers personal pizza.. So consider the source.

But it's also a little reminder that people that never worked in the restaurant industry don't really understand.

I get it.

My wife works as a massage therapist, and there is surely on way in hell I can undersatand the pains in her shoulder, rist, and hands when she gets home from a long day.

But .. for my co-worker to ask an opinion, get it, and be angry at is, is a little disingenious.

I also found out she was taken out by her kids on Mother's Day. . . could there be a likelyhood here that she will be a customer that will not be forgotten...?

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Mother's Day .. over and out

Made it through..Didn't think we could do it. But even sinking ships still sail for a while. Luckily this one got back to the dock before the whole thing went down.

Three wheelchairs. One oxygen tank ..
Five walkers.
25 screaming children..
421 packed in sardines grazing on food.

Mother's Day is over.. until next year. Rest up.

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GOOD LUCK, FELLOW SERVERS

Tonight is the eve of the most dreaded, horrid, and awful day in the world for the restaurant world: Mother's Day.

Maybe not the most dreaded for business owners.. After all, they're busy trying to shove and squeeze last minute reservations in the book even though it appears that it is booked!

The wheelchairs, the walkers.. All out in full force tomorrow.

Snobby sons and ditsy daughters. Many of them seeing mom for the first time since they chose to take her out of the home a year ago.. Most likely on Mother's Day.

"Get anything you want mom."
"I just want pudding, or a sandwich."

Mom eats half a cup of soup and sandwich while the kids dine away on prime rib and shrimp scampi. Ain't life grand?

I never understood why exactly Mother's Day was the busiest restaurant day of the year. It's unpleasant beyond mom's wildest expectations.

Even the nicest and best restaurants end up serving lackluster food, cramping too many people in, and end up with slow service. It's the time to not be at a restaurant.

But it's the kids that think it all up. "Let's take mom out this year!"

A rose, or carnation, and a steak dinner. Or chicken dinner. Or just soup. "I'm not hungry."

Back to the home.

It's going to be over soon, servers. But get ready: The worst is yet to come. And when it's 9pm on the East Coast it will only be 6pm on the West. Good luck all.

Keep smiling.. Make it out alive.

AND be forewarned: It never fails, at least one worker will be a no-show on Mother's Day.

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MISSISSIPPI GOING TOO FAR WITH FAT

Maybe they are. It's not a law yet, but as the SMOKING GUN website is reporting, Mississippi may be the first state in the union to make it illegal for a restaurant to serve someone 'obese' food!

But what is obese!

According to the SMOKING GUN, the bill is dead on arrival.

But it's also alarming on arrival. As we all know, time heals all wounds.. and makes it easier for fanatical health nuts to dictate the way we all should live.

There are problems with obesity in America .. especially Southern food. Let's not forget how there is a lot of enjoyment of fried food, high in cholesterol, and low in fiber, foods across the South..

But the problem, really, is that a few legislators trying to make others healthy .. by making it illegal for them to eat in retaurants and making it illegal for the owner of a food establishment to give them food..

The bill attempts to create a situation that giving food to obese is like giving a gun to a murderer.. Obesity is not a crime. And should not be. And it should never be criminalized for a restaurant to serve food.

And by the way.. who determines what is too fat to go into a restaurant? A scale at the front door.. A bouncer having to remove patrons?

It will have to be a big bouncer. Hopefully not obese. Or he won't eat.

From some of the sites I've been reading.. Mississippi isn't too happy with their Bobby Shows, W.T. Mayhall, Jr, and John Read .. the authors of the ridiculous bill...

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DINING OUT WITH LESS MONEY

STARBUCKS is abandoning its hopes for new restaruants in the United States.. And economic downturn isn't helping across the world.

But it made me think. If people can't afford the $4 dollar cup of coffee, are they affording to go out to eat as much as we all think they do?
What are the trends during a downturn? After all, if you went to the grocery store lately, everything is getting higher in price.

In 2007, the downturn started to effect the food service industry. With the exception of a few places that never seem to get hurt quickly by economic problems.

The National Restaurant Association said that the food service industry declined for a fourth consecutive month in 2007. December 2007 saw the lowest level of sales since February 2003, according to the Association report.

And it's not just customers changing their habits. According to the report from the Association, the percentage of restaurant owners that are concerned about the performance of the economy is also up. More from the report..



And with all the news of the industry a little nervous about the future, Burger King is boasting big sales. BK claims big growth in sales globally..



What will 2008 bring?
Can America stop dining out as much as it does?
One restaurant owner told me that he sees the same if not more people coming to his establishment. But what they order is different. No prime rib dinners.. instead it's baked pork chops, chicken, or a sandwich.

Our love for dining out isn't going to change. If the market changes the industry, the industry will evolve. The true people that the downturn could eventually hurt would be tipped employees..

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