Back To Normal

When I pulled up to the restaurant tonight being the closer I thought there would be a few more cars in the parking lot than there were. There were hardly any and if you take away the cars owned by staff that would leave about 6 belonging to the guests.

It was a good 40 minutes before I was seated. It is a rare occasion when I get any business people at all to serve so I was hoping the 5 top of guys would be good tippers. That was my first table so I did my job and tried to upsell them and did. Their bill came to $321 so I figure with the food being excellent and the service good I am looking at maybe a $50 tip.

I also was hoping the guy from Florida would pay as well but much to my chagrin the Canadian paid and the cheapskate left me $30. Give me a break. Acted like a big shot and ordered the wine for the others but wouldn't have a drink himself. Tried to impress his American friend with some Canadian wine. Some big shot! Wooooooo..... Tell me how can you impress someone with something if you wouldn't try it yourself. He drank beer.

Another table I had that came in later was an older couple. They ordered the steak dinner that came with the salad , had a dessert and their bill came to $72. Gave me 2 $50 bills and I came back with the change. Two tens , a five , and couple of ones and they give me the five and thanked me so much for the dinner. Thanks but how in the heck am I going to feed my family with that!

The last table gave me a $5 bill on about the same amount. So to summarize those last two tables I basically just covered my tip out and kept a couple of dollars.

Well I guess that is the way it will be M-T for the forseeable future. Weekends and Valentines Day are what counts now.

It was a bit of a wasteland tonight. Walked out with $60. Hmmpphhh.........

What a waste of time!

On Thursday going to post about my best time waitering and start with places I worked which were the best. Going to do my top five jobs going down from 5 to 1. Should be fun so stay tuned.

I Guess We Haven't Reached The Bottom Yet

Hey Steven we have a 5 top coming in on table 8 for you. Great I think , maybe by the end of this night I will end up with some cash after all.

So 3 ladies walk in and look at the menu and prefer to wait for the other 2 to show up. They finally order some drinks. A Mango Time , pina colada , and a frozen margarita. I bring the drinks over and the one who has the margarita asks me after tasting it does it have alcohol. Well yeah you did order a margarita so she says , but I forgot to mention no alcohol as I cannot drink it cause I am pregnant. I thought to myself it is must be hard to remember you are pregnant!

The other arrives and orders a Mango margarita then while I am getting that the virgin margarita one says the drink tastes a bit salty. So now I have to get her a virgin pina colada. The 5th one never shows up so they are ready to order.

Are you ready? The first one orders a garlic cheese bread , the second nothing , the third a spinach salad , and the other a garlic cheese bread. Wow!

At the end they have separate bills and I make $7 tip in total. Pretty much sums up the night last night which is the first Saturday night I walked out of there with less than a $100.

Absolutely brutal! Last Easter on the Saturday we were rocking. This year there wasn't even a wait. It is amazing how quick things can change. Last month was great but this month it is like the recession made it's appearance all of a sudden where I work. To add to that my wife's inn where she works is down 600 rooms from budget this month.

I am glad I have the teaching to fall back on right now. Obviously we haven't hit rock bottom yet on the economic front.