So it’s a friday night.
I work in one of the most popular restaurants in town, it’s a mexican/american place that has been around for over 50 years.
Weekend nights are always extremely busy for us, and a wait for a table for 2-4 can be over 90 minutes. Parties can be even longer.
So, during the dinner rush, it is pivotal to cycle your tables as much as possible.
A table of four hispanic people gets sat in one of my booths that can easily fit six, but i’m okay with it. They order four waters, but insist that they want to wait to order food.
About 15 minutes later, I look back to see two more people have joined their table. I grab them drinks. It’s okay.
As this is happening, my other two tables (which can comfortably fix six) get up and are cleared. Of course, we’re on a wait so i’m expecting two more tables any moment. I walk away to go talk with some coworkers.
I walk back out, only to see about 10 adults and 5 kids quickly connecting BOTH of my tables into some sort of booth-table fiesta disaster. They managed to cram (somehow) about 12 bodies into my booth and the rest around the tables.
At this point, my manager tells me that I have no choice but to take them.
I busted my ass and gave them great service for this party of TWENTYONE. Margaritas, Chips & Salsa, Kiddie Cocktails, oh they wanted it all.
After dinner, they decided to make my section home for the next couple hours. About thirty minutes after the wait had cleared, they decided to pay their tabs (8 of them).
At this point, I was beyond frustration as everyone else was clamoring on about how much they had made and I was sitting here dealing with THIS.
After collecting all of my tips, I ended up with $17.12. Which I calculated to be about a 5% tip.
Never again.
Submitted by: John
Holy shit John! Only 17 dollars on 8 different checks. That really sucks. I hope your next few nights are better.
That’s such crap dude…glad I left the seafood restaurant chain I had been at for years. Of course, now it’s drunk frat dickheads and assholes at the bar I’m at now…can’t have it all I guess.
Tales like this remind me of why I would NEVER, in all of my serving days, work for a joint that didn’t respect its servers enough to make an auto-grat policy for parties of 7-8+.
As it is, a little part of me dies inside when I see a 7 top.
Thats why you should add gratuity! it 18 percent guaranteed.
Large parties are the devil. I avoid them at every chance possible. Five tops are my limit, and even then I’m a bit annoyed.
Just taking a drink order takes forever. Then you’re carrying a huge heavy cumbersome tray of drinks. Then it takes forever to take the order, get it in, and getting it out is another story. Too many chances for issues to occur, and one big issue can ruin absolutely everything. And even if everything goes well, you still might not get a decent tip. And then what? All that time you could have been turning and burning 2s and 4s. At least with that, for any bad table you get, you can make up for it with the good tables. In large party situations, you’re stuck with that one huge party. And if they screw you, they screw your whole night.