Restaurant Sidework

Ahhhh, Side work

Good old side work, you've got to love it. If you don't work in the restaurant business, then you might find yourself unfamiliar with the term side work. Side work is simply a series of restocking, cleaning, preparing, straightening, and related tasks to having the restaurant ready for the next rush.

Side work often consists of wiping down condiments, and refilling them (or Marrying them). Restocking plates, silverware, napkins, to go boxes, condiments, and the like. Maybe it's making a new batch of coffee or brewing some ice tea for the next round. Side work is also a lot of cleaning. When you work with food and liquids, there is often a lot to clean up after. Side work is a necessity at the beginning of a shift, before the shift change, and when closing down the restaurant.

For servers, bartenders, and kitchen staff a like, side work is often all that stands between them and punching the clock. It is one of those little things that is often annoying, but needed. Ah side work... you've got to love it!

Still Mooing

Restaurant

Last night, I'm waiting. I'm in the first section to get phased, so my mentality is to get in and get out. About three hours into my shift, I can feel that restaurant is within a half an hour or so of clearing out. At this point, I'm doing everything I can to keep my tables moving.

I approach my next table. I greet them, and things are off and rolling smoothly. I grab a quick drink order and run off. Upon returning with their drink order, I drop the drinks and then I begin to take their food order.

I take one guy's order, move on to the little girl, and then I come to the lady. Here is where we come to a little hick-up. I'm a little cautious, but not entirely concerned as we continue:

Me: "...and what can I get for you ma'am?"

Her: "I'll have the top sirloin."

She starts to pick her conversation with her friend.

Me: "How would you like that prepared?"

Her: (realizing she isn't finished ordering yet) "Oh, um...."

(Her party and I wait with bated breath)

Her: "I'll.... I think, I'll have it rare."

Me: "Are you sure? Our rare is RARE."

Her husband: (interjecting and addressing her)"Medium rare..."

Her: No, I like it rare.

Me: "Our rare still has blood, is that ok?"

Her: "Yeah, I like it bloody. That's fine, thanks."

A little weary, but not completely concerned, I finish the rest of the table's order. The steak lady wasn't all prissy and high maintenance looking. The lady looked like a seasoned meat eater, so I trusted that she knew what she was doing.

I continue with my let's-get-the-hell-out-of-here waiting frenzy. I swing by the expo window about 20 minutes later and that table's food is up. I run it out, drop it off, everyone looks happy and I move on to my side work. After a few minutes of side work, I return to the floor to check on my tables.

Me: "How is every one's dinner?"

The table: "Good." "Fine" "Mmmm..."

The steak lady and I make eye contact. I can tell she has something to say.

Me: "Ma'am how is the steak?"

Her: "It's pretty rare..."

(Really?! Didn't we just have a full four minute exchange about this?)
Me: "You asked for a rare sirloin..."

Her: (giving a half hearted surrender) "Yeah... can you guys throw it back on the grill for a moment?"

(Seeing as she had already picked it completely apart and touched all of it... we have a few sanitation rules you know?)

Me: "I'm afraid we can't do that ma'am... I'll talk to the kitchen."

Her: "Well... it's not just rare, it's kind of grainy too."

I kind of scoffed to myself and decided to move on. After all, I was almost done. My manager, the sous-chef, and I all had a quick chat about the incident, and recapped the situation. We got the lady another steak, and I... THANK GOD... went home. Haha.

One of Your Own

Restaurant

OK, so tonight I was in a slower section. It's one that starts off slow, and picks up as the night goes on. This is due to phasing.

What is phasing? When it's time to "phase" the manager basically makes the decision to take one server off the floor and the remaining servers gain more tables to their section. This is where things tend to get crazy, if you're still on the floor.

After the call to phase, my section kept getting sat. I went from a four table section to a nine table section. I now am pretty good at dealing with this. This type of phasing used bury me deep in the weeds and cause some anxiety. Now, I'm much better and don't allow my emotions to get the best of me.

Well, after it all started to die off, it was down to one other server and I. She was the closer, and I was pretty much expected to rock out the side work. I finished off most of my tables, and the place was dying. I had two tables left. One table was just ordering and the other had already ate, but was chit-chatting over drinks. I was not really worried however, since I still had a lot of side work to do.

Soon, I was getting close to finishing my side work and was pretty much ready to go home. I stopped by the table that had just ordered and they were doing a good job at eating their meal (3 guys, pretty hungry). They asked for their check at this point were pretty much gone in another ten minutes.

I went over to my last table, the drinking table. Who ordered more drinks. "Fuck," I thought, "they're gonna drink all night." I ordered the drinks and dropped the check off with the drinks after asking if they needed anything else. I do this to kind of give a clue I'm leaving. The one and only guy at the four top table looks at the check. "Oh," he says. "Are you taking off?" I kind of felt bad at this point, as the restaurant was still open for a good hour and twenty or so minutes.

"Yes, I'm getting ready to go. But don't worry, I don't want you guys to rush. There is still plenty of time." He reaches for his wallet. "No it's cool, we're pretty much done. Here cash us out. I'm sure you have side work to do. There's no need to wait on us, this pretty much it." BINGO! He used the term side work. That said it all. He got it! (They never do!)

With that, I ran the card, dropped the check and he had that baby signed within seconds. Close to 30% tip too. I easily made it out of work close to the time I was phased. I love waiting on those in the business. It is always nice to wait on one of your own.