Meh...

I think another restaurant rant is in order after experiencing some stuff at TGIF. Ignorance seems to be quite common among all the customers at any restaurant. It would seem that all customers desire nothing more than to treat people of the food service ranks with nothing but disrespect, because we're supposed to "serve" them. Granted that's true, but we're not servants we are human beings with the same rights as they, the customer, has. It kinda gets me irratated to see how a lot of people get mad that something isn't going right like the wait the host/hostess told the customer is taking longer than they predicted, well that's probably due to all the people who already ate but are just talking. I know that I talk with my friends at restaurants, but sometimes the length of time people spend is ridiculous. Also one must take into account the amount of bussers since the table must be bussed in order for the customers to be sat.

Another thing that irratates me is when a customer who's waiting points to an empty table and says "Well, why can't we sit at that table?" and I really hate to answer this question because I need to come up with a plausible excuse which will calm them down and not get them upset so they can wait a few more minutes. This is where more ignorance is seen because they have no idea that sometimes the server in that area is on their break that they've finally got or we don't want to sit there because we just sat that server, and we don't want that server to get pissed at us. Sometimes its simply because there's so much to do that the servers have so much extra work and can't serve that table. An example is that a large group of people just sat down around the bar, and when you sit at the bar there's no wait its first come first serve, although after those people asked if they could sit there I was just informed to tell them that they cannot sit there. Since the bar area was a little short staffed on servers since the bartenders were busy and the other server was helping getting the food to the tables. So I go and tell them that they cannot sit there and the mean woman says "I want to speak to your manager!" Then I go and find the manger and tell him the situation which he is most understanding, its just getting the customer to understand. Well this ends with the group of people sitting there and dragging the server whose helping everyone to do more work. The manager told me that the woman said "What kind of business are you trying to run" so I guess the manager had to cave in to the customer since "we want their money." The ignorance of some people is suprising.

I understand that in order for a restaurant to be able to remain open it needs the money from customers, and I wouldn't have a job if not for the customers. Although everyone who works in the food service dreads having to face a difficult/mean/ignorant customer. The customers who are patient and understand are great, too bad there aren't a lot of them.

Another point I want to make is why be mean to a complete stranger? I mean I understand being mean to someone whom you know, but it kinda boggles my mind to see that. Why be mean to people who are serving your food? You would have no idea what could have been done to your food. A good example is from Waiting, where a woman's food is completely messed up and she eats it unbeknowst to her what was done to her food. All people in the food service have the power to mess with your food unless you are able to watch them while they make your food. I believe that all employees in food service know this and its a good thing that they don't use that power. Whether it be the moral of that person or just how completely messed up it would be food service employees won't mess with your food.

Edit: For some strange reason I have a strong desire to go karaoking. Anyone wanna go?