So, how did our Valentine's Day go? Not too bad, really. Nice, steady lunch crowd and a very acceptable dinner. We even had a couple six-tops or three, which was a nice change from the steady influx of deuces. We did end up with a bit of a wait, starting around 6:30, of about 45 or 60 minutes. Not everyone waited. A few couples ate at the bar, which is of course a fine option. We didn't get the "late" business I would've thought, pretty much no one came in later than 7:30. The highlight? The story I will have for years to come? That would be when Dave came up to me in the back of the kitchen and said "Miss Barbara, I messed up". I see he's holding a dripping plastic container of some kind of thick white goop. "Okay, what?" I barked back - it is around 7PM, pretty much the peak of the action, with about 20 tickets in the window and beer needed at the bar and the new dishwasher asking for more direction and the woman from Springfield Farm holding out her clipboard, wondering where would we like the meat delivery - so I didn't feel too badly about barking. Dave had dropped - somehow - the big back-up tub of blue cheese dressing on the walk-in floor. And it had gone everywhere, all over the walk-in curtain, onto the floor outside the walk-in, and of course a huge mess on the floor inside. A. Huge. Mess.
Mike helped him clean it up (but of course they have to be told how to accomplish this). Meanwhile the Springfield Farm delivery has to go into said walk-in, including the whole lamb carcass. I end up just putting the lamb on our faithful cart and roll the whole thing, cart and all, to the back of the walk-in, where it is safely out of the way of the ongoing clean-up job. Thank god for such a giant walk-in! I don't think Kevin even realized a thing about it til Alex came back to report we were out of blue cheese dressing...
Other than that, things went pretty smoothly on our first Valentine's at Brooks Tavern.
Mike helped him clean it up (but of course they have to be told how to accomplish this). Meanwhile the Springfield Farm delivery has to go into said walk-in, including the whole lamb carcass. I end up just putting the lamb on our faithful cart and roll the whole thing, cart and all, to the back of the walk-in, where it is safely out of the way of the ongoing clean-up job. Thank god for such a giant walk-in! I don't think Kevin even realized a thing about it til Alex came back to report we were out of blue cheese dressing...
Other than that, things went pretty smoothly on our first Valentine's at Brooks Tavern.
Why in the world would you criticize your own staff out in public like this. It makes you look like poor management and certainly does not increase my desire to dine at your establishment.
ReplyDeleteIf you are a regular reader of this Blog, or a regular visitor to BT, you should understand better the relationships we have with our staff. If you are a business owner you must know that people make mistakes and hopefully learn from them and move on. This was certainly not the first spill in the walk-in, but it probably will be Dave's last, since he knows what went wrong and how to correct it.
ReplyDeleteI think what may really be what's new to you, McGraw, is the fact that someone actually reveals in a public forum like this that things do go wrong behind the scenes, that it is not all perfect every day, every night, every shift. Reality is what it is.
And besides, since when have I known how to keep my mouth shut??