Blueberry Pie

Blueberry is a very popular fruit for pie, and a regular sell-out on our dessert list.  Last night I intended to take numerous food pictures, since I was unable to come up with anything really news worthy for a post, but all I got was the one above.  Soon after 6:00 it became screaming busy.  We had a wait at 6:30 of 45 minutes, too long for many hopeful diners.  And since we were staffed for a Thursday, not a Saturday, things did not go that well on the floor.  The kitchen was slammed, even though I tried to hold things back somewhat by seating tables without menus until we could get caught up.  We couldn't get wine glasses refilled, let alone water glasses.  Luckily there were two bussers, since Terrell started his return engagement just last night, but even so, it was difficult for them to keep up.  There were numerous complaints - and more than likely just as many that I didn't hear.  One table in particular very nicely told me that service was slow; they felt as though they had been forgotten, because it  took such a very long time for their entrees to come out.  I did what I could, which wasn't much, since there was really no excuse to be made.  However, they still left the waiter 20%.  When I saw that, I went back to the table and complimented them on such a classy move. So many times the server is punished for a situation such as this, when they have done everything they can to keep the pace up.  The waiter cannot get the food to the table any faster when there are ten tickets on the board, all fired.  The best thing that they can do is come get management to help ease the guests pain in whatever way possible, be it bring a round of drinks, offer to buy dessert or just try to explain why they evening's main event was not appearing in a timely fashion.  

Everyone on the floor worked very, very hard with not a whole lot of smiling last night.  It wasn't fun, being in the weeds for two long hours.  It certainly would be nice if this was going to be typical for Thursday nights for the summer; one thing for certain - we will be staffed for it next week!

As for the pie, we ran out by about 7:00.  There are two more in the oven right now for tonight!