Before I serve ya the delicious entree that is this episode of These American Servers™ , I'm going to drop off an appetizer of a disclaimer at the computer that is metaphorically your table. It concerns the fact that I've been kind of slack about creating new episodes of my little internet column here. When I was a young boy, my grandmother always used to say, "If yer gonna have a server blog, you need to post something on it from time to time." She said that a lot and she never said anything else. I'm pretty sure it's what ultimately got her sent to "the home." That and the fact that it was 1979 and we had no idea what the fuck she was talking about. Anyway, looking back I realize that her tedious prattling contained some prescient wisdom and I promise to seriously consider the possibility of maybe trying to post something on here a little more often if I can get around to it.
For almost a year and up until recently I worked nights at an eatery I dubbed the weediest restaurant in America. The company was kind of struggling and they were way too focused on costs. Plus they issued a buttload of coupons, which probably drove traffic some but mostly attracted the cheap-ass contingent in droves. When they added a "Handy Tip Guide" (March, 2012), with fucked-up gratuity per-centages suggested, to the bottom of the guest checks, I knew it was time to bail, so I did.
I think the concept behind the weediest restaurant in America is fairly strong. Corporate's just way too concerned with not spending any money and it'll be their fault, not that of the cooks, servers, hostesses or managers, if the chain goes under, which is very likely to happen soon as far as I'm concerned. We mostly had pretty good managers at my store, a couple of them were real good and I don't blame them much for the shittiness. I accuse the entire culture of the organization, fostered by the brain trust over at corporate headquarters.
There were some good things about the weediest restaurant in America too. One being that I got along with the managers and they all seemed to be at least pretty OK with having me on the team. Dale, the assistant manager in charge of servers, a good manager and a good guy, had this to say, and I quote verbatim, as I cashed out on my last shift of my two weeks' notice there: "Joe, you're an awesome guy. We'll miss ya and you can come back anytime." Not trying to brag, but that's the kind of thing I'm used to at my various jobs. That's why, at the new place, it's a little disconcerting to have a manager there that fucking hates my guts.
