I Need More Heat!

Well, here it is folks. Your chance to let it all hang out about the "people" you've worked with and for in the Hospitality business. I'll get the ball rolling.

This isn't so much a tale of bad behavior, so much as a tragedy of unrealized business potential.

Some time ago, I worked at a small cafe in a well to do residential/ commercial area with a pretty strong morning rush for coffee (7:30-9 am). When I say small, I mean an open, one man, breakfast and lunch kitchen, a pastry chef, and a half dozen part time baristas/ counter help.

Well, the only way to cook anything was the convection oven,a panini grill, and a small, magnetic cooktop, just big enough for one pan. When the morning coffee rush would come, so would the egg sandwich rush.

Now, I can cook an egg pretty damn quickly, and the fillings/ toppings were all precooked. But between cooking the eggs,and toasting the bread, you're talking, three, maybe four minutes per sandwich, which is fine, if you can cook three or four at a time. BUT I ONLY HAD ROOM TO MAKE ONE AT A TIME!

Take this scenario. Everyone orders the easiest thing to make, a plain egg sandwich in a wrap, and every ticket has only that on it. The first ticket comes in, I begin to cook the eggs. In the three minutes it takes me to cook the eggs, five more tickets come in. Now , I sell the first ticket, and the next five people have already been waiting for up to three minutes. I begin to cook the eggs for the second customer. Three minutes later, I plate the second order, and customers 3, 4, 5, and 6 have been waiting for up to six minutes. Follow this logic, and CUSTOMER SIX HAS WAITED EIGHTEEN MINUTES FOR A PLAIN EGG SANDWICH!!! CUSTOMER SIX IS PISSED OFF!!! CUSTOMER FIFTEEN LEAVES THE STORE IN A RAGE AFTER WAITING THIRTY- FIVE MINUTES!!!

Keep in mind, this is a "best case" scenario. We all know, the chances of only one item being on every ticket, and everyone ordering the least complicated item, are slim and none. We also know the orders don't stop coming in after the sixth one. Even if there are two items on a ticket, in the three minutes it takes me to make the second set of eggs, the first set has gone cold.

Imagine my frustration at watching customers pile up at the counter, getting angrier and angrier, and no matter how fast I move, there's nothing I can do about it.

When I brought up the logistical problem of only cooking one thing at a time , and the mathematical inevitability of people being annoyed by this, myself included, and a solution to the problem ("A new 4 burner cooktop would increase the production exponentially."), I was told that a new cooktop with four burners was not in the budget anytime in the near future.

I was "taken off the schedule" shortly after that, for having a bad attitude. I guess wanting to serve six people in six minutes rather than eighteen is a bad attitude to have.

Well there it is, my first blog post. I know it's long, but I am unemployed. Thanks to all who stuck with me.

Remember this blog is your forum, too. Send me your restaurant horror stories, and I will edit and post the best of the worst, and the worst of the best.