Straight on 'til Morning

Though the full moon isn't until Friday the 13th this month, you wouldn't have known by the very bizarre actions of our staff this evening. The GM was done with her office work and I was finishing a meeting, and we decided to have dinner at our restaurant before spending the rest of the evening at home.

We had a party of 27 with a minimum choice menu that had been scheduled at least a month ago, I went over the seating and menu with the lead waiter and left a note for the sous to check out the prep for the party when I left Tuesday evening. The sous was unaware of the party today, and the waiter set up for the wrong amount of people. Not a big deal, all was corrected in time.

We're having dinner and watching the staff not greet people, be completely confused about seating people and in general making an appalling impression. The GM jumped up from her dinner, greeted and seated a table, asked the big party waiter if she was on this planet and if she was going to be able to deal with the party.

As we were getting ready to leave a young woman came with a list of complaints about her waiter, which we listened to and went over with said waiter who denied them all (I believe her, we think the young woman was upset because the waiter was cuter than she and was getting attention from the men at the table). We told her whether the complaints were true or not, what we were telling her was the perception of the young complaining woman and to change that perception by fawning over her and making her feel special.

Then the big party was confused about what they were supposed to be paying per person. The (dis)organizer of the party has been nice but scattered throughout the arrangements and didn't do any of the things she was supposed to do. So, the GM had to go over and deal with that.

As we beat a hasty retreat we wondered if we actually needed to stay. Perhaps. But sometimes you have to jump in, take the rudder and then step back hoping the crew rights the ship and gets back on course. Otherwise you are chained to the deck steering every moment, with nary a thought to plotting the course.

I am however, just about to go back, pop in and make sure everyone has their head out of their posterior.