I have started working, and have been doing so for the last three weeks. No, this is not my career option, but just a means to make some extra money. Waiting tables at a restaurant may not be the most exciting job around, but it sure brings in some quick money. A new restaurant called "Canal Bistro" opened three weeks ago and I thought it would be worth giving it a try. It is a Mediterranean restaurant and is located right next to a canal, and hence the name. Some of the items on the menu include felafel's, gyro, kebabs, shawarma and so on. The food is pretty impressive and the response from the public has been great. Lunch times and evenings are packed and on weekends it could drag way beyond midnight.
Though it has been just three weeks, I have learnt a lot from this experience. This is probably my first experience working in the real competitive world where the money you make depends on the number of tables you manage to serve. The concept of "survival of the fittest" makes itself known to me suddenly. It's amazing how people can be mean when there is money involved. Its amazing how most of them don't care what you think about them, as all they want to do is pocket maximum cash as possible, even if that means stepping all over you or even making themselves appear as pricks and bitches. I guess I should not be complaining much as this is probably how people are going to be in the real world, so I should just suck it up and deal with it. I believe I succeed in not being a prick and as for the other pricks and bitches, I guess ignoring them would be the best option. I take what table i get and don't fight over a bigger table that someone else has just grabbed. Sure, my collection for the day may be a little less than the others, but at the end of the day I'm just proud of myself.
Serving is fun and it can get really hectic during peak time. Balancing five tables at a time can confuse the kababs out of you and it gets more difficult if the table you have consists of some fussy customers. I have not had any rude customers yet, thankfully. There was this one lady who almost got on my nerves because she asked for ranch dressing on the side for an order of chicken strips for the kids meal. I politely told her that we did not have ranch dressing and she was like, "which restaurant does not have ranch dressing?" I explained to her that this was a Mediterranean restaurant with pure Mediterranean food and that ranch was probably not a very popular item in that area. She was not convinced and went on for a few minutes about how she was not satisfied. Thankfully the ordeal ended soon and surprisingly I got a good tip.
In more than one ways, this has been a really humbling experience for me. Serving is not jut about taking the food out. There is a lot more involved. Every night, once the last customer has left, we need to collect all chairs on the patio and stack them up. Everyday we need to polish and neatly wrap the silverware. Everyday we need to refill the ketchup bottles, olive oil bottles and other nick knacks. Doing these does not suck much energy from you but it may appear hard towards the end of a hard day. The more difficult job included sweeping and moping the whole restaurant every night and making sure its clean enough for the next day. Cleaning the toilets would probably be on top of the list of things I found hard doing. In a way you could say that back in India some of us have been spoilt. We have maids and servants to sweep and mop our homes. The wash the dishes, take the trash out and do the laundry. They even clean the toilets. I don't think I have ever cleaned a toilet my whole life. The first time I probably did it was when I first came to this country, and that was my own toilet. And now, here I am cleaning someone else's shitpot. I found it difficult to do. Not physically, but mentally. I think the problem is that back home we associate certain kinds of jobs with certain kinds of people. I was brought up like that and I am sure so were many of you. I did it anyway and I still do it. I don't have to do it everyday as we take turns doing it, but it has probably humbled me in some way.
Overall, I enjoy working at this place. The owners are great people and they know how to treat the workers. Did I mention that this place also serves hookah? I get to smoke it as much as I want to, and not to mention the great food I get to try. I am also glad that I am not working for an Indian restaurant, because they work the shit out of you and hardly pay you much. Sometimes I wish that I had gotten this opportunity a while ago, because I could have made some good money, but better late than never, isn't it?
PS: If making good tips are your intention, then never serve a Desi. They make small talk with you, act friendly, ask about your hometown and so on, and leave you with a pathetic tip.
Though it has been just three weeks, I have learnt a lot from this experience. This is probably my first experience working in the real competitive world where the money you make depends on the number of tables you manage to serve. The concept of "survival of the fittest" makes itself known to me suddenly. It's amazing how people can be mean when there is money involved. Its amazing how most of them don't care what you think about them, as all they want to do is pocket maximum cash as possible, even if that means stepping all over you or even making themselves appear as pricks and bitches. I guess I should not be complaining much as this is probably how people are going to be in the real world, so I should just suck it up and deal with it. I believe I succeed in not being a prick and as for the other pricks and bitches, I guess ignoring them would be the best option. I take what table i get and don't fight over a bigger table that someone else has just grabbed. Sure, my collection for the day may be a little less than the others, but at the end of the day I'm just proud of myself.
Serving is fun and it can get really hectic during peak time. Balancing five tables at a time can confuse the kababs out of you and it gets more difficult if the table you have consists of some fussy customers. I have not had any rude customers yet, thankfully. There was this one lady who almost got on my nerves because she asked for ranch dressing on the side for an order of chicken strips for the kids meal. I politely told her that we did not have ranch dressing and she was like, "which restaurant does not have ranch dressing?" I explained to her that this was a Mediterranean restaurant with pure Mediterranean food and that ranch was probably not a very popular item in that area. She was not convinced and went on for a few minutes about how she was not satisfied. Thankfully the ordeal ended soon and surprisingly I got a good tip.
In more than one ways, this has been a really humbling experience for me. Serving is not jut about taking the food out. There is a lot more involved. Every night, once the last customer has left, we need to collect all chairs on the patio and stack them up. Everyday we need to polish and neatly wrap the silverware. Everyday we need to refill the ketchup bottles, olive oil bottles and other nick knacks. Doing these does not suck much energy from you but it may appear hard towards the end of a hard day. The more difficult job included sweeping and moping the whole restaurant every night and making sure its clean enough for the next day. Cleaning the toilets would probably be on top of the list of things I found hard doing. In a way you could say that back in India some of us have been spoilt. We have maids and servants to sweep and mop our homes. The wash the dishes, take the trash out and do the laundry. They even clean the toilets. I don't think I have ever cleaned a toilet my whole life. The first time I probably did it was when I first came to this country, and that was my own toilet. And now, here I am cleaning someone else's shitpot. I found it difficult to do. Not physically, but mentally. I think the problem is that back home we associate certain kinds of jobs with certain kinds of people. I was brought up like that and I am sure so were many of you. I did it anyway and I still do it. I don't have to do it everyday as we take turns doing it, but it has probably humbled me in some way.
Overall, I enjoy working at this place. The owners are great people and they know how to treat the workers. Did I mention that this place also serves hookah? I get to smoke it as much as I want to, and not to mention the great food I get to try. I am also glad that I am not working for an Indian restaurant, because they work the shit out of you and hardly pay you much. Sometimes I wish that I had gotten this opportunity a while ago, because I could have made some good money, but better late than never, isn't it?
PS: If making good tips are your intention, then never serve a Desi. They make small talk with you, act friendly, ask about your hometown and so on, and leave you with a pathetic tip.
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