Happy?!

My bosses and old high school teachers were in attendance to a wedding last night. The pressure is on.

Anytime my bosses are guest at a party, the entire staff freaks and hopes that they are not the ones serving them. They watch you like a hawk and perfection is key.

Two dinners were dropped, which happens occasionally. That's why the cooks make backups (sometimes).
But just knowing your being watched is creepy and if it were me who dropped them in front of my boss, I'd be in tears. Thankfully it was brushed off and everything was swell .

Must I say though, dinner service was quite smooth and the pressure was alleviated. This is a happy story told from the banquet hall, because it is a good thing to add something positive every once in a while! :)

Stories from outside the banquet hall

I stumbled upon this website and it made my laugh uncontrollably. It's other people's stories from places that they work. Enjoy!

Click here for laughter!

Milky Problems

A woman yelled at me...because I couldn't get her skim milk.

At a party, this women pulled me aside and told me of her disgust for soft drinks and sweetened beverages (can you say strange?). So she asked me if we had any skim milk in the kitchen. I of course, obliged and went to go look. Turns out, we only had 2%. I figured that the women would at least be gracious that I took time to find her something, but I was wrong.

She decided to flip out when I brought it to her saying that there is no reason for us not having milk in all varieties in stock.

Actually, there is a reason. We are NOT a restaurant and we only buy the food and ingredients that are necessary for the parties in a given week. If skim milk is not needed, it isn't bought.

People really get that about our banquet hall. They just assume we're a restaurant and automatically assume if we can't cater to all of their demands that the place is crap, which isn't the case at all.

Oh...and the milk lady? She was sipping down some lemonade later on during the party. People make me wonder sometimes...

Scowling Coffee

People love their coffee. Sometimes, I seriously people might just fall off the world without it if they don't have some everyday.

Part of our dinner service is what we supply coffee throughout the duration of the party. Every so often our servers walk around with two, scolding hots pots of coffee and maybe get through two tables before a refill is needed.

Serving coffee, which may appear as a simple task, is actually one of the most annoying at my work.

People are so demanding and seriously lack common sense sometimes. At the last party I worked, I served coffee to nine people at a table that seated 10. After everyone who told me they wanted a cup got their coffee, I asked if everyone was good and the answer was yes.

Not even two minutes later, a lady walks over to me and taps me on the back telling me I didn't serve her coffee. This lady happened to be the tenth person at the table that I had just served and I clearly remembered her looking me in the eye and shaking her head no when I asked if everyone was good.

Her attitude towards me was unnecessary and rude. She acted as if I purposely ignored her, which wasn't the case.

Stuff like that happens every so often during every party that I've ever worked. People act as if coffee is a holy thing or something. At least be polite to your servers.

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For Hire, Please!

When you apply for a job, you normally are signing up for one job. A job where you will concentrate most of your efforts in one specialized part of the company. Apparently, my work does not get that concept.

We are very understaffed at work, especially during the academic year where a lot of employees (including myself are going to school as well). I was hired as a waitress, but myself and the rest of the employees find ourselves doing things that are not in our job description.

A former waitress would go into the dish room every night and help the dishwashers. At one time during the night, every person on staff looked at her with confusion. Women workers are not normally permitted to to operate dishwashing machinery, but without her, the dish room would have slowed to a crawl causing a huge backup.

I feel for the maintenance guys and dishwashers. They get to back end of all the work that needs done. If it isn't one thing its another. I've seen them work 12 hour days washing dishes, then washing the kitchen floors, stacking chairs, cleaning grills, then to finish the day with waxing and polishing all the wood and windows in all the party rooms.

That's proof enough that more people need to be hired. We may have two full time maintenance workers and about five part time dishwashers. That's nowhere near enough to run a smooth banquet hall.

To keep the line of stinky, garbage filled bus pans from lining the kitchen, please hire more staff. In addition, don't take out the anger of having not enough employees on the staff that you already have. Keeping them is important!

Wasteful

At every dinner service, I notice a trend...food is always wasted. It is extremely bothersome to buss someones plate and dump whole pieces of chicken into a bus pan. It's enough to bring a frown to my face when I think of how people refuse to eat what's on their plate when some people around the world would kill for the food scraps in the bus pans around the banquet hall.

Why can't people just take the amount of food that they'll actually eat? I have seen people pile mountains of food on their plates while walking through the buffet line. This is after hors d'oeuvres hour, soup, and salad have already been served, and in my experience, normally party guests fill up on the appetizers. So why take three portions during the actual meal?

In addition, giant pasta bowls are served family style during weddings to each table. It is incredible how much pasta is wasted. I'd say that if there are 25 bowls, only about 15 are actually eaten. People are starving all over the world, and people can't eat the food that's placed in front of them?

All in all, I am simply wishing that people would only take what they can eat. All of the leftover food from out parties is donated to the local food bank, but the food that gets tossed on someones plate gets thrown int he dumpster. Help a child in need, and next time please only take what you know you will eat. Please do not be wasteful anymore. Returning to the buffet line for seconds is a possibility.

On the Rocks

It was a Friday night at the banquet hall. Normally, Fridays are quiet and only have one party. This past Friday there was only one wedding and when I walked into work, I was pleasantly surprised to know that we wouldn't be too crazy for once and I thought nothing could possibly go wrong. Boy....I was sure wrong.

I was finishing setting up the room by placing napkins at each table setting. All of a sudden...I hear the distinct sound of glass....crashing to the floor. And this time...it came in tidal waves which seemed to go on for a good 10 seconds.

My boss was in the same room I was in helping tray cookies and immediately dashed towards the kitchen and I heard her shriek "Oh my god! What Happened??!!"

Apparently, the bartender for the wedding the night was pushing stacks of rocks glasses towards the bar. There is a floor tile that's been broken for almost a year but hasn't been fixed yet. Why you may ask? No idea. Ask the management :)

Anyway, the wheels on the glass rock caught the broken tile and down went 250 rocks glasses....with the bartender as well.

It was a miracle that he wasn't hurt and came out of it with a smile. If it were me...I'd be a crying mess and just leave.

I think the tile is going to be fixed now. Just to avoid anymore costly falls....oh and don't forget employee injuries :)

Plan the Wedding!

For all those people out there who are in need of a wedding planner!! Here are some great places to check out!



View Wedding Planners in Pittburgh in a larger map

Fork Vent

Does it bother anyone else when people don't know what fork or plate to use for what during a meal?

It really bothers me, because those same people whine at you in the middle of service because "you took my fork when I still needed it," with that rude attitude.

I'm sorry, but if you hand me a salad plate with both forks and your knife on it, you just don't have common sense. You'll need those utensils for the main dinner. So stop whining and learn how to properly eat a meal.

Something else that bother me about table etiquette. Ever notice when people are done eating, they'll put their plate in the MIDDLE of the table? In what world does that make sense? Okay, I understand that the people sitting at the table want it out of the way. But your servers will be around the clear your table as soon as you are through with the meal. If the plate is in the middle of the table, we basically have to lean all over these people to get to it and then get attitude and rude facial gestures.

Maybe people should just learn how to properly treat their servers. Basically, this blog was just to vent about how rude i think some people are without even realizing it.

Simply a wedding nightmare

Ever have a night at work where nothing huge went wrong...but a bunch of little things did that just added up to cause an awful night? Well I just went through one of those nights during my last shift.

250 person wedding. Just the thought of that makes me wince and hate to walk through the kitchen doors at the beginning of a shift.

Everything up until dinner service went flawlessly. That gave me hope that the night might actually be bearable. Well I was wrong.

These people are obviously huge partiers and were drunk by the time soup was served. That's just an early indicator that the night will be awful.

I REALLY hate that people do not sit during dinner service. Like seriously people. Have some respect for your servers and sit down and clear the floor. But does that happen. Noooooo.

Serving the 3 course meal at this wedding was a painful experience. None of the servers could weave between the tables because wedding guests would just stand there and not move even when you say "Excuse me." That bothers me to no end.

Throughout the rest of the night, several glasses were dropped and broken because people got so beyond wasted, and busing was an absolute nightmare.

This made my boss upset because her staff was upset and not exactly smiling. There were arguments and people who are normally happy and calm during services were miserable. Servers had that "I'm so angry I'm seriously going to quit tonight," attitude.

One anger outlet though-the ice sculpture that we got to destroy at the end of the night. Oh, how wonderful it was.

The night finally ended at midnight and walking out into the chilly autumn air was the biggest relief ever. I can only wait to see what next week's weddings hold...