A walk in my (work) shoes(part1)

~The Busy days~

I started working at the bar in July of 08. It was mildly slow for the first few months before it took WAY off.

Prelude:

Back when we were booming(food-wise, we still get busy but not in food, not like we were), I was pre-making 20 to 30 panini's a day. We had 4 on menu and generally made 5 of each, more of the popular ones and usually only had 2 to 3 at the end of the week. I would weigh out enough cheese for 12 to 15 boards with extra asiago and manchego weighed out for the asiago board and the meat & cheese boards. It was busy, it was crazy. I left every day feeling all the weight of my body on my tired sore feet and my hands almost completely numb from cutting and preparing and grilling and all that. It's me, one chef. I have a waitress(now, but not for long as she is moving soon and we won't be replacing her untill summer, IF it gets busy) and that's it. Before then it was my boss and her on again off again boyfriend who ran it, John played mostly bartender(sorta baddly) and Sandra played floor(Pun intended? Not really but it came out that way so feel free to laugh). It was hectic at times. We have a table outside the kitchen which holds our espresso machine and plates for the floor and various other things that would be completely covered in dishes, silverware and glassware, not to mention the boards themselves. At times it will stack up on to the bar over by the register.

A typical busy day:

Thursday, which is generally our busiest day goes like this: I wake up around noon, 1pm if I care to sleep in but then I am rushed. I eat, do whatever and then at 1pm I start getting ready, you wouldn't think it would take a half hour for me to get ready, with the dreads and all. But by the time you shit, shower and shave, then eat and start getting dressed and your things together such as tobacco, rolling one for the road, CDs, putting on deodorant, as I forget sometimes. and then get the rest together, apron notepad for front pocket, pin, phone, wallet, book if it's slow(which I only recently started to do as I never read untill red rocks) you can see how it could take 20-30 minutes. I leave at 1:30. I have to be there by 2 in order to make all the sandwiches and cut the cheese and such. I pray I don't fall behind the low life drivers that do 50 to 60 in a 70mph zone and then keep doing the 50 to 60 through a 50, 45 and only during the 35mph zone do they slow to maybe 40(Where the fuck are the cops when you want them to be around?), or god help me I get stuck behind a early drinker or trailer puller, the trailer pullers are as scary as the early drunks! the trailer goes everywhere and I usually cant even pass, but atleast they do the speed limit, even if they shouldn't. I stop at the gas station to refill my 40oz cup with pepsi cola(they don't have coke and I'm not big on mountain dew), or if I'm out of tobacco I stop at the grocery store and get a 20oz Dr. Pepper and some tobacco, sometimes I can catch my girl there, but after this asshole of a manager realized we were dating, won't let me check out with her. Fuck you paul.

I get to work generally at two, rarely before then but it has happened. Most times, which I am not proud of one of the things listed above happens and I arrive a few minutes late, max 10 minutes. Luckily as of the last year my boss gave me keys and knows I know how to set up the bar on my end and she never notices. I write that I show up at 2pm so it doesn't look bad, but at the same time if I work till 9:15 and most times even 9:20(If I know I showed up late) I write down that I clocked out at 9:00 to even things out. I love my boss and for the most part my Job, I don't want to fuck her over but I don't want to look bad either. I make the panini's and after learning them, changing them all horribly(boss, not me) and then changing them back plus the ones that did well from the 6 month period they sucked, I have learned how to make them without looking at our menu. I could probably do it in my sleep and I know damn well which cheese to weigh at 1oz and which at 1.5oz. I usually finish about 10 minutes before opening, when my boss arrives at 3 to 3:30 its the generally greeting and how was your week followed up by the shit that happened when I left the last saturday and any town gossip I missed out on during the week. I was never one for gossip untill I worked here. I've grown to love it because for one it's hilarious and secondly it helps us judge what kind of crowd we will have.

When I finish up, be it before or after opening I run to Super S, a shitty grocery store, the one my girlfriend has been enslaved to work for because of the economy and amount of business vs people, there isn't much. I run over there for Ice, usually 20lb bags to ice down our heffeweizen, hard cider and champagne, the occasional bottle of wine that we are in high demand of that day also. Sometimes I get water to serve people as the tap tastes like asstastic river water(I've drank it, its not fun or good for you in any way). On friday or saturday if we were busy enough I might buy grapes, white bread for nutella panini's or milk for our espresso. Occasionally a red onion for our silver spur sandwich and very very rarely turkey meat for the same sandwich.

The start:

Thursday's always start like this unless we have straggler tourists. They start off with our medina group which consists of, Dick and grace, bobby, cat, mikey, the other I still do not know the names of, the aforementioned are the only ones to recognize and talk to me at times. At first it was just our first high top that looks out on to the street, but now it has grown in to both high tops, which leaves our three tables, most sit 6 people and then the bar which sits 10 or 12. Generally it is just them untill 5 or 6 o' clock. Then we get the other regulars, Ken and Kirsten, Finn, Santa dan(at times) and the general crowed that I don't know whom are still mild very mild regulars. Again, these are the people I know who I talk to and very rarely go out with for drinks after I get off of work. Then it get's busy. I get stuck in the kitchen for hours at a time. I have been tasked with cooking up to 4 sandwiches on the grill when it can only hold 5 max, making 2 to 3 and sometimes 4 cheese, meat or combo boards at once, not to mention the custom build your own orders. I do not have a ticket rack, but we tape my tix to a shelf that holds the stereo that plays the XM music everyone enjoys. That's when dishes and such get stacked, I have literally had to have my boss/bartender wash, dry and put away glassware, my waitress/floor girl do silverware and dishes and the like all because I am sooooo backed up. A wise man(anthony bourdain) taught me, through his book to cherish these moments. I loathed them back in the day when we started. COMPLETELY HATED THEM. But! That was because in 08 every night was pretty much like that and it is very taxing. If you've never worked a cook line or participated in a line cook job at all, don't you tell me to suck it up cause I only work 3 days a week, I realize there are more that do alot more and do it 6 days a week. I am astounded that they can do it. I have recently found happiness in going home worked to death, barely walking, one shoulder cocked up almost above my head because of my bad back. I love it these days. Could I take all 3 days doing this? Yes. Do I want to? Fuck no, I want 2 solid days of good work with a slow BUT STEADY saturday. Meaning I want to be busy but not swamped, not slammed. I don't want to get stuck in the weeds and have to single handily pull myself out just to fall back again like the previous days. I do quite enjoy the uber slow days when I can sit out and talk with the regulars and make jokes and gossip, even if I don't do it much due to shyness. But I don't want every week like that. I say this because I work the cook Job every day we are open and yes I get a free drink after work and sometimes I have more and get to talk to people(believe me I actually talk after a day like that and have a beer in me) but it's not the same as just chillin with everyone, the regulars that come in early and leave late. I don't like our night crowd much at all. I also HATE it when my dad is out there with friends or my girl and my sis are out there with friends and I can hear them laughing, having a ball, when I'm desperately trying to play catch up just so I can have a smoke with them on a break on the other side of the bar. I don't mind other people having a blast, but when you know you could be in on it, laughing away having a good old time, it grates on you.

Closing:

I don't mean to bash my boss but this is what closing can be like for me. As of late everything drops off around 9, 9:30. Back in 08 it was 10, 10:30 and most likely 11pm. Back in 08 we didn't have Shelley, our beloved waitress. So it was just John and Sandra(barback and floor, but largely it was sandra playing both as John would get caught up in conversation). So I think they were afraid to let me go any earlier because they didn't want to get caught in the weeds. That or they knew I needed the hours as my dad was between jobs at the time and I was helping to support us while he was searching. But anyway, the thing that gets on my nerves the most about closing is this. "Hey Jonathon I think you can close the kitchen down, we probably won't get anymore food orders" All the dishes come in, I start washing and wiping down my ENTIRE work area. It is a small kitchen but I make everything mighty shiny at the end. So I wash everything, scrub down the grill, wash the bottom tray of the oven we cook our baguettes in and wipe down everything, sweep up the kitchen and get everything situated in my mise-en-place and it's happened so many times. I could be writing down my hours to clock out, I could be wiping everything down, I could be making sure the capponatta didn't get left out, or already been served my free beer, when someone walks in and orders. I have to open the kitchen back up. Even if I've clocked off. If it is Jim and melissa, Jim and Judy or Don and Debbie it's no small task. It's a Cheese board, a meat board and a panini or two or three. I am mildly bitching at this point. It's not their fault, Sandra or Shelley could do it but they usually go talk with them and chat them up. To my defense of sorts also, there are times when I feel bad, because I am off and drinking but they cook and everything. because I am off. But, if I didn't stay for a drink they'd do it anyway is what I tell myself. Either way it's what has to be done and I do it. I shouldn't bitch, more tips, more hours, more money. But more times than not it's at the end of a slaughtering shift and the last thing I want is to open up the kitchen again for this. Also I must admit there have been times that I have closed the kitchen down 3 times in a row. back to fucking back. To me? The kitchen is fucking closed, deal with it. But I understand that it's like "Oh is the kitchen still open we are so hungry and all we want is some cheese with our whine", shit like that. But still, its grating on me. again, shit happens I deal with it, we deal with it. There've been times when I'm on my way out after 3 or 4 beers at the wine bar with my dad on my off hours and everything's ready for the next day when in walks someone good for 2+ glasses and sandra has to stay while I leave, I get it, I do. This is just my rant on how I hate the bar business sometimes. Again I've been to other bars late and it's like "Just one drink, please, I don't want to go to any of the other honky tonks I just want to sit here with you guys"

So this is basically what my busy days are like.