2 Broke Girls (Season 3)

Previously on 2 Broke Girls (Season 1) and 2 Broke Girls (Season 2) I told the story of how I started in hospitality last summer. First one was at the restaurant and the second one at the bar next door. A month ago I got called by the owner of the first one asking if I was interested in working with them again. I said yes and now I have been there for a week. Last time it didn’t end well but after the horrors at the bar I thought I could go back there since it was not so bad. Then here I am.

Writing this after my first week back at it again and trying to relax before my next shift, I can’t help but wonder if it is true that no one really changes. Do we ever change? Is it true what they say that better the Devil you know?

I must say, as it always happens to me, my first day I was nervous, I was afraid to be too rusty to work again. Fortunately we didn’t have many customers so I could get introduced back into the business very gently. I was surprised how fast it all came back to me, how I remembered most of the stuff I learned there. The hardest part was to be able to differentiate between the restaurant, where I am now, and how the bar used to work. One has very stable procedures whilst the other is basically a mess.

One of the good things about surviving that mess is that it gave me very good skills in order to deal with the unknown or the unexpected. That came handy last Saturday, we suddenly had a rush of customers at the same time, as always, and two bookings of big tables, 10 guests or more. We ended up topping the busiest days of last summer except we were only two. Apparently the kitchen had more issues than we did amongst the tables.

I was surprised how it all went smoothly since I know my colleague is prone to lose his temper when under too much stress. That was a day for losing it, 25 people came almost at the same time. For some reason I did not feel like it and neither did he. This is probably because of what I told in the previous post, sorry it is in Spanish, about how I used to get to work on my own on Sundays at the bar. With no help whatsoever and how it would take me two hours to clean everything after everyone had left. It was the worst feeling ever, with people at the bar asking for drinks, people from the tables waving at me and running out of glasses to serve them. I did survive back then which is why I think this last time it wasn’t so bad. I may have learned news skills.

Last shift was the same, except this time it was me taking the orders. So it was not only bringing food and getting the drinks but I was also responsible to the pace of the restaurant and of course, not to forget any customer or their orders. For some reason, even if there were moments when we were submerged by work, I think we did it pretty well. My part was to go and try to make up for the fact they sometimes had to wait for almost half an hour before I could even get to their tables.

That’s one thing I learned a year ago, from this restaurant but also at the bar. Most of the customers may get annoyed if they have to wait for us to serve them, still they may be understanding and nice when you try to explain and apologise. This time this was the case. I knew the service was not the optimal, but we had no choice, we couldn’t be faster. We did as best as we could, and although my colleague wasn’t happy with it, I made sure to earn the customers sympathy. Which could show on the tips they gave us too.

Serving beers and changing the barrel used to be some of the things I dreaded the most. The days when we were busy were the ones I would be fearing to do it because you need to be fast and accurate. Practice is what I needed and good tips on how to do it. I must say on the last very busy shift I poured so many pints I had to change the barrel, which I did without even noticing it. Then again I had no help whatsoever since my colleague was dealing with his own issues, meaning more people coming into the restaurant.

The funny thing, that say there was a football game and we thought it would be a quiet evening. We were so wrong. I forgot to check how many customers we had but we came to that awful point where we had to tell them to wait in the bar with drinks before we could even sit them in the restaurant.

I must say it all brought me memories of how Sundays used to be at the bar, with tons of people asking for drinks, me running out of glasses, and customers still coming in, that feeling of getting submerged by orders that don’t stop dropping on me. The difference is, I did it a couple of times there and I managed to survive, plus this time I was not alone, so it was OK. There is a huge improvement when you have someone that can back you up and another person that will help with the dishes and glasses so they don’t pile up on the counter.

Honestly I don’t think I would have managed to keep calm and be funny to customers if I hadn’t had that real bad experience at the bar. It helped me to learn how to keep calm in those moments or situations and try not to pass my stress over to the others or the clients. At some point we were overwhelmed by work and still no one shouted to anyone and all were very happy with the food and the service. Even if it was not the best we could give.

Drinks and coffee and the speed and accuracy at preparing them is another thing I learned from my previous experience. It is not that they are complicated, except with the Brits and their weird cocktails, once you know the basics it is OK. Still we have clients that come and ask for some spicy rum with lemonade, and we have no clue what they want. Most of the time we don’t even have that specific liquor they are looking for because it doesn’t exist in Spain and no one but him or her ever asks for it. In that case they have to go with whatever we have or they consider it would suit them. Sometimes it is something weird like the cider with blackcurrant, even my colleague didn’t know how to do it, which I did because it is something they used to ask for at the bar. The difference was they had a barrel for cider so it was easier to do than with cans, but then again it is not the same kind of place.

With coffee it was the same. I remember I hated to do the white ones because of the milk. Most of the people if not all of them, want it like lava. Coffee on its own is not hot enough for them, so they want the milk to be so hot they could throw the Unique Ring into it to melt it. Otherwise they will complain about it. As for all the different kinds of coffees, I got used to them after a couple of weeks of doing anything but that. Same for the tea. I will never forget to bring the small jug of milk to them. Ever.

I find that funny people complaining about Mondays, like Garfield the cat, because they have to go to work. Last year it was my day off, this year it is Tuesdays, so for me it feels like a Friday or a Saturday. It is the end of my working week. Honestly working weekends is not that bad. I’ve always thought Sundays are dull, everything is closed and Monday is just there, but when you work on those days, it goes faster, you are busy and you can enjoy your resting ones doing actual stuff.

Hospitality is a tough world. Most of the time people don’t realise we are like them and not machines, we have feelings and we may get tired or make mistakes with their food, but also, we are serving them so a little respect and kindness is always welcome. Fortunately most of our customers are like that, and when some jerks do come over they don’t tend to last long, we have a table occupancy policy of 1h30, so after that they have to leave. If not early since this is not an Étoile Michelin restaurant. For the others I hope they enjoyed the food. Thank you, come again!

April 2022