I come in through the back door like I always do and quickly greet all my co-workers as they are running around the restaurant getting everything ready for the busy night ahead. Then I go ahead and clock in, I am a little early but that is okay and then I notice what my side-work is. It is beverage. It is a relatively easy side work, you just have to keep all the teas and ice full and make sure I don't run out of lemons.

I go ahead and greet the hostess and ask about their day and write down my name on the floor chart. Somehow I was blessed by the floor chart Gods and I got a good section. Three booths and a table.

"Wow, I'm gonna make some money tonight."

The hostess agrees with me and laughs.

I quickly get my first table and it is a younger couple that has been here a few times before. I grab two coasters walk over to your table.

"How are you guys doing this evening? Well, my name is Raven and I will be taking care of you guys this evening."
I then give them the spill about our features this month and ask them if they would like any appetizers and wait to hear a response.

The couple looks at each other and whispers something I can't hear. I thought to myself that is a little rude but, I'll just go ahead and ask them what they would like to drink.

"What can I get you..."

"Can you bring out some bread?"

Well, I guess they aren't thirsty. I might as well just put some bread in a cup and bring it out, I thought to myself.

"Yes, I will bring that out shortly, what can I get you guys to drink?"

They reply with just some waters and a lemon.

I run to the kitchen and grab the bread and waters. Just as I was about to leave the hostess comes running.

"I just sat you at 91, it's a party of 12 people."

My eyes get big, but I quickly say thank you and speed walk to my table to try and get their order in as fast as I can. They tell me what they would like, two of the most popular dish and a couple of soups. I run back to the kitchen and ring in the salads and then ask the runners/expediter to get a bread set for 12 people.

I go and greet my table of 12 people and start to write down their drinks in my booklet starting with the first person on the left. I give the spill of all the features tonight and ask if they want any appetizers. They all say no and I speed walk back to the kitchen to get the drinks.

Once I finished I put all the drinks on a tray and take them out. I then remembered I also had to get the soups for the other table I had. So once I passed out all the drinks I go back into the kitchen and grab the soups and go to the table with the younger couple.

"Two corn crab soups!"

The couple looks at me really weird and mumbles something under their breath.

"Is everything looking good so far?"

They then say,

"I thought these soups would be different, we do NOT want these."

I say okay and take the soups away from them and ask my manager if she could take off the soups because they didn't want them. She quickly does so and I say thanks.

I put the main entrees in for the couple and I go back to my party of 12 people and get their orders. I then go back into the kitchen and put in their orders as well. The food for the couple finally comes out and one of the food runners takes it out to them.

Once it is all passed out I asked this if everything is good so far and they nod their heads in agreement. I go back into the kitchen and fill the teas up again and print their check for them out and put it in my pocket for the time being.

The food then comes out for my party of 12 and I then noticed everyone has moved seats and they are not sitting in the same seat as they were when I took their food order. This is a nightmare.

I end up shouting all the foods out a couple times each till someone says they ordered that. Now I have to figure out how their checks are going to be.

The table tells you it is all separate checks and they start pointing at different people trying to tell me who is on whos check. Once I think I have finally gotten it all straighten out I bring out to-go boxes and start passing them out to the tables and then go back to the kitchen to print out their checks.

I drop off the check to the couple and also drop off the checks to the party. Once the party started getting up, I started taking some of the dirty dishes back and I come back to find my tips laying on the tables.

The ticket was $240, they left me $15 and some change. The couple left me a tip of $20 for a $35 check. This was only my first hour of the shift, I can't wait to see what they next three hours bring me.