For all you wannabe Wangstas.

An ode to Eva and her Blog

  Everyday, I see people that say, they are the best. Oh, I can cook, I can manage a restaurant, I can fly, BLA,BLA,BLA. Listen, first, if you want to work in the industry, you have to try everything there is to try.  My college Classmates don't know what is to try new food. They think that food is just pizza and burgers. Do you know how many types of food there are in the world? The Cuisines of the world are very complex and very delicious too, so why not try other food? And you call your selves the future of the service industry.

 A small anecdote:
 A few months ago I had a class presentation about the food of my  home town. When I asked my class mate if they would try a plate called mollejas ( Gizzards ) , everybody said, I'm not going to eat that, that is nasty, some of them even told me that , how could I eat that. I told them, with green bananas and onions of course. As I got the 86 with the Gizzards I decided to cook something that is more awesome than the Gizzards, I decided to cook Conch, for those of you that don't know what Conch is. Conch is a sea snail that is eaten in the Caribbean and South America. Is very tasty as well as a good source of protein. You can make it raw, in ceviche, you can make Conch salad, Conch stew, and many other tasty plates. So that is what i did, I made the most awesome Conch salad the east cost has ever seen( I'm being modest ) just New York, and when I did my presentation one of my classmates said, that she wasn't going to eat that because she hated the look of it.  I ask her that if she was going to work in a restaurant, how she was going to sell the food if she didn't know what was the taste, the flavor, the texture, and do you want to know what was her answer. This was like a kick in the balls, she said that she wasn't going to work in a restaurant that served that type of food. What an ignorant.

Anecdote Finished.

  OK don't get me wrong, there are foods that are simply not eatable and just nasty, but people, you have to try it in order to know if is good or bad.

  Thank you Eva (http://freirunhuevo.blogspot.com) for opening this can of worms, and having the guts to tell everybody first, that they suck, big time.

 With that said, go out and try something new tonight. It doesn't have to be something out of the ordinary, but something posible, or if you have the COJONES go out and eat something imposible, you'll never know, you might like it, and make the possimpable come true. Thank's Barney Stinson

If you want, I can help.

Here's the dilio guys!

  I don't have a problem if you want to work in a bar or restaurant. Is the other way around. I woud like that more and more people could feel what I feel when I work in a restaurant, the fun that I have when I get behind the bar and do my drinks. Yes there are a lot of hours of work, you have to work with people that have no business working there, but trust me is the most fun you'll have in a job ever. Guaranteed.
  My problem is with your boss, supervisor, Head waiter, Head bartenders, Maitre'D, and everybody that is above you in a restaurant. This are the people that are supposed to train you, the people that are supposed to help you understand what you're doing, so, here are a few tips you will need in order to make a good impression on your customers, and yes your bosses too.

1. If you are working at the bar. ( Bar tending )
 Learn where everything is. Go to your shift 10 min early, check where the juices are, check if you have drink garnishes, check if you have silverware for the people eating at the bar, check if you have ice in your ice bin, check if you have napkins in your napkins dispenser as well as straws and drink stirrers  in your dispensers. Check your glassware, make sure that the glassware isn't chipped off make sure that is clean, no dust no lipstick, check that your bar stock is full, that way you won't run out of liqueur on a rush, and never wait for the barbacks to do all this for you, because it won't get done.

2. If you are working the tables (Waiting tables)
 Do pretty much the same, check where everything is, don't be afraid of your customers, but be respectful. Remember these are your customers; they are paying for your job. Never, I said NEVER give a customer another customers check, this looks sketchy. When a customer is asking you about a plate of food know what to say, so learn the menu, know the ingredients, if you have tried a menu item and you didn't like it, don't say it to the customer, this looks really bad, so never badmouth the food that your chef has put out for the customer.

3. Have fun, but be respectful.
 Is important that you have fun in your work, but remember that we are serving customers and some of them are there to have a good time, but they are there to have a good time with themselves not with you. Give your customers space to talk to interact.

4. Always  be on the look out.
 As a server, bartender, you should be aware of the entire restaurant. You should know your regular customers from the people that walk in for the first time. Always be aware of the people intoxicated, try to avoid problems between customers. Count the amount of drinks your customers consume, remember you might be liable for any accidents outside the establishment.

I know that this is a lot to take, but trust me this will help you.
More tips to come latter, so stay tuned.

Are you charging me extra for the lipstick?

 Todays post is dedicated to the restaurant owners and their managers.

 Over the weekend I went to the pub  to have a few beers as usual, and my regular bartender had the day off. What a shame this guy really know how to treat a customer, and most of all, he knows how bad is my OCD is as far as clean glassware goes. As the new bartender came to introduce herself, I said to my self ( self, here we go again!). By know if you have read my last 2 post you should know that I'm a little crazy with the service I get, and I get crazier if it involves ALCOHOL. In most bars the employees don't really clean the glassware as well as they should. Lipstick, lip-balm, dirty fingerprints, dust from dirty rags, and other dirty residues from God knows what, is served every day with your favorite pint or drink.

  So, getting back to the story. The bartender comes she introduces herself, and ask us for our drink orders. I ask for a beer and my wife asks for a whiskey on the rocks. I tell her that if she can please pour my beer in a plastic cup, she says, we dont serve on plastic cups. I said, listen is not that I don't want a glasscup is that I don't trust how you clean the glass, so, can I please have a plastic cup instead. I told her that my regular bartender does it for me, and this is the punchline, she said to me, your bartender is off today, and you get what I serve you.

 I take crap from my wife, I take crap from my professors in college, I might take some crap from my family, but I won't take crap from somebody that doesn't know what they are doing. I have worked in restaurants and bars for the last 12 years,  and by far this has been the worst bartender I have encountered.

 The moral of the story is.
Please keep and eye on your employees, and stop hiring people to work in your bars, just because they know how to pop open a Heineken Keg and know how to mix a Cuba Libre. There is more to working in a restaurant, and when you and and the people you hire understand that, you will see that your business will do better, and your customers will thank you for that.

Words of wisdom
Work in a bar or restaurant, because you love working in a bar or restaurant.

No sneeze in my plate please.

 I swear that bad service follows me like bad smell. I went to eat breakfast with my wife today at our local Panera Bread store, and as we where waiting for our food, I saw the line cook serving our plates, and let me tell you, our plates looked good. I couldn't believe that today everything was going pretty well. Almost no line, the cashier was in a good mood, and they had soup before 10 am.  I said to my self, ( self, today is going to be a good day ), and just like that, the day went to hell. The server went to get the plates and all of a sudden he turns around and sneezes, AAAAACCCCCHHHHHUUUUUU, and as all the saliva and snot escaped between his fingers, the only thing I could think of was, he's going to get the plate without washing his hands. Just like that he turned around and tried to grab the plates.  As I sprinted my 300 lb. body towards the counter, knock down 2 kids and an old lady, in order to prevent the server from grabbing our plates. When I got to the counter he told me, don't worry sir I'll take your plates to your table, the only words that I could say to him where, Dude go wash your hand, I'll take the plates. On my way back to table I had a flash back, a few months ago in this same Panera I saw a busperson drinking from a soda cup, and you would say what is the problem with that? The problem was that the cup that she was drinking from, was a cup that she grabbed from a table she was bussing.

 I don't want to sound like that guy from the u tube videos but, please is up to us the customers, to tell the management about the horrors their employees are doing.

I said it once, and I'll say it again. Please train your employees, and your business will do better. I'm not trying to be an ass and talk smack about your places but, I need to say it.

Whats up with service this days?

  It seems that every time I go to a restaurant the service gets worst and worst.  With restaurants opening from left to right, restaurant owners have to realized that the only thing that could make a diference between every other restaurant is the service. You have servers taking drinks to the tables in their hands. Waiters with their fingers stuck inside the food plates, and many other monstrosities that would make Anthony Bourdain and Chef Besh cry. The problem is that any kid that needs a job aplies to work in a restaurant, and this is wrong. The service industry needs to realize that not everybody is suited to work serving people. When people pay to eat in a restaurant they expect to be treated with respect and dignity, even if that is in a fastfood.

The moto of this Story is, don't work in a restaurant if you don't have the talent. And for all those restaurant owners, stop hiring any joe that comes to your restaurant without any experience and training.