Something In The Air

A furious day at Michael’s on Friday. Not me furious, as in my grumpy post about Restaurant Overstaffing, but furious business.

It’s funny that ideas and thoughts are just out there in the air . . . Have you ever had what you thought was a great idea for a movie or TV show, or a simple great invention, or just a new feature for an existing product – only to find out days or weeks later that exact thing in the marketplace? You thought of it on your own, yet obviously the parties bringing this idea out had been working on it well before you came up with the concept.

For some reason, after my post complaining about the overstaffing at lunch vs. dinner at Michael’s (which I concluded by saying I was ‘this close’ to having a sit-down with management on the subject), the next three days bore out exactly the result I was hoping for. And of course I never had the chance to talk to management about my objections.

Each day, management ran the floor with a small staff, forgoing the on-call server. Each day, we had relatively solid business – nothing enough to crash the system, but enough so we all felt busy enough – and the servers on the floor got another 30% more covers than has been usual. Instead of $40-60 days, we had $75-90 days. I was lucky each day, as I got some prime tables. I made $150, $155, and $194.

The last of these days, Friday, though, was a crusher. I had 29 covers, most of them in one seating (tables of 5, 8, 4, and 4). If you recall the last post, us lunch servers had been averaging 9 a shift. But it ended up proving my point magnificently . . . as if management really knew my exact ‘point.’

It was like a Christmas rush day. There were three of us on the floor, and we were all taxed about as far as we could go. We got some life-saving help from available management in running food or at least expediting it. We were totally selfless for each other regarding food-running. I was nowhere to be seen for entrée-delivery of several of my tables. Likewise, after checking back, I returned to several tables to find them cleared and crumbed. I did the same kinds of things for the other two waiters whenever I had an extra moment or hand – including refilling waters and drinks.

And we all got out of it with no more than the normal hiccups, and zero major situations.

Here’s where it proved my point: This was a blockbuster day for three servers to handle, but we did it. In other words, we ran into the absolute outside expectations for customer traffic and we still got through just fine.

I don’t warrant going with three waiters in a situation where you know business is going to be like that. It was hard on everybody, and things could have gone wrong. In that case where management has a pretty damn good idea, then bring on another waiter. But as I said, we saw the enemy, and we still beat him.

Meantime, I hope they’ve learned something here. Unless there are a tremendous number of reservations on the books, just let us go with what we have. There is excess production capacity here.

* * * * *

I haven’t written much about Carney’s here lately. A couple of things:

After our amazing hot streak from January through part of April, things have cooled off. Some weekends have been $120, $150 (Fri-Sat). Some have been $120, $185). But we haven’t been hitting $200+ each day like we were. (For those of you in other parts of the country, things are different where I live in California. I’ve discussed it before. Rent for a 2-bedroom apartment is about $1800 a month. A small 2-bedroom 1-bath house would be $2200. Mortgage on same house, even at today’s prices and interest rates and with 20% down payment would be $2900 a month. My own mortgage is almost $4000 a month.)

Ciera is always having the best time and the worst time. She’s flying to Vegas with a new boyfriend for two days, and she’s making a deal with her landlord to pay her rent weekly so she won’t get evicted.

She really hit a bad deal a couple weeks ago. Her cousin, who was like a sister to her when she lived back in Chicago, was part of a murder/suicide tragedy. The cousin had even been out for a week’s visit with Ciera only a couple of months earlier. The estranged husband killed her with a knife and then shot himself when he returned to his own home.

Of course, Carney tried to spin it as her own tragedy: ‘We have to cover her shifts so she can go back for the funeral. We just don’t know what we’re going to do . . .’

Ciera self-medicates religiously (actually, more than religiously) with pot-smoking and drinking. She usually portrays her travails in a kind of humorous, ‘what else can happen?’ manner. And it’s usually true. Hell, late rent, boyfriend-juggling, car trouble are part of living. And she understands she reaps what she sows, so most of the time she’s not bitter. She’s the kind of person who can have the most vile, screaming phone argument with a boyfriend, then hang up and start cheerfully making jokes about it.

But this. Her real vulnerability is pain and suffering. She always has between 3-7 dogs – all of them rescue animals. Kind of like her boyfriends, but I digress . . .

She has been understandably torn apart with this family disaster. Very sad. She went back for five days to grieve with her family and attend the funeral/wake. Because it involved a few shift-switches, Carney called it ‘her vacation.’

* * * * *

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t tip-off (pun intended) everyone to what I hope is the final game of the Los Angeles Lakers 2008-09 season today. Game Five, the Lakers lead the series 3-1 and can finish off the Orlando Magic today at 5 p.m. Pacific Time. If you don’t care, please root for the Lakers just because I’m asking you to.

Can’t wait till about 6:15 p.m., when I’ll fire up the Tivo (having buffered an hour or so of recorded game), shake up a New Amsterdam gin Martini, and watch it unfold.

Go Lakers!

New Year’s Eve Recap

The night at Carney’s felt frustratingly slow. But it really wasn’t. The problem was that an extra server was scheduled, so we were kind of alternated between falling over each other and twiddling our thumbs. The restaurant had more than two full seatings, booked solid – just, we only had three or four tables each. When all was said and done, we walked with $335 (remember, we tip pool at Carney’s). Not bad. I’ve made over $500 there on New Year’s Eve, but these are different times.

Carney’s owners have been employing some value-oriented strategies the last six months. Some ill-advised, some not. Wednesday night they brought out a typical condensed ‘Holiday’ menu – about half the items from the regular menu. They bundled a $9 salad and a $6 side, yet only raised the prices between zero and $5.

In my experience, waiters almost unanimously oppose any price cuts, discounts, coupons, value combos, early bird specials, etc. Our short-sighted perspective is: I have two guests who would otherwise be spending $150 (translation, $30 tip), but instead are getting out for $100 ($20 tip). And, of course, a distant second in this thinking: The house is getting $50 less income.

It’s taken many years, but I’ve come to understand the long view here. Currently, it is a good idea on several levels to rein in prices. While initially it really does hit the bottom line hard (because at the beginning of such programs, guests are often unaware – they’ve already come in expecting the regular rates and are ready to pay) – over a period of time, however, it creates the guest perception that it’s really not as expensive as they might have thought. They will therefore come again, even when they are pinching a few pennies. Further, go down the road to a time when the economy has improved and purse strings are looser, your restaurant will benefit the most because you’ve remained in their consciousness through the hard times. At that point, they will simply come more often and spend more while they’re there.

Of course, nothing is black and white, so even when price-cutting strategies work, there are always plenty of exceptions. You have to hold the line on some things. Don’t change your entire identity; instead, add more affordable items while retaining your top-notch items at their same top-notch prices. Carney’s did an interesting thing that’s been very effective. They added a smaller Filet Mignon (6 oz.) to the bar/lounge menu at $29. I believe it’s only Choice, while the regular 10 oz. Filet is Prime and costs $45. It’s been very popular. I can see the strategy working, as the volume has been solid. And like I said, you have to get through these times without disappearing from the grid.

Enough of that. I mentioned awhile back The Waiter’s Holiday, but truly, New Year’s Day is the Waiter’s Holiday. There are only a few (nearly) universal days waiters can expect to get off. The Big Three: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are chock-filled with family obligations. Combine that with the fact that every place is shut down, and you have merely a nice day off, a day of rest. But New Year’s Day has parties, sports, bloody marys. It also has a lack of obligations. You’ve just finished your best money-making night of the year (generally) and the only thing you really have to do is . . . nothing at all. It’s beautiful. The beauty is amplified because it’s the capper on the high-stress Holiday season. New Year’s Eve was Game Seven and you have officially finished the Playoffs (to use a sports metaphor).

The last several years I’ve risen late and straggled down to a local beachfront seafood bar/grill to enjoy Stoli bloody marys and peek at a football game or two. After two or three drinks I would head to the residences of some local friends and some more football. I’d kind of crap out early from the afternoon drinking, maybe get home and watch a rented movie or something. It was fun.

This year I never left the house. And that was fun too. I had coffee, reviewed the news and sports, ate, watched a tiny bit of football, worked on the computer, recorded some of my original music on a new program I acquired, and finally eased into a martini around 7:30 p.m.

Back to work Friday morning didn’t go smoothly. I had mentally screwed up the verbal relay of my schedule at Michael’s, and thought I was off.

I got The Call. “Hey, where are you?” Every waiter has had that call. I made profuse apologies and managed to be only an hour late. Fortunately for the restaurant (and me, I guess) it was pretty slow so there were no repercussions. Despite the fact that Michael’s is highly corporate, everyone looked the other way and I didn’t get written up.

Carney’s was also slow. So much that they cut a waiter in advance. Just two of us. It was fine. Made $163.

Tonight, more of the same, but we had all three of us. I was the opener, so I left early. Don’t know how much I made.

I’ve noticed the last several years at Carney’s – a hard drinking place – that the first couple weeks in January are particularly slow. They would be anyway, but with these drinkers, New Year’s Resolutions invariably involve quitting/cutting back on drinking. They finally cave mid-month and it’s back to business.

Me? I’m having a martini right now. Cheers!