Working at the Fairview
For the first time since I've been here, I was assigned for function help that WASN'T worse than the deli. For one night, I got to be a junior server in the Fairview restaurant. For a review (or in case I never said before) the Fairview is the high-class, fine dining room in the restaurant. Due to a combination of several juniors leaving at once and other people calling in sick, there were several people called in that night to help, 2 of which were also from the deli.
The duties of a junior server are as follows: basically assissting the full servers with things like keeping people's water glasses full, breading the table, clearing the dishes, etc. It's really not that demanding, or at least my job wasn't, because I never had more than 5 tables at a time to watch (I'm guessing they were going easy on us due to our fresh pine green-ness). But the main work was outside of the actual dinner service- polishing glasses and cutlery, moving tables around and setting them up again for the next night. Things like that. But there is one story I have to share from the night.
During the dinner service, if all the tables are currently taken care of, you can stop for a bit by the bar and have some pop provided by the bartender, Richard. Now since the fairview is right behind us, I was already on good terms with the guy (almost nothing greases wheels with people better than a sandwich!) so he and I were talking while I had my drink. We were talking about certain mixed drinks when he dashed some agnostura bitters over a drink he was preparing. Since I'd heard about them, but never seen them, I asked where you got them as I examined the bottle. He said either a liquor store or a grocery store, but wasn't sure. I then noted that, since the bottle said it was 45% alcohol, it seemed more likely to be a liquor store.
Now, I guess he had never really read the bottle that closely, because this was news to him. He took the bottle, and read the label. Then, glancing around, he poured a decent amount (not a ton, but certainly more than you would put into any drink) of it into a lowball glass, put in an equal amount of what I think was Sprite, and quickly downed the whole thing.
I have to say, his face afterwards was just priceless. His cheeks moved in the manner that denotes the tongue moving around, then his eyes widened and started watering, he bent over, opening his mouth and trying to get SOME of the flavour out of his mouth. After a fit of laughing and a quick glass of water, he choked out "It feels like I just swallowed a mouthful of liquid cloves." Definitely worth the price of admission, that sight.
But otherwise the night was pretty uneventful. I didn't spill water on anyone or make any major misakes, and things wrapped up smoothly. And I got tips too! 40 bucks, but hey, I'll take it.
So there you go- my night at the Fairview. It seems to be a pretty okay gig... but of course, you can't screw up there. Mistakes count in the Fairview in a way they just couldn't in the deli. So you need to know what you're doing. But I guess once you get there, you've got a sweet setup, cause tips there are pretty stratospheric for main servers. The server I was helping, Jean-Francois, has been here for three years- you know SOMETHING is making it worth it to stay. But I don't think I'm cut out for serving anyways- I lack the requisite balance and fine control of hands that it takes to handle all those dishes at once. Oh well.
Anyways, its getting late and I should get to sleep. The countdown is on- not much time left at all here! See you all soon.
Stay Frosty
Trevor
The duties of a junior server are as follows: basically assissting the full servers with things like keeping people's water glasses full, breading the table, clearing the dishes, etc. It's really not that demanding, or at least my job wasn't, because I never had more than 5 tables at a time to watch (I'm guessing they were going easy on us due to our fresh pine green-ness). But the main work was outside of the actual dinner service- polishing glasses and cutlery, moving tables around and setting them up again for the next night. Things like that. But there is one story I have to share from the night.
During the dinner service, if all the tables are currently taken care of, you can stop for a bit by the bar and have some pop provided by the bartender, Richard. Now since the fairview is right behind us, I was already on good terms with the guy (almost nothing greases wheels with people better than a sandwich!) so he and I were talking while I had my drink. We were talking about certain mixed drinks when he dashed some agnostura bitters over a drink he was preparing. Since I'd heard about them, but never seen them, I asked where you got them as I examined the bottle. He said either a liquor store or a grocery store, but wasn't sure. I then noted that, since the bottle said it was 45% alcohol, it seemed more likely to be a liquor store.
Now, I guess he had never really read the bottle that closely, because this was news to him. He took the bottle, and read the label. Then, glancing around, he poured a decent amount (not a ton, but certainly more than you would put into any drink) of it into a lowball glass, put in an equal amount of what I think was Sprite, and quickly downed the whole thing.
I have to say, his face afterwards was just priceless. His cheeks moved in the manner that denotes the tongue moving around, then his eyes widened and started watering, he bent over, opening his mouth and trying to get SOME of the flavour out of his mouth. After a fit of laughing and a quick glass of water, he choked out "It feels like I just swallowed a mouthful of liquid cloves." Definitely worth the price of admission, that sight.
But otherwise the night was pretty uneventful. I didn't spill water on anyone or make any major misakes, and things wrapped up smoothly. And I got tips too! 40 bucks, but hey, I'll take it.
So there you go- my night at the Fairview. It seems to be a pretty okay gig... but of course, you can't screw up there. Mistakes count in the Fairview in a way they just couldn't in the deli. So you need to know what you're doing. But I guess once you get there, you've got a sweet setup, cause tips there are pretty stratospheric for main servers. The server I was helping, Jean-Francois, has been here for three years- you know SOMETHING is making it worth it to stay. But I don't think I'm cut out for serving anyways- I lack the requisite balance and fine control of hands that it takes to handle all those dishes at once. Oh well.
Anyways, its getting late and I should get to sleep. The countdown is on- not much time left at all here! See you all soon.
Stay Frosty
Trevor
posted by Sibtiger | 9:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home