The Ale House

It's easy to sit at a table and get impatient with the server when they don't come immediately when you want them to, or when your food takes longer than your stomach would desire. It's equally easy to say how you would do it better.

It's not nearly as easy to be that server. I discovered that this weekend as I finished my first full weekend of serving at the Ale House-- there is so much more than taking orders and delivering food, especially when you also need to know the taste differences between the 22 beers we have on tap. There's getting water, and beers, and putting the orders in for food on time, and bussing the empty plates from the tables, and making sure salad eaters have the right dressing, and everyone has the right silverware, not to forget getting used to that computer system... for 12 tables. At once. Not the easiest thing.

It definitely puts a different perspective on the whole dining experience for me. I always thought it must be such a simple job, to serve people their food-- how hard could it be? But believe me, as I found out this weekend, I really do believe that I'm earning the tips you give! It's not as easy as it looks, especially with no hostess and no one pouring the beers for you. And everything takes just a little bit longer than you expect.

But all in all, my job is to make the customers happy, and so far I think I'm doing a good job of it. I had a twelve-top yesterday (that's serving jargon for a table with twelve people), and one of the customers said as they were paying up, "you did a really great job serving us today, thank you so much." That is so much better than any tip he could have given me-- it was so great to know that someone that could have just as easily paid the tab and left, instead took the time to compliment me on my service that I had worked so hard to do well at. As Mark Twain once said, "I can live for two months on one good compliment"; that one good compliment kept me going for the rest of the night, and now I'm blogging about it. :-)

I just hope that this kind of service helps me to learn to be a good nurse. Of course, taking care of patients is very different than taking care of hungry customers, but the same philosophy can be applied to both: make them as happy and comfortable and content as you can-- that is your job-- and while you're at it, you may as well smile and enjoy it. It really does make all the difference, and anyone, whether patient or patron, will be able to see that there's something different about the girl with the smiling heart.

That's my goal at least. :-)

One love,

CJ