And it begins…

Who knows what the futur has in store for us at the restaurant.  Our accountant came in today and made the anouncement that we are going to be closing our doors on the 1st of the month.  when I asked what was going to happen next, he said “Due to Contractual Obligation, I am not at liberty to discuss that.”  I was told that no matter what happens, I will still have a job.  if not in this restaurant, then in one of the other restraurants the company ownes.

What I would love to see happen is, they put me incharge of a certain restaurant that is down the street from us.  this restaurant is not a fancy one like the one I am in now, but it is completely franchisable.  Given the permission from the owners, I can go there, learn everything that is involved in that restaurant, and then start opening multiple locations across the country over time.

A little back ground on my restaurant outlook, and phylosiphy.  As my mentor from years back tought me, there are two traits that a restaurant manager must have. 

1: Leadership

2 Management

Management: You manage the processes, the books, inventory, scheduling, labor cost, food cost, etc.

Leadership: You lead the people. 

you can not get these two confused.  You CAN NOT manage people.  if you try top manage people, you WILL FAIL!!!!

Also, when it comes to fueding owners.  there is only one side that you can take if you want to be successful, and that is the side of The Restaurant.  do not be loyal to any owner.  be loyal to the restaurant.  if you are loyal to your restaurant, you will remain successful.

These two peices of advise have taken me very far in my carreer.  I am in a situation now where my restaurant that I know and love could possably be shut down forever due to the owners egos.  but, since I am a leader to my people, and I am an excellent manager, I have been able to prove my worth as the Best manager for the job.  And because I stayed loyal to the restaurant, and did not take the side of any one owner, both the owners are trying to take me with them, and now the ball is in my court to decide which one I go with , or if I go my own seprate way.

Wish me luck.

 

Where does the time go?

It is a whirl wind of craziness lately.  Between the owners suing each other, servers all of a sudden thinking they are managers, and the always impending doom of the doors getting chained shut in the middle of the night, time seems to have stopped.  I feel like it is March, or April at the very latest.  But sure enough, it is almost July.

There really isn’t any fear of the doors being chained shut, although it has definitely been the rumor lately.  We are actually making a profit.  This restaurant has been being run into the ground for YEARS, I have worked my little ass off, and we have finally managed to turn profit.  we have made profit every month this year except for the Month of March.  And in March we were only a couple thousand $ in the red. 

But right now, we are in the same situation we were in two years ago where one owner wants to get rid of the other owned due to thier over inflated egos.  Since our lease expired at the end of May, and our one month grace period is over at the end of June, and we still don’t have the lease resigned because these two dick heads can’t get over their petty ego problems, no body really knows what is going to happen.

On a good note though, today I got an unexpected visit from a family that always makes me happy.  I met them about a year and a half ago.   I was a server at a different restaurant then, and this adorable young lady and her mother came in to the restaurant for the young ladies 21st birthday.  they just happend to be sat in my section, one of those last tables to show up at the end of the night when you think your night is finally finished, and you are about to be out the door in 5 minutes as long as NO BODY ELSE GETS SAT IN YOUR STATION!  even though I was disgruntled about it, I put on my game face like a good waiter does, and took excellent care of them.  It turned out that these two ladies were amazing.  they were super nice, and treated me with as much courtesy as i gave them, (which is rare) and since they were my last and only table, I had the opportunityto sit with them and chat and make jokes.  I made a reference to the birthday girl about a myspace blog that I had writen, so we exchanged myspace addresses, and they went home.  The next day the birthday girl and I were myspace friends. 

It turned out that the young lady is a Photography major in a university in Chicago, she takes some great pictures (from what I have seen in her blog) and seems to be a Great Great person.  Her mother returned to the restaurant were I was working a few more times, and was completely surprised that I remembered her. 

unfortunately the two of them and i ended up loosingtouch with each other when I left that restaurant, and the young lady stopped using her myspace page.

Fast forward to a couple months ago…  I was sitting at work, bored out of my F#&%ing mind, and started surfing around on the Internet.  I came a cross a blog that for some reason seemed so familiar.  I couldn’t place why it was familiar, or what it was about it that gave me this odd 6th sense kind of feeling, so I continued to read the blog posts.  it turned out that this blog was the young lady’s that I had lost touch with.  I sent her an e-mail, and got back in touch with her. 

Today I am walking around the restaurant doing my thing, comps, voids, table visits, all that restaurant manager crap, and then who do I see?  none other than these two ladies.  so I call their name,  and it all of a sudden turned into what felt like a family reunion.  the daughter had flown in from Chicago yesterday to surprise her mother on her mom’s 50th birthday.  unfortunately she is leaving to go back to Chicago tomorrow evening, so there is no way I can spend any time with her.  but it was such a delight to get to see them.

I don’t have a crush on this lady if that is what this sounds like.  I have a great judge of character, and these two women exudesuch wonderful vibes that whenever I see them, it makes me feel good.  so I guess the point to this rambling is that it is really nice when even though everything seems so chaotic and upside down, and there is so much uncertainty in what should be normal day-to-day routine, there are people out there that can make you forget all that stuff, make you feel good, and turn your whole day around.  It is nice to have good people in this world.