When people
go out to dine, they only see one side of restaurant life: the deliberately staged ‘outside’ atmosphere that includes aromatic fragrances, welcoming faces
and calming décor. What they don’t see is the other side of restaurant
life: the chaotic ‘inside’ environment filled with frantic servers, overworked
chefs and a pile of dirty dishes.
This is not
to say that all restaurants experience the same level of chaos on the inside; but the basic elements of restaurant
life are assumed to be universal. All restaurants – at one point or
another – are faced with the hustle and bustle attributed to promotional specials and holiday weekends.
During
moments of chaos, restaurant life becomes a place where ‘sink or swim’
is the main mantra. Chefs, line cooks and pantry help scurry to produce
delicious meals in a timely manner, bartenders scramble to create
thirst-quenching beverages, and servers hustle between the kitchen and dining
room to satisfy customer needs.
If customers
aren’t aware of how many people work behind the scenes to produce the perfect
dining experience, they might take that whole experience for granted. For
instance, on a busy weekend, popular restaurants will often over-book their
reservations; in turn, customers have to wait extra time before a table becomes
available. During these busy evenings, customers seem to only be concerned with
what they see on the outside: dirty tables, lines of people, and frantic
servers. But in these cases, staff members actually work twice as hard to
ensure that everyone has an exceptional evening.
What people
need to understand is that restaurant life does not merely consist of food,
servers and customers. There’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes to
make their dining experience worthwhile. Each department of the restaurant – including
servers, hostesses, bartenders, bus kids, managers, cooks, dishwashers and food
runners – works in synchronicity to produce an exceptional product and flawless
service.
The sooner
people realize just how complex restaurant life can be, the sooner they can
appreciate all the hard work that goes into their dining experience.
