It's been a while! I started back to work on Wednesday after having about a week off work. It was such a great mini vacation! I got to travel to my home in Fort Smith and visit with family for most of the week and then I went to visit friends in Fayetteville where I went to college. It was such an awesome time of rest and relaxation before getting back in the groove of the last part of my internship.
I started on Wednesday night as a hostess in the Capital Bar and Grill. As I have said before in previous posts, the hotel has two restaurants. Ashley's is the hotel's destination gem. It is known for its fine dining and french masterpieces. The Capital Bar and Grill is the restaurant you and your friends might want to go and eat on a weeknight or weekend's when an amazing jazz band plays from 8-11 or the place you might have a business meeting over a couple of burgers, beers and a sports game. It's truly one of the coolest places in the hotel. I started out on Wednesday night not really knowing what to expect. I have never really worked in a "real" restaurant. I have worked in a bakery with a catering company and I have worked serving at different events but I have never worked in a real restaurant. I went in and found that the job of hostess was super easy! I basically got to talk with everyone that came in and either sat them or put them on a wait list. I found my money mind thinking of all the ways I could split tables or put them together to seat as many people on the waiting list as quickly as I could. To me, and most people in this industry money the name of the game and not wasting space insures making more of it for the restaurant.
The next two nights I worked the position of server's assistant. This job is basically a fancy name for buser. I would go around to the tables that were empty and clean up the plates and wipe off the tops. I would also bring each table water and make sure the glasses stayed full. It was a pretty simple job but it could be busy. Without the servers assistant the server would have to do everything and that would slow the experience down quite a bit. The first night I was super impressed by my tray balancing skills. In school we had practiced holding and carrying a tray and pouring water. It was one of the things I was most nervous about but on Thursday night I handled it like a pro, even balancing up to 8 or 9 glasses on at a time to take to the back to clean. On Friday night, the manager asked me if I was comfortable using the tray after he had watched me at a table. To me, in my head, it almost was if he was saying that I didn't look comfortable and because that's what I got in my head, I think that is when I started messing up. About 20 minutes later I was setting down water for a table of 4 people, everything was going smoothly and then all the sudden as I was setting down my 3rd glass my 4th glass fell over on the tray spilling water not only on the tray and on the table but also on the man sitting in the seat right next to where I was standing. I was mortified. I knew it was bound to happen at least once while I was at the hotel and I think it was God going see, you were getting cocky but yeah it happened and I think my face turned 5 shades of red. The guy was very nice and told me it was ok, that it didn't get one him very much, and at least it was water and not red wine. Thank the Lord it was not red wine. By the end of the night, I had one more glass fall over on the tray on the way back to the kitchen but luckily nothing was broken and that was my last night in that position. I learned the valuable lesson that you can't be good at everything. I don't think waiting tables is my future career.
Yesterday I finished my week in the CBG with a stint in the kitchen. I got there at 9 a.m. ready to help prep for the day. I was given a few tasks to complete right away including chopping up about 20 heads of romaine lettuce, slicing a ton of mushrooms, and cutting bread up for crustinis. I then made about 30 pimento cheese and Cuban sandwiches for the day. The Cuban sandwich is a pretty complicated sandwich so I ask for one of the chef's to give me a list of the order everything went in and then I went to work. I absolutely loved working in this kitchen because I was given a task and was left alone to complete it. I work really well at accomplishing a goal when I can focus on what needs to be done and how it needs to be done. I worked at what seemed like a normal pace to me. By the time I finished the Cuban sandwiches about 40-45 minutes had passed and they looked great. The chef was impressed by my speed and told me that his other chef that does them takes twice as long. I was proud of myself for doing something well. At the end of the day I had completed about 65% of the prep list for the entire day by myself. I really enjoyed my time in the kitchen.
Tomorrow I start in the sales office. I am looking forward to getting to find out about that part of the industry and I am also looking forward to dressing in cute clothes and not a uniform.
I'll let ya'll know how it goes!
-Rachel
These fries we serve at the CBG are amazing! They are called Truffle Parmesan Fries! YUMMM!!!
The making of the Cuban sandwiches!
My night as a server's assistant! It took me 20 minutes and 3 YouTube videos to learn to tie that tie!
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