New Years Eve

Happy New Year!! I spent New Years drinking champagne with Chef, Javiar and the other servers. "CHEERS! We got through the night" I then proceeded to go home, get into my fluffy tweety bird pajamas, crawl into bed, read a few chapters out of Dan Brown and I was well and truly asleep by one in the morning. I began getting the 'Happy New Year' text messages for the rest of the night. My best friend called to tell me that along with her New Years Eve kiss the new boyfriend officially loves her... awwww....

The menu for last night was awesome. I was impressed. Good for chef pulling out all the stops. Oysters Rockefeller, foie gras, ahi tartar. and then Lobster Bisque a citrus salad. And then Duck Breast, Scallops with shrimp risotto, and Filet with sweet breads. on a side note I asked Bud if he understood the menu. "yes, he says. Of course it's easy".. Okay I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. Then Javiar is saying, "ask him if he knows sweetbreads".. Jesus. why me?

"Bud, do you know what sweet breads are?"

Bud, "yes. I said I did didn't I." and he's snarky about it.

"okay, what are sweetbreads?"

Bud, "bread that's been cooked with sugar"...

I love my life sometimes.

We were given very small stations tonight. I have a four top at six. A ten top at seven. A six top at seven-thirty and a four top at eight. Service has to be impeccable. It's a hundred dollar a plate dinner, which is fairly expensive for my neck of the woods. A four course dinner. Amuse Bouche, appetizer selection, soup or salad selection, entree selection and a dessert.

My first four top is a little family wanting to know the discount given because their daughter is a vegetarian. During all of the explanations about tonight nobody, and I mean nobody gave me any indication about how I was going to serve somebody who won't eat foie gras, oysters, filet, scallops, lobster sweet breads and duck. the only thing that doesn't have meat is the citrus salad. Even the amuse is quail egg and sausage.

I go back and ask Chef what he can do for my table. I just see the 'dammit' alarm going off in his head. His response, "I'll fake it. I have no idea right now"..

I can't say that the Chef is going to 'fake it' for her hundred dollar meal. I tell the table "Chef is going to create a menu based on the ingredients he has available to him this evening".. On the check I just write 'sub vegetarian on every course. Whatever. They have a bottle of Gewurztminer with them. and insists that I taste it. It's damn near as bad as the Muscat, Like fermented fruit syrup. But, I pretend that I can drink a whole damn bottle of it given the opportunity go into my back station and wash my mouth out with water.

My ten top wants substitutions. And they've brought in their own wine. A gigantic bottle of some house red. The lady is impressed at how well I opened the bottle without propping it on the table, so was I. Except I can see the cork. It's bad, I don't have to taste it or smell it. The cork is wet all the way to the top, very wet. for some strange reason everyone at the table wants to sample the vinegar wine. This is kind of like people tasting the sprite that ran out of syrup. I bring them a bottle of Stags Leap instead. I get halfway through the wine presentation when my six top VIP arrives. Javiar wants to give them away. I like this table. I enjoy waiting on them. "I'm keeping it!" I say as I head over with the wine list. "I know them Javiar they're not going to want a menu for twenty minutes I just need to get their cocktails on the table I have time". True to form I was right. They give me a little popper with those crepe paper hats inside and the jokes that make no sense.. Something about an elephant and a penguin...

Now, no matter how much time you have there is always a situation when you could use an extra pair of hands. Mine is usually when clearing courses for a table. To make three or four trips back to a table to clear away every last bread plate and left over fork. It comes in handy to have somebody anybody give me a hand. There is Bud, five feet away true to form waiting on his courses at the line. I don't ask him to give me a hand this time. Simply let him watch me make trip after trip from my ten top. He pretends not to clue in. This reminds me of the commercial with the five construction workers. One is digging a hole and the other four are watching the hole being dug.

I have the last table of the night. Thankfully no substitutions, SDR's, bad wine. No problem. Sometimes tip pool sucks. For me, last night tip pool bombed out. I made a bit over six hundred dollars. My cut on that was three hundred and fifty. Oh well, I carried last night. Tomorrow it'll be somebody Else's turn.

Happy New Year! This holiday season is officially over. No more carolers, christmas trees, red and green ensemble outfits. In a perfect world the fur coats would also disappear. I can now get back to normal business, oh.. and I have a day off! Wednesday here I come. I'm driving to Walmart, any Walmart. Going to the movies, and out to dinner. In that order.