twiley Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 I was at the Wong Buffet from 4:30-8:15 tonight....they were speaking in tounges I'd never heard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemonKnight Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 SORRY for my insensitivity.........i've been livin it up in Construction for 25 years.........and instead of doing restaurant duty in college i went to Boot Camp....so shove your advice and that swizzle stick up your ass........ I did boot camp too (88M) battle brother so stash that card, hoooah? And I painted houses for years so I know what thats all about too and theres nothing wrong with that business. You just dont need to rag on Det for venting here any more than someone askin for "prayers". Thats what were here for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puddy Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Yep, Nuke is outta line here. Friday night boozin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuke'em ttg Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Yep, Nuke is outta line here. Friday night boozin? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isleseeya Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 You just dont need to rag on Det for venting here any more than someone askin for "prayers". Thats what were here for. agreed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 you know..... we don't have to bag on anyone.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puddy Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 (edited) Thanks Sorry, just seemed like an unnecessary low blow. I could see razzin' him a little for the rant, just came across harsh. Edit: Don't forget, I'm the voice of reason. Edited November 10, 2007 by Puddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF409ers Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 I was at the Wong Buffet from 4:30-8:15 tonight....they were speaking in tounges I'd never heard. LMFAO Usually at the "chinese buffet places" they have no qualms telling you your time is up, I am suprised you lasted almost 4 hours without getting a bad case of the "hurry up's" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiley Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 LMFAO Usually at the "chinese buffet places" they have no qualms telling you your time is up, I am suprised you lasted almost 4 hours without getting a bad case of the "hurry up's" "You go NOW, you eat too much!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Beatings Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 I don't see any reason to jump on detlef for this... the short answer is, he is correct. In general we just need to be more considerate when it comes to stuff like this. Making reservations is a nice convenience for us to take advantage of, so its only common courtesy to at least make an effort to call if something changes. That's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 LOL, lay off nuke. Det comes across as a whiney p00ssay, and the other chick worked at an applebees for a weekend, so what? Tell you what, make me some toast and we'll leave it at that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driveby Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 If I dropped $400 for a meal I'd expect the waitress to throw in a complimentary knob gobble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czarina Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Detlef will be pleased to know I took his advice to heart this weekend and when 1 couple backed out of our dinner plans, I called to fix the booking from 6 to 4. Also, I knew that meant we'd be going from a biggish table to a smaller one...and it put us into a nice booth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickspicks Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 LMFAO Usually at the "chinese buffet places" they have no qualms telling you your time is up, I am suprised you lasted almost 4 hours without getting a bad case of the "hurry up's" Some Funny Chit. But, they would say..."hurdy up...hurdy up." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtomicCEO Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Some Funny Chit. But, they would say..."hurdy up...hurdy up." Are you sure they wouldn't say "you went wrong way down wrighster way to get fried rice wrangler man"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickspicks Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Nope. Not sure of anything from this thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted November 13, 2007 Author Share Posted November 13, 2007 Detlef will be pleased to know I took his advice to heart this weekend and when 1 couple backed out of our dinner plans, I called to fix the booking from 6 to 4. Also, I knew that meant we'd be going from a biggish table to a smaller one...and it put us into a nice booth. Well there's another angle I forgot, you might end up with a nicer table. Going from 8 to 6 at my place means going from a long table with 4 on each side to a round. Pretty much everyone prefers the round because you can talk to everyone at the table better. On the other hand, and this does you all far more good than it does me, "forgetting" to let the restaurant know you've gone from 4 to 2 may keep you at a nice roomy 4 top rather than a somewhat cramped table for 2 (which can also be sort of stuck in random places around the dining room). This, of course, is dependent on the restaurant being so packed that they don't have the wiggle room to go ahead and seat you at a deuce anyway. That they literally have one table and one table only, the 4 top they were holding for you. At any rate, to those who listened, thanks for the vent. I'm pretty sure I can live with the fact that two guys named H8 and Nuke'em til they glow think I'm lame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Dude, just spit in their food if they tick you off...you're the chef. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Are you sure they wouldn't say "you went wrong way down wrighster way to get fried rice wrangler man"? Could always be worse, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 I usually book for 6 when we have 4-5 just so we can get a nice big table, we get there early, and stay a long, long time. People who like to eat at nice places shouldn't be treated like cattle. Your dumpy little coffee shop can keep your dine and dash mentality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted November 13, 2007 Author Share Posted November 13, 2007 People who like to eat at nice places shouldn't be treated like cattle. Oh what the hell...I know you're just looking for a fight here, but I can't help myself. How ironic that somebody who claims to be conservative is asking for something "free" or, at very least counting on the goodness of others to subsidize his lifestyle and choices. What do I mean? Well, restaurants sell both tangible and un-tangible commodities. The first is obvious, food and drink. The second, less so. The space you occupy and how long you do so has a cost and is a value-added commodity thrown into to your experience. Nicer places will give you a larger table and a comfier chair, better flatware and plates, etc. The cost of you sitting there is an opportunity cost of not having someone else there. In the case of some high roller, the restaurant could care less how long dude stays. He might be spending enough to cover another turn of more on that table. In the case of somebody who orders iced tea, splits a salad, and the cheapest entrees only to linger all night, that's one that we have to write off to "everything balances out". In my entire career, I can only remember a floor manager informing a table that was not a last minute reservation or walk-in that was sat with the understanding that the table was needed back by a certain time, that they really needed the table back. It was a tiny place, on a Saturday night, they had sat at 5:30 it was after 8:30, they'd finished everything including coffee for at least an hour, and the manager was still killing himself over the thought of doing so. It's just that no other table was going to open up for a while and there was a reservation waiting on it. On some level it was his fault that he hadn't left an out but the odds are stacked badly enough against tiny places to begin with so it can be hard to just let an empty table sit there "just in case". Of course, the next day I got an angry voice mail that the manager had rushed them out no sooner than they'd taken their last bite of food (which was a total lie), but that's another story entirely. The point is, people in my restaurants simply do not get told to leave. I have been in restaurant management for over 10 years, sat 1000s of tables and been involved with a situation where that action was taken once. Back to the point at hand. Everything has a cost. If everyone behaved as you do, restaurants would either start charging more, put meters on the table and adding a time surcharge, or some other way to recoup the losses associated with people taking advantage of the system. As it turns out, for the most part they don't. So thanks to the fact that most people pick up the slack and are prepared to be polite consumers, others like you get a free ride. Isn't that what irks conservatives the most? People getting a free ride because others pick up the slack? Keep in mind, this entire thread was not started to complain about people staying too long or asking you guys not to linger when you go out. After all, that would be asking you to diminish your dining experience. I was mentioning that, in case you didn't realize, calling the restaurant if your party is short may make a bigger difference than you thought. Hardly a heavy cross to bear. Well, it seems at least many felt that way. OK, now I think I'm done with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Beatings Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 (edited) While I agree that its the polite thing to do, to call a restaurant and let them know if your reservations have changed, I totally do not agree with asking people to turn over their table because other people need it. Sometimes it literally takes us weeks in advance to line up a babysitter in order to go and enjoy a nice dinner out somewhere. Part of what i want to do, is to sit and visit with my friends (or even my wife) once we have finished our meal. I'm not there just to shove food in my mouth... I'm there to enjoy the evening. I understand the argument for special holidays when EVERYBODY is trying to dine out at the same time, but in general if someone rushed me out before I was ready, it would probably be the last time I would go there. Edited November 13, 2007 by Savage Beatings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemonKnight Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 I usually book for 6 when we have 4-5 just so we can get a nice big table, we get there early, and stay a long, long time. People who like to eat at nice places shouldn't be treated like cattle. Your dumpy little coffee shop can keep your dine and dash mentality Man, what a scum bag. If I was your waiter you would be getting the stink eye no less than 20 mins after you finished your meal and every waiter in the place would be "crop dusting" your table at every chance they got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted November 13, 2007 Author Share Posted November 13, 2007 While I agree that its the polite thing to do, to call a restaurant and let them know if your reservations have changed, I totally do not agree with asking people to turn over their table because other people need it. Sometimes it literally takes us weeks in advance to line up a babysitter in order to go and enjoy a nice dinner out somewhere. Part of what i want to do, is to sit and visit with my friends (or even my wife) once we have finished our meal. I'm not there just to shove food in my mouth... I'm there to enjoy the evening. I understand the argument for special holidays when EVERYBODY is trying to dine out at the same time, but in general if someone rushed me out before I was ready, it would probably be the last time I would go there. As well it should be. Any restaurant that expects table turns to be so quickly that they don't allow guests to relax and enjoy themselves for a while is cutting things way too close. That I have endorsed asking someone to give up their table once out of the hundreds of times in my managerial career when that situation has arisen speaks to the fact that I agree with you. FWIW, the average turn time for tables in somewhat high but not super fine dining is about 90 minutes. 2 hours for parties of 6 or more and 2.5 for larger parties. The larger your place is, the more you can count on that average being an effective tool because the larger the sample size. So, a smallish place like mine will assume that most will eat about that quickly when I'm setting up the book but leave a few spots on a 2 hour turn just in case the averages don't hold. Any more than that and I risk leaving money on the table if everyone dines as quickly as normal. Any less than that and I'm too dependent on people eating quickly. Sometimes having people leave is the last thing you want, if they're ordering more wine and getting desserts, you'd as soon as they stay all night. Thus, as 49er alluded to earlier, you need to give yourself a few outs. A few outs. Once again, this dining time is not one created by the industry as much as it is a reaction to how quickly people tend to dine provided they get prompt service. We don't demand that people eat in 90 minutes, we've just been given ample reason to expect that most will and thus base our turns on that when setting up the book for a busy night. The steakhouse next door, for instance assumes 2.5 hours for all tables because that's what it seems to work out to be. Of course, it's pretty hard to get out of there for less than $75 per person and it is more of a special occasion type of place. Given what it takes for any reasonable restaurant manager/owner to even contemplate the decision to ask someone to get up, I doubt that many of you have even come close to being asked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuke'em ttg Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Man, what a scum bag. If I was your waiter you would be getting the stink eye no less than 20 mins after you finished your meal and every waiter in the place would be "crop dusting" your table at every chance they got. pretty tough talk for a guy doin a womans job...........and i'll venture to say you don't date women Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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