waitstaff memory: how do they do it w/o a pad or pencil?
We had a waiter this evening at a small local family-owned Italian place (very extensive menu) who delivered correctly 5 meals' worth to our table - plus apps, drinks, desserts and various coffees. He did this just by listening and without once writing a thing down, and even stopping on his way back to the kitchen to gather orders from other tables.
Of course it became our private game to see if he'd remember everything, but he did, and with polish and grace. Having never been in the restaurant business, I would like to know how in heck they manage this. I can't walk into a room in my own house without forgetting what I went in there for. (And I'm not over 50.)
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13 Comments:
it's definitely built up--I worked as a waiter for one summer after my freshman year, and when i started, it was difficult to remember one table's worth, but by the time august rolled around, you could've read off all of the Inferno, and i'd've remembered it. it seems difficult, but when your job depends on your ability to remember things, you adapt quickly.
rasellers0 at 10:45PM on 08/17/08
It's something you develop. I waited tables as a summer job, and eventually I could remember what a party of 10 had ordered based on where they were sitting around the table. You just have to stretch your mind in a certain way to accommodate that kind of sequential information, like when you learn the alphabet.
butterface at 12:09AM on 08/18/08
I got conned into a waitressing job one summer when I was in high school, and I remember the first busy day when I had an order in my hands and came out of the kitchen and for the life of me couldn't remember which table had ordered the darned thing. I wandered around for a while hoping someone would look up and the light bulb would turn on and I'd know it was their dish.
It was a horrible job. I was the only waitress, my mother was in the kitchen, cooking, and it was pretty much a dive bar except they served lunch. I wasn't old enough to serve drinks, and I shouldn't have even been in the place, but there I was. I got better at it.
But it's like anything else. With enough practice, you don't have to think about it much, you just know it.
dbcurrie at 12:25AM on 08/18/08
Yeah, takes awhile to get the hang of it, and let's say I am just glad to be back of the house now...I was okay at the remembering, but if you stop doing it for awhile it seems even harder to get back to.
I always totally overtip a server with no pad/pen. Kudos to them. (Especially with some of the crazy high-maintenance people I tend to end up at restaurants with who order sub this and scratch that.
May I never have to do it again!
sadiepix at 12:34AM on 08/18/08
Oh, remembering by seating arrangement. I kind of feel bad about something we did while we were in TN in July. No wonder she was flustered.
We were at a bar that served standard bar fare. When we walked in, we sat down. Everyone drank something different. I was one of two women, with 12 other men.
After she took the order (no pen/paper), we decided to push 4 tables together in a rectangular formation. So we all ended up in different sides for some reason. She dropped off the drinks asking who had what.
Time passed. Time for another round - orders were placed, I ordered a cheesecake. People at the ends felt left out, so we rearranged the tables to form a square. Everyone shifted, some people wandered to play pool, just on the other side of a short barrier from where we were.
She delivered my cheesecake fine, but she had to ask everyone else what their drinks were.
Poor lady.
Cassaendra at 7:41AM on 08/18/08
When I worked in an office, I was always deemed lunch bitch because I could remember what people ordered instead of having to announce it overhead, get a list going, call it in, blah blah blah.
Some people just can, other people just cant. What pisses me off is when someone thinks they can, takes our order and then its all f'd up when it gets to me. Accept the need for a freakin' pen, people!
ChelleyD01 at 9:57AM on 08/18/08
I agree it's something of an acquired skill. There's a server at a local restaurant we frequent who claims that the largest order she has memorized in the past was for a party of 29. We were skeptical until we held our annual softball banquet at the restaurant and she was our server. There were 25 of us and she didn't miss a beat. She took our drink orders, appetizers and main courses at the same time and she delivered everything to the correct people including appropriate condiments, dressings and special requests. We were amazed. I always thought my memory was good when I was a server. Now I'm lucky if I can remember why I opened the refrigerator door!
Josdean at 11:29AM on 08/18/08
My pet peeve is when a waiter claims they'll remember it this way and don't! It's not like you can't write anything down, so why don't you?
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 5:37PM on 08/19/08
Writing it down correctly counts, too. DH and I were at a restaurant and when food arrived and I told the waiter, "this isn't what I ordered," he said, "Yes you did, see, I have it written down here." and he showed me a scribble on his notepad. My reply was along the lines of, "That may be what you wrote down, but it's not what I said." "Yes you did, see, I wrote it down right here."
Grrrr....
And no, I didn't have a brain fart and forget what I ordered. This was a place we'd been to a number of times, and I had a short list of favorites that I ordered every time we went there. This wasn't something that I would have chosen above those items. It wasn't bad, it wasn't horrible, it just wasn't what I had been looking forward to all day.
dbcurrie at 5:53PM on 08/19/08
I've worked in restaurants for way too long...I used to visualize the customers plate in front of them as they ordered. My problem came when we were slammed and I had to write stuff down...somehow I would ALWAYS mess up orders I wrote down, almost like..if I put it on paper, it didnt stick in my brain so I would forget things like salads, soups, who got what etc.
Hey...I never claimed to be the worlds best waitress and I will happily admit to my mistakes ;)
hammondcheese at 7:21PM on 08/19/08
i visited a "friend" a couple of years ago, trying to avoid a mental breakdown (it didn't help, ha-ha). we went to a rather nice restaurant one night and my food wasn't cooked to order. she refused to send it back because she insisted it was "fact" that they would spit in my food if i sent it back.
they also undertipped (seems to me THAT would cause any spitting) everywhere we went and refused to allow me to pay or leave tip.
i only waited tables a couple of times, and was lousy at it. i was slow, and took a long time writing things down. i DID get the orders right, and explained i was new, and was always friendly, so i got decent tips.
what stunk was there was a communal tip jar, and whoever worked the most hours, got the biggest share. but i always appreciate a good server,
love when they flirt a little, a personality means a lot.
sorry, guys, still my first day here, i probably don't have the rules of posting down yet!
-buns
bionicbunny at 7:55PM on 08/19/08
back in the day...i could remember a party of 20 without writing anything. it is all about seating and starting in the same place every time i took an order. it was how i input everything into the POS ordering system. Also how food runners knew who to give each entree to without "selling" it (who had the roast chicken?) at the table.
now, i cannot remember more than 4 or 5
supersu75 at 2:06AM on 08/21/08
I've always admired servers that don't need an order pad. It amazes me that they can deliver a meal perfectly and those who write it down can still screw it up. I've never been a server and god-willing I never will be. I couldn't do it successfully because I would be tied to my pad and pen...
AuntJone at 9:27PM on 08/25/08