Work at a Restaurant: Part One

I'm betting my friends are all sick of hearing me talk about it, but I just adore my new job waitressing at Boston Pizza! It's a lot of fun and a great environment, not to mention an establishment I can be proud of (I will take this opportunity to assure everyone of how sanitary everything is).

However, one thing that has forever been spoiled for me is the magic of eating at a restaurant. You sit down, order, and the food just arrives to you, right? You rarely question how it got there.

Behind the scenes it is crazy. Fun always, but crazy! I can't emphasize that enough! Here's some stuff you need to understand:

You enter in the doors and are greeted by the HOSTS/HOSTESSES, who seat you. How do they do this? Behind that desk is a whiteboard with the floor plan on it, the tables are all given numbers according to their section and position. This floor plan is divided equally between all the servers on shift that night. This is called "cutting the board." When a server goes home, the board gets "recut" to cover that section. When seating guests, the HOSTS always try to give booths before tables, and to keep all server's sections equal.

HOST also operate the cash register and receive take out and delivery orders by phone. There are usually three HOSTS on duty to be able to cover all of these requirements.

All that work, and you have only just sat down...