so, this is the only restaurant i've worked at where the boss allows people to order things that aren't on the menu anymore. boss gets himself all worked up over menu changes, and thinks about it for weeks, then takes some stuff off the menu to make room for some new stuff, but, for whatever reason, anything that used to be on our menu is fair game for our customers. they'll say "hey, remember that lunch special that you had like two months ago? yeah. i want that." or "four years ago you had a sandwich i liked. make it."
there's some things, like club sandwiches and patty melts, that aren't on our menu but we allow customers to order them anyway, and although i don't agree with it, it is what it is. club sandwiches aren't hard. but what i don't understand is why someone would order a club sandwich when it's very clearly not on the menu. listen, goddamn near any restaurant in the country can make you a club sandwich or a blt, but if you don't see it on the menu? don't fucking order it. same goes with stuff we just took off the menu. i told marie yesterday (after i found out we got rid of my lemon caper sauce) that within two weeks, one of jessie's customers (it's always jessie) will say "hey, i came in here for the salmon with caper sauce" and jessie will say "i'm sure it's not a problem, i'll have the cooks make it" and then she'll get pissed at me cause i won't do it. discontinued means discontinued. jessie will say "i don't see why you can't make it. you have all the stuff." and my reply will be "yeah, we do. but it's not on the fucking menu anymore. it's discontinued. i'm not doing it." and she'll be pissed at me for two days.
i guess what really bothers me is that we (as cooks and the boss) spend a lot of time trying new ideas, and we spend a lot of time thinking about the layout of the menu, and we look at the POS system to see what has been selling and what hasn't, and when we finally take a few items off the menu and give our customers a bunch of new stuff to eat, it's only a matter of time before someone orders something that we just took off the menu. the worst part? i actually have to make it. even though it's not on the menu anymore.
i don't get it.
i've never in my life ordered something i didn't see on the menu. why? probably cause the menu is a list of the stuff you can have. DO NOT presume to make up your own stuff, or order something we no longer have. just because i have veggies, butter, and white wine, that DOES NOT mean i'd be happy to make you a veggie pasta in a white wine butter sauce. the saddest part? the boss will tell me that "it's a nice little old lady" and "we have all the stuff, why can't you make it?"
listen, if you're having a contractor build you a house, and you go out halfway through the build and the contractor is there and there's a bunch of wood lying around, don't ask him to build you a go-kart. just cause he can doesn't mean he should have to.
*sigh*
it's friday, and i promise that some jerkoff will order something we just took off the menu. maybe i won't have to wait two weeks for jessie to get mad at me! yay!
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2 comments:
BYOM- All owners do it because they want $$$$. Sometimes i wish i worked at some badass place that told the customers what to eat. "Look Bitch I don't care who you are, this is what we have, eat it or leave."
I have had people threaten to walk out if we did not make a dish on a former menu. A few times they did walk out, only because we did not have the ingredients. i would not mind making a club or a BLT once in a while, it is something different. What really gets me is sub this and sub that. Don't these people know how much harder they are making my job. I think anyone who wants to eat out should have to work in the business for at least a few weekend nights. I am sure the next time they go out, modifying their order will have a hole new meaning. I had a guy once who would always get the same dish. He would change a few ingredients which I had right in front of me. But before he ordered it the bartender would bring me a gin&tonic, the guy knew I liked them. That is the way it should be.
gin & tonic (sub Sprite) for me. I love the contractor/go-kart analogy and promise to credit you when I use it this week.
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