It goes without saying that each and every one of us in the industry has had an embarrassing moment. I mean we work in the public eye, and only in the public eye apart from the few seconds of respite we manage to sneak when clearing plates in the kitchen. So here are a couple of mine:
Working in a bar of a fine dining restaurant with about five couples scattered around bar tables waiting for their pre dinner cocktails. One of them has ordered a strawberry caiprioska, so I set about muddling the strawbs and lime so they have an element of ‘mush’ to them and then proceed to shake the ingredients using a boston glass and shaker.
At this stage I’m feeling pretty cool, showing off my bar tending prowess to the ‘audience’ - doing a bit of a Jamaican shake for good measure (without the rhythm).
I get to about the ninth shake above my head and I hear a strange creak. At this point I figure I have about one tenth of a second before I shake that shaker above my head again, so a quick decision has to be made - was it the ice creaking or the glass creaking? I have never been a very quick decision maker so that decision did not get made and the momentum I had built up caused me to shake one more time. Just one more frickin time…
Famous last words.
At the peak of the trajectory the glass shattered like a car window and the next thing I knew I was being bathed in mushy strawberries and vodka and lime and strawberry liqueur. It was delicious. It was all over my head. It was just before service got cranking and it was seen by all sitting at the bar - whose tables I would be looking after. I tried to laugh it off as if it was one of the hazards of the industry but in reality I was probably the colour of the strawberries.
Another one involves my wife. We were both working in the same restaurant at one point and the restaurant was basically out on a terrace that had been weatherproofed.
One night we had a ridiculous storm come through and when the storms got ridiculous there were always a few leaks here and there. It kept us on our toes, shuffling tables etc. So, you can imagine that there were a few slippery patches on the floor.
It was a very busy night and all the staff were running around like mad. My wife found herself running three chowders to one table. So she grabbed the chowders off the pass and moved as fast as she could out to the restaurant - not noticing that at the very entrance to the dining room there was quite a large wet patch. She got one step in and it was all over - arms and legs flailing everywhere, chowder strewn across the first section like carpet, chowder all over my wife and with quite a heavy landing to top it off.
I can laugh about it now because she has given me permission to, but let me tell you that was the biggest stack I have ever seen in a restaurant - and most definitely the funniest. To her credit she took a five minute break and cleaned up and got back out there - and I was still cleaning chowder out of my section…
We would love to hear any moments you may have had…
#1 by sara at December 9th, 2009
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Way back when I was bartending. I think about five years ago now. I had taken my niece to a water park on my day off. I knew I was pretty sun stroke from the day But I woke up and went to my day shift. My cook spent the day commenting on how green I was, I was sunburnt for the first time and have never been before. My ears were ringing I was shaking. A few minutes before my shift ends the night bartender calls to say she’s going to be late. Something about her kid. With my luck in walked a ten top of Avon ladies wanting cocktails. I get out to the two tables that were shoved together and begin taking orders for strawberry malibu daquiris. the next thing I know i’m being shoved into a booth and my cook is coming out of the kitchen to see what the screaming is about. I had fainted, right there in the dining room. I hit my head on the side of the table, had shreaking women all over the place. Just plain sucked. I barely remember it now. Most of what happened was explained to me later, in the emergency room with my GM looming over me asking why I hadn’t called in?
#2 by jonathan Uzhca at December 9th, 2009
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Very entertain post. Loved reading it. I will recommend my fellow waiters to read this post. We all have embarrassing moments. I wish you had a RSS feed botton
#3 by Shaun Cooper at December 9th, 2009
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Sara - that’s one way to get out of work! Embarrassing though.
Jonathan - Thanks for your comment. Glad you liked it! See the admin comment for advice on the RSS button.
#4 by admin at December 9th, 2009
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@ Jonathan - there should be an RSS button in your browsers address bar if you’re using a recent version of Firefox or on the control bar in IE.
#5 by mags at December 10th, 2009
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I just remembered this lovely moment from when I was the GM of a high end restaurant years ago…our back dining room had a swinging door the went out onto the patio - you would walk through the door and go down two steps to the patio. Well, because the door would creak I got in the habit of stopping on the first step and putting my hand behind me to stop the door from swinging. One day I didn’t realize a male customer was behind me - so when I put my hand back to stop the door I cupped his ‘manhood’ perfectly. Funny, he didn’t seem to mind too much
#6 by Shaun Cooper at December 10th, 2009
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Mags - thats hilarious stuff. I can imagine the look on both of your faces…
#7 by Stuck Serving at December 10th, 2009
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I had a good one tonight. There restaurant was slowing down, and I let out what I thought was going to be a silent but deadly fart, turned out to be a loud but deadly fart. I like your site, would you be interested in linking up with me?
#8 by Shaun Cooper at December 10th, 2009
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Stuck - classis stuff! i’d say most waiters would have done something along those lines just not willing to admit it! I’ve checked out your site too and we would be happy to link up. I’ll add it today..
#9 by waiterextraordinaire at December 10th, 2009
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I had one time spilled some soup over a ladie’s dress during the Captain’s welcome dinner and for the next 7 days kept pointing out to people that I was the one who ruined the evening for her. Refused even to eat near me. It was awful as every day a reminder of what happened.
#10 by Shaun Cooper at December 10th, 2009
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Waiterex - that would be tough. Nowhere to hide on a cruise ship!
#11 by Gnome at August 23rd, 2010
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Wow, that’s nice. Awaiting for next posts