Bussing Tables

At our pizzeria, we have dine-in as well as carry out and delivery. We have waitresses, or "servers" in the politically correct world, who take the dine-in orders, serve the food, and bus the tables.

Usually the waitresses do pretty well. We have several bus-tubs and they scrape the plates so that the napkins, leftover food, and such goes into the trash. Drinks are dumped into a big bucket (emptied and washed nightly) and ideally the plates go in one tub while the cups go in a separate tub.

Meanwhile the silverware goes into a container of warm soapy water to soak.

Why do I care? Because most of the dishes at our store are done by the drivers, that's why!

Well tonight one of the waitresses brought back a big pile of silverware that hadn't been soaked and asked me to wash it quickly please so that she could roll it (in napkins) and go home.

Well I was already in a grumpy mood because someone had been bringing back full cups of pop, with straws, and setting them by the dishwasher, instead of bussing them into the tubs as they are supposed to. Well, I told her no, I wasn't wasn't going to wash the silverware until it soaked for a while.

I knew that if I washed it without soaking, some of it would not come clean and would need to be washed again, just taking extra time. She got all huffy and told the other waitress "Don't go back there (to the dishroom) because Kevin's yelling."

Well, I wasn't yelling but that really doesn't matter. All the waitresses know that, more than any other driver, I always sort their silverware for them, I carry their plates and cups up front and put them away, and I'm generally helpful. But I do take pride in my work and I want to make sure whatever I wash gets clean!

But enough about the dishroom, let's get on to the tales of the road. I took 21 deliveries tonight, drove 70 miles in 7.5 hours, and made $53 in tips. All in all a decent night, for sure.

New driver Chris worked again tonight and is getting the hang of it, I think he's gonna do all right.

Interesting tidbits tonight:

My 2nd delivery of the night tipped $6.44 on a $38.56 credit card order. The customer had a "super" positive attitude, but what struck me was he was very impressed by my pen. Now, I like my pen also, but I get them 4 for $1 at the Dollar Tree!

Later in the night, a customer asked how my night was going, and I said, "Better than last night when my car died." He then offered to sell me a used Chrysler New Yorker for $1500. Well, number one, I don't have $1500, but more importantly, I'm not sure that car gets good enough gas mileage to replace my current pizza wagon!