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Basildog

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Posts posted by Basildog

    Being a chef and a parent

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted

    Basildog I like your approach to trying to balance the restaurant and family situation and I also like the look of your restaurant. One question though (and I know this is personal but I'm curious as I have three young kids myself and am considering something similar in the near future) - is money a major issue as well as time? Have you cracked that also?  Feel free to ignore this if its too personal.

    Money is not great.I don't earn a great deal, just about enough to cover the bills.I drive a very old car, we plan to have our first holiday in 4 years in the autumn.Don't get me wrong , i ain't complaining, i get to live in a very nice part of the country,work 5 days a week, and have got a decent balance of home/work.If you want to make money, open a StarBucks, if you want to have fun, open a bistro.Best of luck with your plans.

    Being a chef and a parent

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted

    Interesting point from Fat Guys original post ..who do chefs hook up with longterm to have children with?

    I met my wife when she was a student, then she went into retail,then she became a waitress so we could spend time together.Then she became a Mum

    Being a chef and a parent

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted

    Great topic.

    Father of 2 (Becky turns 5 next week, Daniel is 17months exactly).It's all down to the Mums, lets be honest.If your a hard working chef, doing the hours, then the mum is doing eactly the same.I'm in the position of being my own boss of a very small bistro, so i been able to change some things to make the time to be a Dad.I take B to school every day, so we get a few mins to talk.Actually, she sings, i listen.I don't work Sundays,(family day or Dada Day as Becky used to call it) and we go swimming on a Monday night, my other day off.The whole family come to work most days after school,so we can see each other, and occasionally Becky come to work with me for a couple of hours on a Saturday to make bread and hang out.Tuesdays is "Rainbows" so she come to work after school, has dinner with me, and then i walk her up the road to her group.We close for about 6 weeks a year,January and late November, so that does give us some time.I don't think my situation is that bad,not many Dads get to do the school run every day, plus i get all day Sunday and a half day with them Mondays.Not complaining.Mums don't get a day off.

    Cancelled reservations at the last minute

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted

    We take bookings, and stagger peoples arrivals so we can look after guests properly.Yes we could double our turnover by resiting tables, but i,m sure one of the resaons we are so heavily booked is that people aren't rushed through.We are very small only 22 max, with one chef, one KP and one waitress, it works for us.When you have a larger place, you are more flexible in seating people, possibly having bar as a holding pen, or a room for people to take coffee in after their meal.We don't have that luxury.

    I'm sorry to be pedantic, but when people make comments on how restaurants operate, i feel compelled to tell people my story :biggrin:

    Cancelled reservations at the last minute

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted

    "Every restaurant has "seatings" whether it's stated explicitly or not. No restaurant owner would expect to stay in business only seating each table once per evening unless they were selling some sort of overinflated tasting menu at $200 per head. If you and your dining companions came in at 6:00 PM would it be unreasonable of the restaurateur to rebook your table at 8:00 or 8:30 presuming you'd be gone? Two and half hours for a table of two to six persons is not rushing anyone. If your dinner took any longer than that I'd suspect folks would feel they were waiting too long between courses. And no doubt they'd then complain about that."

    Sorry, not EVERY restaurant.I do one sitting

    Working in an open kitchen

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted

    I work in a semi open kitchen, the advantages are that i can see 7 out of my 9 tables.Keeping an eye on guests from the kitchen is important for me.You do work better, cleaner , if you know people can glance up from the table and see you working .Also i do tend to get the flames jumping if there are kids watching :biggrin: Guests have to approach my kitchen door which has a slatted window in it to go to the bathroom, and 99% of them look in to see whats going on.

    Cancelled reservations at the last minute

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted

    Has anyone else been treated this way by other restaurants?

    Yeah, that's not the right way to manage that sort of thing. The right way, in my humble opinion, is to overbook by 15% and thank your guest for taking the time to call and cancel. Anticipation on one side and hospitality on the other, that's how the restaurant world works.

    So what happens on the night when 100% of your bookings turn up and your 15% short of space.Then we will have another thread about how you had a contract with the resturant which they broke.Ever feel like this is a no win situation?

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