You see...I can tell you're not British. In Britain the service attitude would have been different from the outset. When this woman first complained about waiting the answer would have been...."Yeah, whatever" and from then on she'd have had almost no chance of gettting a table to her liking.

I really admire you for being professional about it and putting the customer first, even if it's just good business sense. A little story...

A couple of months back Seb and I were having lunch in gay restaurant in SoHo (which shall remain nameless). We got seated but we asked the server straight away if it would be ok if we swapped to a table on the terrace - the restaurant was more or less empty. He sighed. He looked around the empty restaurant as though contemplating the trouble moving us would cause. He eventually agreed. We went out side and he walked off without taking any order at all. Five minutes later he's having a drink at the bar and we're waiting. He comes back and we order two courses. Do we want wine? No, we don't drink. He looks at us as though we just confessed to being homeless and jobless. He goes away and comes back ten minutes later with our first courses. Now, Seb orders duck for his main course. So it arrives. My aubergine thing arrives too and it's fine. Seb however just can't cut the duck breast. I try. It just is not going to work. So we call over our server and explain. He thinks. "Hold on," he declares at last, "I'll get you a sharper knife".

That is funny, Sumbloke. Well, sort of. Had it been me, that duck breast would have been stuffed into his....well, not his mouth.

Mag, I admire your patience and your ability to suffer fools. I couldn't do that myself. You should keep a baseball bat and a punching bag in the back of the reataurant - for therapeutic breaks.

Hugs,

Conner

Conner...a baseball bat would be nice, but since I can't do that I tend to just go out back and smoke. Then I start acting silly to make myself and the rest of my team smile. For example last night when I could tell we were never getting off the wait I started talking to my employees with a British accent. I know it was a horrible British accent, but they were laughing so hard they couldn't help bit smile at the guests. That was the whole point.

Then about a half hour after close when we still had orders coming into the kitchen i could see the culinary team starting to get frustrated. So I put on some dance music, turned off a few lights, and plugged in the strobe light. That's when we started dancing in the kitchen.

Sumbloke...I have no problem accommodating any needs for our guests, but when it becomes unreasonable that's when It bothers me. You and Seb's requests were in noway unreasonable. Here's another one.

A table had ordered a bottle of wine and did not finish it. They asked the server (Who happened to be new) if they could take ithome with them. The server asked me and of course I had to say no. It's illegal for a couple of reasons. First, we do not carry a retail liquor licence. The liqour we sell must be consumed in the building. Second, it is illegal for them to drive with open alchohol. Had I let them take the bottle and something happened I would lose my job. I of course explained all that to them and this is how the rest of the conversation went.

"Our server has let us do it before."

"If you can tell me who the server was I will take disiplinary action immediately."

"I don't remember. You know you should be a better manager and watch your servers better to make sure they are doing their job."

"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding." Then I walk away.

What I really wanted to say....

"You know what you're right. So I am going to stop talking to you're dumb a** and go do that."

Sweet Mag,

Your blog entried demonstrate that you have earned your nickname quite well...not to mention, you could be Secretary of State or Foreign Minister for your diplomacy.....we could use your skills:)

Hugs and Smiles and then some:)

Michael

Mag is very good at cheering up her crew, a true asset to her store. That is why the crew loves to work with/for her. Mag, someone crapped in my corn flakes. Can you cheer me up?