So! This chapter is designed to help you, the RC, to better understand the mechanics and dynamics behind the host stand. You’ve arrived at the restaurant of your choice (check). You’ve ascertained what time it is that you have arrived, and if it is dinner time on the weekend, or closing time, or a holiday, or anything like that you have adjusted your expectations accordingly (check). You’re also fully prepared to have a pleasant experience despite whatever crap is going on in your life. Your boyfriend may be a putz, but you are not going to take it out on the staff at this restaurant (check)!
Okay! You are ready for the next evolution. You are ready to be seated. So here’s a little background. The host stand is pretty much what it sounds like, a stand at which there are hosts. You may think that the only job a host at a restaurant has is to seat you. If you think that, you are wrong. A restaurant host is like an air traffic controller. They land customers at the right table. How do they do this?
The restaurant is divided into sections. These are groups of tables that are together, usually in a straight line, a square, or a circle. Each server has a section of tables that they are responsible for. Ideally a section will consist of no more than three or four tables. Trust me, expecting a server to run (take care of) anymore than that can seriously compromise the level of service each table receives. So, depending on how many servers are working and how busy the restaurant is, the entire place is generally divided into eight to fifteen sections.
Here’s where it gets really technical. Tables are seated on a rotation. What does that mean? The host will seat section one first. The next table will go in section two. Then three, four, and so on. When the host has seated each section with a table, s/he will go back to section one and start all over. Hence the term “rotation”. Using this method, the host ensures that every server is seated evenly, and no server is overwhelmed, so that every table can receive optimal service.
There are a number of things that RCs can do to throw off the rotation and upset the balance in a restaurant. I’m going to share the top two with you. If you’ve never engaged in these behaviors, good job! Please see to it that you never do. If you have, cease and desist! You are screwing with the host, the servers, compromising the experience of the other diners, and (if you care about no one but yourself) sabotaging your own dining experience before you even place your order.
Number One: Musical Chairs. The host attempts to seat you at a table in the next section in the rotation. You don’t like tables near the bar, you don’t like to be around people who drink, and you inform the host of that, so s/he takes you to a table in the next section to be sat. You just don’t like the way this area feels, you don’t really like the lighting, it’s a bit too gloomy in your opinion, and you inform the host of that. “I’ll show you where we want to sit,” you declare, and now we’ve arrived at the gist of the situation: You don’t like sitting anywhere someone seats you, you like to pick where you sit, and you will find a problem with any place the host attempts to seat you. So you march the host clear across the restaurant, triumphantly plopping down in the booth. “We always sit on the west side of the building, because its good luck for us,” you explain. “Oh, and we’re ready to order. Now.”
Unfortunately, the server who’s section you insisted on sitting in already has a party of ten, two other tables in progress, and the host just sat her again five minutes ago. You self-seating yourself has just double-sat this poor server. But another nearby server should take care of me then! The other servers in the vicinity are seated to capacity as well! See, the servers who are capable of attending to you and your family of five right now? Are on the east side of the restaurant. They were next in the rotation, which is why the host attempted to seat you in their sections. For them to come across the restaurant and take care of your table as well as their tables on the east side is ludicrous. You’ll just have to wait for the server in your section to work you in, and s/he will do so in a way that will least upset the balance of the tables they are already attending to. A servers priorities are HFOGNG. What does this acronym mean? Hot food, old guest, new guest. They will run out any hot food to their tables first. Then they will check on all of their existing tables to make sure they are doing okay, then and only then will they come and take your order. No, they can’t just grab you some drinks and put in your appetizers! You insisted on sitting here, you could have had service right away on the other side of the restaurant.
Number Two: The Sit Down Fake Out. This one occurs when the restaurant is on a wait. Your name is called, and the host goes to seat you in the next available section. You spy a table across the way. There are people still sitting at it, but they are clearly wrapping it up, getting ready to leave at any moment. You inform the host that you would like to wait for that table. There are a variety of problems with that. As we all know from our attempts to wait for some one to pull out of a prime parking space, people can take…their…time leaving! After they do leave, a busboy will have to clean the table. This table could be ready in five minutes, or twenty-five. In the meantime, we need to seat the one table we have available right now. If you don’t want it, the host can put you back on the wait and seat the next people in line. There’s no guarantee that the table you want will even be the next one to come available! Either way, you need to make a decision now.
You look over and see the next couple craning their necks anxiously. They are hungry for a table. And you’ve already been waiting close to a half hour, you really don’t feel like waiting anymore. So you huff and puff, and then dejectedly agree to take the offensive available table. But as the host walks away, you hatch a plan. Your server arrives to take your order, and you place a drink and appetizer order. When your server comes back with your drinks, you explain that you are actually waiting for that table over there, the one the people are just leaving from. You let your server know that the host told you that you could sit at this table until the other one became available, so when the busboy cleans it up, you’d like to just scoot over there, and bring your drinks with you.
Several problems with that. The host told you no such thing, and your server knows that. Is it because your server is psychic? No, I told you before, no such thing as a psychic server! Your server knows you’re lying, because that isn’t how we do things at our restaurant, its not our policy. Your server already knows that the host told you that you could have this table, OR you could go back up front, and wait for another table to become available. You can’t use one table as a waiting room for the other, complete with cocktails! If you choose to make a fuss over this, you are ultimately going to end up either at the table you are currently at, back up front waiting for the next available table, or leaving in a huff. All the while screwing up the experience of several other diners while you engage multiple members of the restaurant staff in your nonsense, all because you decided that protocol has nothing to do with you.
What have we learned here? Musical chairs is a dorky party game, so not acceptable when dining out. There are a few situations where it is understandable to insist on a different table. If you have kids, are elderly or have health problems, there’s a good chance you would like to sit closer to the bathroom. If you are in a restaurant that still has a smoking section, and you have kids, are elderly, or have health problems, it is probably essential that you sit as far away as possible from the smoke (although you may just want to consider sticking to smoke-free facilities). Basically, unless you have children, are elderly, or have health problems, you should sit where the host seats you, because there is a very good system behind their decision.
If you cannot handle sitting where the host seats you, you need to accept a couple of basic truths. If the restaurant is busy, it will be awhile before the server in the section you chose can get to you, and if it is super busy, you may have to wait a very long time in the lobby- not at another table- for the table you want.
One more important note about your time at the host stand. It is not your server’s fault if there was a wait at the host stand, so please don’t take it out on him/her the second they arrive at the table. And, when bugging your server about where your entrée is, and how much longer its going to be? Don’t include the time you waited in the lobby in the length of time you insist that its been. What do I mean by that? If you waited for a table for thirty minutes, and the you placed your order and its been fifteen minutes since your server took your order, it is incorrect to tell a manager that your server sucks because you’ve been waiting forty-five minutes for your food. You ordered it fifteen minutes ago, therefore you’ve been waiting fifteen minutes for the food you ordered. We have computer printouts to verify this, so, you know. Be a grown-up about the fact that busy restaurants have waits at the door.
Please absorb these tips and educational explanations in a positive way! If you apply this information to your mind-set next time you go out to eat, you’ll have a much better experience, because you won’t be selfish, unreasonable or uptight.
You can grab my ebook at http://www.amazon.com/How-Better-Restaurant-Customer-ebook/dp/B0043RSDY6/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285080570&sr=8-1 on Amazon! Follow me @marta_daniels on Twitter.