Tips n' Cents

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Kids are honest.

This is from so long ago, but I found a folder today and had to include this.

Some restaurants hand out colouring sheets for kids with free crayons (which always get left behind and thrown out because no kid ever wants the crayon that's already been crayoned, but i digress)... and some of these colouring sheet designers think it's a great idea to offer a little space for kids to draw their server.

Sometimes we get monster-like interpretations, and mostly we get a lot of scribbles, but this one time I had a particularly verbose young girl who left me this gem:

You can't judge a book by its cover

I had a table of three, and they were a little bit bizarre... no offense to them if they read this... but they were... kind of particular in the way they ordered, and apparently they were kind of odd about how they asked for a table in the first place... one of the guests sitting on the floor in the hallway while the others smoked, instead of just coming in.

I thought it would be a table that wouldn't make me a lot of money, since they all ordered water and really seemed to scrutinize the prices. Turned out, they just were really dedicated to getting exactly what they wanted! They ordered drinks later, and were very appreciative of me ensuring they had what they needed.

They left very nice tips and the following notes.

I like these ones the most, and are the main reason why I started this blog.

Being responsible pays off

I had a table that was coming into my restaurant for dinner before going out to a show. A teenage son and his parents.

They were very sweet.

They left their credit card behind, and I accidently took the credit card home with me. I realized it when I was at a bar later that night, and immediately called the credit card company to make sure that they would either cancel it, or tell the customers that I had it.

They were very grateful, but I didn't realize it until a week later I got a little envelope at work with a 20 dollar bill and the following note:

Totally unexpected, totally generous, and totally made my week.

amazing.

Here's why I started this in the first place.

So I'm a server. There are a lot of us. When we get together, we talk about our customers and coworkers.... a lot. And if you're not one of us, you really notice how much we do it!

I am dedicating this site to the discussions of these customers... good and bad, but mostly to focus on the customers that keep me in this business.... the ones that really appreciate what I do and let me know about it.

To those of you who do this, thank you. Servers appreciate it more than you probably realize it....