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The week before last, some friends and I went to NYC to attend an annual taping of a comedy show; and to meet up with many, many other people we’d met via The Internets. Prior to the ‘official’ meet up (the comedy show) most of the fans had plans to meet for dinner at this lovely Italian restaurant. I believe local suggestion was how this establishment was picked. Good reviews, close to the comedy club, nice-with out being too terribly pricey.
This year our group was much larger. Months in advance the restaurant was picked, and a thread opened on our community message board regarding dinner plans. We collectively agreed on a meeting time and ever one had to RSVP. The list went from 10 to 20 to over 50 attendees. We had a strict cut off date, and it was clear-if you don’t RSVP by this date, you can’t attend the dinner. Fair, right? Right. The cut off date was a full two weeks before the reservation, and the organizers were in touch with the management as our list grew-finally ending up at 55. We had also agreed that due to the two hour window we had to dine, everyone must check out the menu online and make their decision prior to arrival-that way the order taking would go as smooth and quick as possible.
The day comes and we all meet at the place at 5 pm like planned-though it ends up being around 35-40 of us, rather than the expected 55. Great. Kind of a break for the wait staff right? If they’ve made preparations for fifty some odd guests, then forty should be a breeze. We’re seated-taking up two long tables and one short table. We’re the only people in the place. Good thing too, because the ONE bartender and ONE waitress they had on staff wouldn’t have been able to handle any more people.
I kept thinking that they would bring someone else out to help this poor girl-but they didn’t. She started with out drink orders, turned them over to the bartender, then came back around for food orders. One by one she goes down the line, every one already knows what they want (perfect!) My two friends and I were sitting at the first table and had the 5th, 6th, and 7th orders taken. Side Note: I was going to get the calamari off the appetizer menu, but since I was in NYC and it was a special occasion, I decided to go with the New York Strip. My companions decided the same, so all three of us went for the [exspensive] steak. My friends ordered theirs medium well and I ordered mine just medium and all was well.
This is where it gets a little hairy because when you’re in a huge group and everyone is laughing and talking and drinking and enjoying themselves, one looses track of time-and one usually isn’t paying attention to the other tables. Two people at our table (the first one to order) received their food, and then I noticed that more and more people at the second table were happily eating away. Two or Three more plates come out to our table, and I get up to use the can and see that everyone at the smaller table has been served. Hmmm. One of the organizers comes around to collect cash for the check. I throw in $40 for my $30 tab, as do both of my friends. My table starts discussing the weird serving order-though they are doing it as discreetly as possible since the waitress is running her fool head off and it’s not really her fault. She’s really done a wonderful job of serving (which is what she’s supposed to do)-the orders are correct, and she’s saying on top if the drinks too, since the bartender has since disappeared. I assume to the kitchen to help. I hope. She’s unapproachable unfortunately, as she’s literally running from one end of the place to the other. Anyway, there are about 3-5 of us at my table that have yet to be served-myself and my friends included. At this point, it’s been long enough that people from the second table have started to leave [to head down to the comedy show]. We notice that it’s about 6:30-we need to be at the other venue by 7 to get seats. The waitress brings out two more plats and breathlessly tells us that the steaks will be another 10 minutes. There is a collective groan from everyone with in earshot. We are the only three that haven’t been served, and we’ve been sitting here for over an hour and a half with nothing to eat; we have to be 8 blocks away in roughly half an hour, or we’ll be watching the show from the waaaaay back and we’ve just been told that it’ll be another 10 minutes on our food. We’ve already paid, and the only with in walking distance even remotely on the way is Katz’s, and we don’t have time to detour and wait in line there too. She offers to box it up for us so we can take it with, however we can’t take outside food into the club. Time is the biggest enemy here-if we stay then we’ll have to wolf down our costly meal. If we leave there isn’t any guarantee that we’ll eat at all. We have a loooooooooong night of shenanigans looming before us. A full belly would do us good. We tell her to bring it out-I mean, what else are we going to do? All but a handful of people have left for the show by now. A few of them offer to either stay with us or go on ahead and save seats-we beg them to save us seats. The only thing I want less than the three of us having to watch the show from the back is having inconvenienced strangers.
She brings out two plates of steak-both rather rare, just from the initial look-sets them in front of Jill and I and begins to clear dishes. One of the other guests gestures to my other friend and asks about his steak. “WHAT?” She cried, nearly dropping the dishes in her hands. “I only had two steaks!!!” She runs off to the back shrieking. It’s now 6:51 and our new found friends simply can’t wait any longer. Off they go wishing us luck, leaving Snaps and her two pals as the only people in the dining room. The steaks are very rare-probably because the cook was in a dang hurry-but we dig in like the famished carnivores we are. The three of us huddled around two plates of meat that, on a normal day would be far too bloody for us to even consider, hacked off pieces and stuffed them into our mouths as fast as we could. I’ve had better food at Applebee’s, though I’m sure the experience had everything to do with it. The waitress came out to offer us drinks on the house-but we were too busy trying to consume our one hundred and twenty dollar’s worth that we didn’t get to answer her. At 6:59 we threw down the forks, wiped our faces and sprinted out of the building and ran the entire distance to the club. Running + hastily eaten meat = intestinal discomfort, just for future reference. We were late and there was standing room only but our friends had indeed saved us seats. Whew.
And to top it off? All the money collected was only $2 over on the bill. The three of us over paid by at least $10 each AND they forgot a meal. I swear to gord, if I find out who skipped on the bill, I will hurt them. The waitress ended up with really NO tip after all she had to put up with. Its not her fault, really. She’s just serving us, and 40 people is a lot to manage on your own.
Never once did the manager come out-actually, the only staff we ever saw was the poor waitress and the bartender (for a minute). I was really upset at the situation-and even more upset that I didn’t have anyone to vent my frustrations to! Not the waitress-really, it’s not her fault-except for maybe forgetting the other steak. I was more upset at the place as a whole, and after all that our group did to make it as easy on the place as humanly possible!! We contacted them with the proposition of a reservation months in advance, we kept them updated as the group got larger, we told them we had a little less than two hours to play with, we arrived on time and prepared with our orders-I mean, they KNEW they would be hosting a large party that night, you’d think they would have had more people on schedule. Actually, they thought they would be hosting a larger party than they actually did. I can’t imagine what would have happened if everyone that RSVP’d had showed. Lord.
If the group was too large (and we did take up ¾ of the place-it wasn’t very big) or our schedule was unreasonable then say so. Tell us you can’t accommodate that many people at once or give us a selective menu. Cut our choices down to the 5 easiest things to make-hell we’re not going to notice. It’s a lot better than waiting two hours for wrong/missing food and being late to the next engagement. I’m sure that place would be lovely if it you were to go as a couple or what not, and I don’t want to knock the place too much. It was just a frustrating experience. Next year I’m not eating anything unless it comes from a cart on the street corner.
This year our group was much larger. Months in advance the restaurant was picked, and a thread opened on our community message board regarding dinner plans. We collectively agreed on a meeting time and ever one had to RSVP. The list went from 10 to 20 to over 50 attendees. We had a strict cut off date, and it was clear-if you don’t RSVP by this date, you can’t attend the dinner. Fair, right? Right. The cut off date was a full two weeks before the reservation, and the organizers were in touch with the management as our list grew-finally ending up at 55. We had also agreed that due to the two hour window we had to dine, everyone must check out the menu online and make their decision prior to arrival-that way the order taking would go as smooth and quick as possible.
The day comes and we all meet at the place at 5 pm like planned-though it ends up being around 35-40 of us, rather than the expected 55. Great. Kind of a break for the wait staff right? If they’ve made preparations for fifty some odd guests, then forty should be a breeze. We’re seated-taking up two long tables and one short table. We’re the only people in the place. Good thing too, because the ONE bartender and ONE waitress they had on staff wouldn’t have been able to handle any more people.
I kept thinking that they would bring someone else out to help this poor girl-but they didn’t. She started with out drink orders, turned them over to the bartender, then came back around for food orders. One by one she goes down the line, every one already knows what they want (perfect!) My two friends and I were sitting at the first table and had the 5th, 6th, and 7th orders taken. Side Note: I was going to get the calamari off the appetizer menu, but since I was in NYC and it was a special occasion, I decided to go with the New York Strip. My companions decided the same, so all three of us went for the [exspensive] steak. My friends ordered theirs medium well and I ordered mine just medium and all was well.
This is where it gets a little hairy because when you’re in a huge group and everyone is laughing and talking and drinking and enjoying themselves, one looses track of time-and one usually isn’t paying attention to the other tables. Two people at our table (the first one to order) received their food, and then I noticed that more and more people at the second table were happily eating away. Two or Three more plates come out to our table, and I get up to use the can and see that everyone at the smaller table has been served. Hmmm. One of the organizers comes around to collect cash for the check. I throw in $40 for my $30 tab, as do both of my friends. My table starts discussing the weird serving order-though they are doing it as discreetly as possible since the waitress is running her fool head off and it’s not really her fault. She’s really done a wonderful job of serving (which is what she’s supposed to do)-the orders are correct, and she’s saying on top if the drinks too, since the bartender has since disappeared. I assume to the kitchen to help. I hope. She’s unapproachable unfortunately, as she’s literally running from one end of the place to the other. Anyway, there are about 3-5 of us at my table that have yet to be served-myself and my friends included. At this point, it’s been long enough that people from the second table have started to leave [to head down to the comedy show]. We notice that it’s about 6:30-we need to be at the other venue by 7 to get seats. The waitress brings out two more plats and breathlessly tells us that the steaks will be another 10 minutes. There is a collective groan from everyone with in earshot. We are the only three that haven’t been served, and we’ve been sitting here for over an hour and a half with nothing to eat; we have to be 8 blocks away in roughly half an hour, or we’ll be watching the show from the waaaaay back and we’ve just been told that it’ll be another 10 minutes on our food. We’ve already paid, and the only with in walking distance even remotely on the way is Katz’s, and we don’t have time to detour and wait in line there too. She offers to box it up for us so we can take it with, however we can’t take outside food into the club. Time is the biggest enemy here-if we stay then we’ll have to wolf down our costly meal. If we leave there isn’t any guarantee that we’ll eat at all. We have a loooooooooong night of shenanigans looming before us. A full belly would do us good. We tell her to bring it out-I mean, what else are we going to do? All but a handful of people have left for the show by now. A few of them offer to either stay with us or go on ahead and save seats-we beg them to save us seats. The only thing I want less than the three of us having to watch the show from the back is having inconvenienced strangers.
She brings out two plates of steak-both rather rare, just from the initial look-sets them in front of Jill and I and begins to clear dishes. One of the other guests gestures to my other friend and asks about his steak. “WHAT?” She cried, nearly dropping the dishes in her hands. “I only had two steaks!!!” She runs off to the back shrieking. It’s now 6:51 and our new found friends simply can’t wait any longer. Off they go wishing us luck, leaving Snaps and her two pals as the only people in the dining room. The steaks are very rare-probably because the cook was in a dang hurry-but we dig in like the famished carnivores we are. The three of us huddled around two plates of meat that, on a normal day would be far too bloody for us to even consider, hacked off pieces and stuffed them into our mouths as fast as we could. I’ve had better food at Applebee’s, though I’m sure the experience had everything to do with it. The waitress came out to offer us drinks on the house-but we were too busy trying to consume our one hundred and twenty dollar’s worth that we didn’t get to answer her. At 6:59 we threw down the forks, wiped our faces and sprinted out of the building and ran the entire distance to the club. Running + hastily eaten meat = intestinal discomfort, just for future reference. We were late and there was standing room only but our friends had indeed saved us seats. Whew.
And to top it off? All the money collected was only $2 over on the bill. The three of us over paid by at least $10 each AND they forgot a meal. I swear to gord, if I find out who skipped on the bill, I will hurt them. The waitress ended up with really NO tip after all she had to put up with. Its not her fault, really. She’s just serving us, and 40 people is a lot to manage on your own.
Never once did the manager come out-actually, the only staff we ever saw was the poor waitress and the bartender (for a minute). I was really upset at the situation-and even more upset that I didn’t have anyone to vent my frustrations to! Not the waitress-really, it’s not her fault-except for maybe forgetting the other steak. I was more upset at the place as a whole, and after all that our group did to make it as easy on the place as humanly possible!! We contacted them with the proposition of a reservation months in advance, we kept them updated as the group got larger, we told them we had a little less than two hours to play with, we arrived on time and prepared with our orders-I mean, they KNEW they would be hosting a large party that night, you’d think they would have had more people on schedule. Actually, they thought they would be hosting a larger party than they actually did. I can’t imagine what would have happened if everyone that RSVP’d had showed. Lord.
If the group was too large (and we did take up ¾ of the place-it wasn’t very big) or our schedule was unreasonable then say so. Tell us you can’t accommodate that many people at once or give us a selective menu. Cut our choices down to the 5 easiest things to make-hell we’re not going to notice. It’s a lot better than waiting two hours for wrong/missing food and being late to the next engagement. I’m sure that place would be lovely if it you were to go as a couple or what not, and I don’t want to knock the place too much. It was just a frustrating experience. Next year I’m not eating anything unless it comes from a cart on the street corner.
-a-thon®.
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