The Art Of Pow- wow

The Kemosabe Pulse

with me Patrick

Managing a restaurant is like being a colonel in the army, It's like "The Art Of War", a book I have yet to read. Many of the same principles are shared between winning a war and getting through a busy dinner rush I bet.

And winning a war all comes down to the strategic planning and that my friend is done in Pow-wow. That's the new name that I call our meeting with the floor staff prior to starting the shift. It's normally called pre-shift, but I think Pow-wow is a no brainer in our restaurant, those who have been there or seen some pictures know what a sweet fitting name this is. That's why this guy is in charge Col. Patrick reporting for duty Hoo-Rah! Anywho to win the war I need to deploy my troops in the right areas to hold the attack, I need good intel, and that means I need to know what kind of reservations we have for the night, and assign sections accordingly. If I have a large group coming in I will put Sue on that section because she is great at keeping everything organized, which is beneficial when they all start screaming for separate bills. I'll station Andy in the section that is most likely to have the most turn over, he can handle the pressure. If we have any staggets or girls birthday parties Chad is my man, because he knows how to work the ladies. If there are a lot of requests for the counter stools, I know we got some drinkers coming in and that's where Mel will be. And the left over section goes to Scott. He's kind of a mix between the guy in the war movies who you know isn't going to make it out alive, he's just a little too slow on throwing the grenade. And the Vietnam vet who's done too many tours and is all messed up and shell shocked, that's Scott. I try to keep him away from the front lines.

I'm not only the colonel heading up this rag tag platoon, I'm also the bomb expert. That's right you guessed it I diffuse bombs. Which is what I call a situation between my soldiers and the hostiles (staff and customers). I slide in when there is a problem and disarm the threat by buying them a dessert or taking something off the bill or I distract them with coupons. Its all about them leaving happy, they are usually wrong but at least there happy. The old adage 'the customer is always right" was proven wrong like the next table after that, but to run a successful war I need a low number of casualties. I need the hostiles to leave happy and want to come back to my little war. Because war is big business my friends.

If any of you have ever worked in the restaurant business you know what I'm talking about it's like being in the trenches man!

That's all for now folks... too many flash backs post traumatic stress from the things that I've seen and the things that I've been made to do in the name of the Kemosabe Cafe.
" The horror...the horror."

Finger Kemosabe Pulse

Thanks
Patrick