Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2016; 5:45-8:00 pm
I had been unable to go to for my regularly scheduled shift
for the last 3 months and so when Marianne requested help for this annual event,
I immediately said yes. This is the
evening when the Dining Hall gets converted to a “restaurant” with “wait staff”
and “servers”, and where guests could
order from 2 different main courses, rather than eat whatever is presented to
them. Marianne has asked us via an email
if we should continue the same way for seconds, where they do not have to line
up, but rather are served at the table.
I said that we should absolutely continue the same process and treat
them like real guests. It seems like a lot
of people agreed with me, because Marianne said that it was what we would do.
 |
| If its June it must be the "Summer Spectacular" |
Wearing Black and White, I arrived to see that the place was
full, especially the kitchen, where the chefs and their helpers were hard at
work. The other volunteers, who were
servers and wait staff, were waiting outside. We even had a different musical group present
today and it did feel like a special
occasion. As I signed up, 2 girls behind
me were making name-tags and one of them asked the other what name she wanted to
go by today. I said to them that it was
fantastic that you get to pick a name for each day of the week. I washed up and asked little Hannah to tie my
apron. She said that she was headed back
to El Salvador for a “Summer Camp”
and that she would be a “Junior” in
High School next year. Wow, she was
growing up, yet still so young.
We were all getting a notepad like last year and 2 colors of
“post-it notes” – Blue for Lasagna
and Yellow for Chicken. The Chicken was
served with “Vesuvio Potatoes” and Broccoli
and Lasagna with “Garlic Bread” and
Broccoli. Marianne made it clear that
there would be no substitution of the sides. Since I was the “wait staff”, I did not have any job in the kitchen and thus there
was a lot of waiting. Marianne got us
together and started assigning tables.
There were 11 “wait staff” and
18 tables, meaning that some people had 2 tables. I was assigned “Table 10”, but then Marianne got confused since some Tables were
still remaining and no one was ready to take on 2. I told her to get give me “Table 17” and “18”. Marianne gave us the
rundown on how to take orders and then place the “post-it notes” next to the silverware. I asked a few questions at the end, such as “Are substitutions allowed for seconds”,
“Will we use same or different plates for
seconds” etc. Marianne said that I
was asking some good questions and then said that seconds would be served in “Take home containers”. Finally, we were assigned servers and I got 2
ladies as my assistants.
We still had 30 minutes to go and so all of us assembled to
watch the musical choir group “Harmony Hope &
Healing”. They were outstanding in
the way they involved the guests, including a lady who taught everyone a few “Ghanaian” words and got the audience to
sing along. Then there was the keyboard
player, who put on a “Mime” mask and
did a performance over a song. I saw our
regular pianist Phil standing and watching and asked if he should be on the
piano. He said that tonight was all about
this group. “No harm in having dueling pianos”, I said. Marianne called everyone inside the kitchen
for the pre-meal speech and prayer, and since the already small kitchen was
crowded, I stayed outside. Then everyone
came out and Marianne went and made announcements regarding the way the evening
would go; specifically that the seconds would be served tableside and that there
would be no need to line up. She also
mentioned that this was our “8th
Annual Summer Spectacular”.
I spoke with Chef Dan and mentioned that I had heard
Marianne say that there was a palate cleansing “Amuse Bouche”. He laughed
and said that they had eliminated that idea.
I told him that as a challenge, they should do an “18-course tasting menu” next year.
Once again, he laughed and said that if it were just him, his wife and
Chef Adam – who was the co-chef this evening – it would be ok, but with
assistant volunteers it would be difficult. I said, hence the challenge because
I was confident in their food and as far as serving was concerned, we could do
that on smaller disposable plates. It
was time to go get orders and I started at “Table
18” where there were 4 guests, all of who picked Chicken. “Table
17” had 5 guests and except 1, all picked Chicken again! I came back and stood in the line behind
other folks, with my servers next to me.
As soon as my turn came, I placed the order and my servers delivered the
food. Next, they delivered the plate of
desserts, which were “Cream Puffs” that had been freshly made.
The other volunteers were now having dinner and I went and
took orders for seconds. Many changed to
Lasagna, but some stuck with Chicken. Well,
Chicken was definitely the popular choice, since it was now gone. I immediately sent one of my servers over to
check with my table if they would substitute to Lasagna and everyone said
yes. But even that was running short and
so reluctantly Marianne made the decision to have guests line up. This wasn’t right, especially since we had
told them that they would be served at the table and now there would be
a rush to get the remaining food. Plus,
one gentleman on my table was in a wheelchair and there is no way he could make
it to the line. It was just a shame and
I could see the pained expression on Marianne’s face. I started with the clean-up, but there
were a lot of people tonight to help with that.
I chatted with Marianne and she asked for feedback. I said that as much as I liked having options
for main course, we should stick to one since it would mean better planning for
the chefs. Tonight had been unbalanced
with lot more of one being requested and she
made a note of this. I left earlier than
usual, because staying would mean that I was just in the way. It may not have ended as we would have liked,
but it had been a good evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment