"Riding The Wave": How to survive Sat night?

[ChefRon]

Fellow culinarians, may I impose upon you for some collective advice? I find myself continuously beseiged by waves of tickets, followed by nothing, followed again by waves. We go from 3 tickets to 90 in ten minutes, then back to 3 followed by another 90. It would appear that the DRS seats the whole dining room at once, then clears at once and resets. I confess much ignorance in FOH matters, but is there per chance something wrong with this picture? Any suggestions?

Could your servers be holding their tickets and turning them in all at once? Thats been known to happen in more than one place I have been. Is there concerts, meetings, etc., that a crowd of people come in before going to and then all leave at once? I agree that this would be a frustrating situation, I have been there myself. I would communicate these concerns to your Front House Manager and see if there is a solution.

Do you Take reservations? if so than it sounds like the Reservation book is not spread out enough to allow ample time for the kitchen to produce at it's peak preformance. Also this allows for walk in traffic to be seated

[Pete]

I have to agree with Bri. Sounds like the reso book is not spread out enough. Also have your phone staff actively sell early and late dinner times as it seems everyone wants to dine from 7:00-8:30pm. When I answer the phone I will take a reso for prime time if avaliable but I always suggest that earlier or later dinning will allow for a quieter, more subdued experience.

[ChefRon]

Thanks a million for all your input! I love this web site; it's great being able to talk to fellow chefs. Bri, I honestly don't know what's going on with reservations but the problem is that this restaurant is brand new and the owner invested $8 million in animatronics and electronic effects (yes... I did say $8 million). People are usually on a three hour wait and they do wait.. even for lunch. I guess this is a good problem to have, but when waves of tickets hit everybody stresses, from FOH to cooks and dish crew. You can well imagine the breakage nightmare! I was hoping there was an alternative.

If Thats the case Ron I don't know what to say. 8 million wow!!!!! anyway I do have sympanthy for you I too onced worked at a restaurant like that No animatronics but there was most of the time a 2-3 hr. wait. I can't believe that somebody would wait 3 hour for dinner or lunch. it's just beyond me. good luck brian