The restaurant dream

I've been out of the biz for five years now, and still occassionally have "the dream". I'm just glad to know I'm not the only one!

I used to work for someone who yelled at us servers so much I would have recurring nightmares of just them following me around at work and criticizing everything I did constantly...not naming names tho!

Worst. Job. Ever!

not to get off topic...

but bored, tooling around through links on the memberslist...
(and before i forget)


Jeremy:
touring with Pelican? nice.

thanks man! We're pretty excited about it...it's one of those crazy things...they're friends with the dude who runs our label, and they loved our record...it's a pretty huge opportunity, and we're definitely counting the days until we head out!

It just caught my eye. I'm a big fan of Pelican; and a huge huge fan of Isis (which is how i ended up getting into Pelican).

This, despite never having seen either live.
...but working in the biz i almost never get to see any shows anymore. (esp. if it involves a roadtrip)

c'est le vie.

I have a back of the house version of the dream from when I worked the line. In that one the tickets just keep pouring into the window and everyone is only for food from my station.

I'm sure you've worked when that actually has happened Ron.

I think we all have.

Yep, there was one lunch shift that I will NEVER forget.

Anyone here remember "Remanco" POS systems?? Early 80's rudimentary POS that made a god-awful noice when spitting out tickets. I used to hear that sound in my sleep every night and have nightmares (based in reality) of ticket rolls wrapped around my neck like a noose....thank god for modern technology!

While I worked both restaurants and catering, I think my recurring version of "the dream" comes from my first five years of "real jobs" (if you can call it that) in radio:

I walk into a studio, supposed to do an on-air shift, and there is always something wrong - either the CDs are missing, the carts aren't there, the songs aren't labeled, or tonight's variation, the turntable (yes, I'm old) has no arm. YIKES!

I guess this dream has variations no matter where you've worked or what you've done? Anyone still have the dream where you show up at class for the last day and don't know anything on the test? Same principle, I think!

Point being - I think we are either all crazy or more alike than we realize!

Uhg...I had it last night...it makes sense because I just worked 8 shifts in a row...

I constantly kept getting more tables so I could never catch up, and one table was a couple, who I never got to go over to. Every time I would start to get them waters and menus, someone's food would come up or something would happen to prevent me from going over to them. The thing was, they never got mad and left. Every 10 minutes or so they would get up and complain that no one had been to their table yet, I would get yelled at, and they would go back to looking really hungry and disappointed. Finally as I got through the night and finished of all of my tables, I realized that they were STILL there and were the last table in the restaurant. As I went to go over to them, a man who I could only describe as a "generic terrorist/bad guy" from a cop show in the 80's with mirror aviator glasses came in and started torturing me with a jigsaw. The couple got scared and left.

Good times people, good times.

I had it last night too. Serving many tables because a server did not show up and then I realized I was in my underwear ... I quickly put on pants that were my sons and five sizes too small. I woke up thinking it was real....

My FOH dream is about the same: dodeca-sat and with the feeling of running in quicksand

The BOH is similar to the FOH: I set a plate, turn and grab the sautee- pan or steak or whatever. Turning around to find the plate unset. Placing the steak back on the grill. Resetting the plate... etc. Like Sisyphus and the eternal boulder.

Just writing about it gives me that feeling in the pit of my stomach!

Can't tell you how many times I've been preparing to debut a new appetizer, entree, or dessert and in the weeks leading up to the debut, I have "the dream" where people are ordering the new dish right and left, but I have failed to prepare, or sometimes order, anything to serve them. The rest of the dream is a mad panic to "cobble something" together and make it to the end of service.

When I took 5 years off from the biz to teach, I would consistently have "the dream" about overly busy services, insufficient product, and otherwise hopeless employees. And somehow I left teaching to return to the restaurant...

PTRD- Post Trautmatic Restaurant Disorder. Any other symptoms. Panic attacks when you don't have a pen in a dimly lit room.

The new "dream" for myself is sleeping though the night and waking up and wondering if I forgot to order that something special item for one of our "Banquets"....(Weddings, corporate meetings, 1st communions and the like.....)

Funny I was just telling my husband about the dream and here you all are. I have several variations, this one involved a full dining room and the back of the house shut down the line and went home. I had to explain to all these tables I would be a bit as I had to make their food as well. I knew how to run the line but the truth is I could not even find the light switch. Shell shock is a very good term.

32 out of the biz and even now, when things get stressful at the paper, it'll translate into the restaurant dream when I sleep. No other job I've had has ever been as stressful as ANY job related to restaurants.

I ran into an old compadre a week or two ago that has been waiting tables since the 70s; how does anyone do that and stay sane? Career restaurant folks are a rare (and sturdy!) breed. I envy their ability to cope under stress.

I have several variations, this one involved a full dining room and the back of the house shut down the line and went home

Maybe you have been watching to many episodes of Hells Kitchen.