SA
This is a tool that we should be regularly using while making laps on the floor to help clear tables.
A tray!
If you are running food and there is a moment where the pass is empty, this is the first task that you should do
Check to run spoons through dish
You're SA'ing during a busy service and notice a big push of food coming out of the kitchen. You overhear a server alert a food runner that we are yama spoons everywhere.
This is how you can assist your team.
Help push spoons, polish quickly, and help distribute spoons to different stations.
You are on the floor and overhear a table talk about an exotic piece or dish that they find interesting but are a little scared to order.
find their server and alert them of their table's interest in the dish.
The four sections of the restaurant that are often the most overlooked, but should always be included in your loop.
The Patio, Wine Bar, Sushi Bar, and the PDR.
For large parties that are sat in the 400's on the patio this seat would be considered seat 1.
The seat on the side closest to the restaurant and is farthest to the right towards the host stand?
You are food running, and things are starting to slow down at the pass. You look out at the floor, and several tables are getting up. This is what you should do on the way back from running food to a table
Help bus a table or give extra maintenance to tables you are running food to while the SA's reset the floor.
A table asks you if they could order a dish or two through you while their server is talking to another table. This is what you do.
Take the order and ring it in with your initials and put it on hold. If you can quickly find the server, verbally let them know. If not, the initial will alert them to who rang it in if they have further questions.
A technique for clearing linen napkins where the end of the napkin is placed between the fingers to allow the napkin to dangle beneath the carrier's hand.
Goose Neck
The pass is full, and there are hot dishes, hot pieces, nigiri, and desserts waiting to be run. This is the order you should offer hands and run the food in.
1. Hot pieces
2. Desserts
3. Hot dishes
4. Nigiri
A phrase first popularized by NYC restaurant Eleven Madison Park that refers to investing time, effort, and care into every task without cutting corners.
Make it nice!
You are on the floor and notice that a server has a tray and is currently dessert clearing a table that is full of plates, glassware, bottles, etc. This is what we should and shouldn't do.
We shouldn't stand behind them and wait to take what they could grab out of their hands.
We should grab a tray and come back to finish bussing the rest of the table, allow the server to follow you to dish and drop on you.
You are running food, and you catch that you misdropped an item to the wrong table, and they are currently eating it. These are your next steps.
Go back to the pass and alert the chef on expo that you misdropped so they can refire the dish. Then, Alert both the server you misdropped on and the server who is missing their item.
There is a half-room in the PDR, but the first round of tables pushed the limits of their out time, and the complete party is waiting at the host stand.
This is how the SA team can most efficiently get the table ready.
Ideally, all SA's would be aware of any large parties in the PDR and what time they are sitting. So they would be aware of the need for a quick flip
The SA who is bussing the table can get any further info from the PDR server and alert other SAs of any chairs that need to be taken in or out of the PDR, and how many settings to grab.
You notice a server is weeded and could use some assistance with their section maintenance
This is what you would do
Pick up dirty dishes, silverware, and flatware
Do a plate change
Crumb the table
Offer another round of drinks
Top their glasses if they have a bottle
You notice a good portion of the restaurant has desserts or a check on their table.
You do this while waiting for tables to start getting up.
Alert the other SAs and communicate table numbers, restock all stations, replace groshie with new one, be aware of any large table builds that need to be set asap.
You are running these pairings of nigiri:
Otoro & Hamachi
Kuradai & Kinmedai
Chutoro & Akamutsu
Kasugadai & Itoyori
For each pairing, which one are you recommending to eat first?
Hamachi then Otoro
Kuradai then Kinmedai
Akamutsu then Chutoro
Kasugadai then Itoyori
A server with dirty dishes, a guest going to the bathroom, a food runner with edamame, and a host doing table updates all come to a four-way stop in the restaurant at the same time... who goes first?
The guest! Our guests always have right of way and we yield to them as we navigate the restaurant. Next comes food, then full hands, then everyone else.
You are assisting a server run a bottle of wine to their table. This is what to say when presenting the bottle.
vintage
region
Bonus:
any fun facts
tasting notes