Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1900-06-08
RESTAURANT RUNNING.
SUCCESS FOUND BY ECONOMY IN
THE LITTLE THINGS.


Customers Order Goss-What becomes
OF Observation-Disclosures tho Employees.
The organization OF the working
force in modern metropolitan restau'
rant is as systematic and uncompro'
missing as that Of an army in the fled.
The aggregate OF profit from the bust
ness, however many tens OF thousands
Of dollars IL may be in year, Is made
few cents at time ; hence, aside
from the general aud obvious neces.
sity Of providing the public with what
it wants, the secret Of success lies In
economy in little things" which can
only be accomplished by severe disci-
pline, close surveillance Of employees,
and the minutest oversight OF all the
details. This makes necessary the
employment of q small army OF work
ers whom the patrons never see nor
even think about, save when there is
cause for complaint.
The steward and the chef are tho
important personagos Broadly speak
ing. 1t is the duty Of the steward to
suggest and provide consequently,
he must be rich in ideas and familiar
with the daily possibilities Of the
produce market at home and in oil the
markets in the country. Some stew
ards go abroad once a year to keep
themselves cup to date" in their
work.
The stewards daily problem IL no
easy one. He must attend to IL TINT
there is no lack OF anything aud II
is quite as important that there should
be no surplus, and, therefore, no
waste. Since the patronage OF res.
tauran. varies with the seasons and
with the weather, and the city attrac.
tions, only long experience aud moth
ing less than intuition will enable him
to gauge the demand correctly I; ut the
best, the quantity of food with which
lie is stocked is little more than
guess at what will be required. He
is accountable for all the food con.
sumed therefore he has staff OF as
sis,apts and clerks. Everything is
weighed and recorded when II leaves
the storeroom the clerks must have
orders from the constituted author
tiles; in some restaurants receipts
from the chefs department are given.
This system makes the keeping OF O
set Of books imperative go
The chef has his assistants, also -
assistant chefs, under.cooks, men who
make the vegetables ready, tho dish.
washers, garhishers and 50 forth down
to the meanest scullion, all of whom
are within the chefs responsibility
The chef does no cooking with his
own nanoss No ,rssss~ ~AN A,~.~s~ -.a
oversees. In many Restaurants ho,
too, keeps a set Of books. In which the
use made Of the supplies furnished by
the steward Is recorded. Thus, he
can tell to the fraction of cent what
it costs the proprietor to lay q steak
on the table before the patron--not
only the cost OF the raw material, but
OF the cooking and the sauce and the
leaves OF parsley with which tho dish
is garnished. 49, .
The domain Of the head waiter is
the dining room, and lie is responsible
neither to the chef nor the steward,
but only to the manager. He has his
own responsibilities, with which most
people Dire familiar. 1t is for him TO
see that the patron leaves the restau.
rant pleased; in the event OF q dispute
between q waiter aud a guest, there.
fore, he takes the part Of the guest
whether the waiter is right or wrong
There Is an assistant head waiter
usually, and number OF minor au.
thorities under him. Where tho staff
is large, the men are usually divided
into Iuads, each one OF which Is cap.
tanned by one OF their numler who Is
responsible to one OF the assistant
head walters. The hours are divided
into shifts" the first may be from @
o'clock q m. TO noon, the second from
noon TO 8 o'clock, the third from 9
o'clock to midnight. The men do two
shifts on one day and one on the next;
thus q man who breakfasts at 7 o'clock
in the morning and sups at tho same
table ut midnight may be surprised 10
find the same waiter at his elbow, as
though he had been there all day
long.
The customers check usually goes
through a routine such as would sur.
prise him. First, II Is taken to tho
checkers" desk, where il is copied
and endorsed, the walters number
being noted, meantime; then il is
taken to tho kitchen. where the
endorsement is looked for |
carefully, and the Whole thing Is again
recorded; when the food is prepared
it is inspected as the waiter passes to
the dining roon. When the bill Is
paid the check goes to the cashier,
who audits and records it; then it
goes to the auditors department.
Finally all the checks for the day are
compared with the storeroom and