Evening star., 1901-02-27
RUNNING A BIG HOTEL.
How n Restaurant Order Passes From
Table to Kitchen. s-.s,v

How n Restaurant Order Passes From
Table to Kitchen. =-.t,,e
From the New York Tribune.
IT wonder how many people know how
the big hotels are rum said man a Few
days ago. II refer to the hotels uptown
which cater to fashionable people Some
time ago, being out OF job, 1 went to an
entrance of one of these hotels and asked
to see the steward. ~ The entrance was
guarded by man. as it always Is twenty
hours out of twenty-four. I managed to
get by him and then passed through
number of quarters in'whichi porters. cham
bermaids and scullions were eating. Then
I passed carpenter shop, Ia. trunk room,
room filled with glaSSy another with CHINA,
kitchen, long row ofvdosets. anotner
kitchen, bar-whichi was surrounded with
cases and barrels Of wine-4an oyster coun-
ter. loom filled withs silver, another room
of closets and finally 9 large engine room.
There entered an9levator and went 10
/ the floor above, where 1 found the steward
seated at large double desk. The desk
was covered with samples of food. wine,
etc. A number Of assistants were near H.
,old him what 1 wanted. but he was too
busy to give me any attention and told me
to come back on some other day. When
did come back the only thing he could do
for me was to offer me a place as
checker. To make long story short,
accepted the place, learned it's requirements
and was soon doing the work attached TO
it. My hours were from o'clock to 11:3O
o'clock in the morning, and from o:,U
O'Clock to l o'clock in the morning on one
day, and from IL 80 o'clock in the morning
to $3.50 o'clock in the evening on the next:
Every third week was reserve week. and
then my hours were shorter and had Sun
day to myself. The schedule / have just
| mentioned applied to all the head walters,
officers, etc. 1t was arranged in order TO
concentrate the working forces together for
the busiest times of the day: that Is, the
luncheon, dinner and supper hours.
There were number of restaurants IN
the hotel in which l worked. Each one OF
| the restaurants was controlled by head
waiter and captain, who, with the wait
ers, looked after the guests. AS soon as
guest was seated the waiter, who, by the
way, generally had two tables assigned TO
| him, went to the cashier for check. which
| was called a kitchen check. Upon this
| check which was numbered, the waiter
| wrote the guests order, with the wines al
| ways at the bottom The wines desired
| were announced to the checkers, Of which
was one, by the waiter his way to the
| kitchen for the rest Of the order. At the
| same time, the waiter gave his name and
| the number of his table. The checker en-
| tered the order on cashiers check, which,
| like the kitchen check, was numbered. and
| was being waited on. The checker then Is
| sued an order on the bar for the wines,
| which were delivered to omnibus. who
placed it on the table, the number of which
| served before the waiter had returned from
| the kitchen.
Each checker had to attend to the orders
| of about twenty tables, and If all these ia
| bles were occupied at once the checker had
| to be quick to keep up with his entries. di-
rect the omnibuses, etc. The checker had
| to have the prices of things at his finger
ends as all errors, no matter Of what size,
| had to be made up by him. There were
| over 300 orders Of food and over 200 orders
| of wines. and with these the checker had
| to be thoroughly familiar, as he had no
| time to refer to lists.
| eff this system goes well 1t goes very
| well; but if 1t goes bad 1t is almost
manageable. After had learned the busl-
| ness and duties of checker in one hotel
was sent to another hotel There the head
walters had no control over the walters
| The walters announced their orders for
| wines all in one breath, and the omnibuses
| were slow. The walters wrote out their or
| ders in careless manner. too. One order
| for 'sirloin with mushrooms read SQUAD
mush,' and another for wheat cakes read
| white cocks Walters against whom COM
| plants were made were only mildly scolded
! II have said enough, however, to show
| that, in spite of appearances, the methods
of running our big hotels are quite intri-
| cate"