I had to bartend at Sakura for the New Years celebration...
because i was the last one still dressed in my tie.

sucked... but then again access to alcohol and extra tipss tipss was a plus.

Happy New Years(hint thats not sakura...too many white people)

Arigato
-Waiter

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Arigato

-Waiter

"is it bad luck to pour your own sake?"

Its a Busy Saturday Night....

and i have a 11 top table (thats 11 people at a hibachi grill) ontop of another 2 busy tables full of nightime celebrations, dates, and birthdays.

the 11 top table is a nice table full of mid twenties drinkers which is $ in my eyes. they are all great customers except for one who begins his downhill slope with one question.

"is it bad luck to pour your own sake?" a guy in his mid twenties ask
I know what is coming if i say yes it is bad luck to pour your sake... he'll ask me to pour each and ever shot that comes out of his ceramic sake dispenser for him. Hes at a busy table with 10 of his other friends who all want drinks so the answer has to be a resounding no! so i make up a response.
"no but in Osaka where my family is from its tradition to pour each other our sake to promote charity towards each other"
generally i let the pouring of sake go to the customer themselves because a order of sake comes with 2 shot glasses at least... naturally because you may wish to share a shot with your friends your sitting with.
"no, i think its bad luck"
shit goddamn i say to myself... even if my answer was a bulshit response there was no way he could've known it was a lie
"Are you superstitious sir?" i ask..prodding at his intentions..
"no i was just wondering"
whew i dodged a bullet on this one... or so i thought
"can you pour me my sake?"
"sure no problem sir"

curse the person who said the customer is always right. I pour the man his first shot of sake and get on my way to the complex drink orders that the rest of his friends want and hastily run to setup their soups and salads. each time i show my face to the table the man asks me to pour him his sake sometimes interrupting me as i am taking a drink order from his own friend.
rude bastard, it would've understood his asking me to pour his sake if he had manners but he just seems to be a asshole all around.
after 2 orders of sake(each serving a godforsaken 8 shots at least) he ask for his 3rd and final large order of sake.
now at his point i'm busy taking on another complex table of drinkers and picky food eaters while i get request for the table's check to be seperated 11 ways to sunday.
"this saturday night won't end" I say to myself
I print out the checks and begin to take the drink orders for my next table when i can see the sake guy eyeballing me while his friends are all finishing up their meals.
"save us both some time man and pour your own freaking sake" i whisper to myself but i know this guy is already drunk and he definately wants me to pour his next 8 shots like i did the last 16.... I run my orders through the system and grab 6 more sake shot glasses and hastinly walk over to my sake guy.
I place all the shot glasses on the table and pour his whole order of sake out into all 8 shot glasses in front of him. he looks at me surprized as with eyes that say "you think i'm going to drink all 8 at once??" He's througholy drunk and his friends are all in their own rowdy end of night conversations.

now don't take me for a bad waiter for doing that, everyone did pay their checks and tip decently. its just the fact that this guy wanted to waste my precious time pouring him shots while i have other more decent human beings to serve... and i did technically pour all his shots of sake... just not at his beck and call.
The man hastily downs shot after shot of sake over a period of no more than 10 minutes and by now is either DUI prone or taking a cab.
"arigato have a great night" i say to the group as they walk up the large half spiral staircase up to world and pour out into the noisey streets of downtown.

i wouldn't have been so angry if it wasnt for his attitude that screamed. pour my sake for me you servant. pour each and every single o-n-e.

back to the question of that day.
"is it bad luck to pour your own sake into the shot glass?"
the answer is
"who the f-u-c-k cares! but it is bad luck if your asking me to pour each and every single shot of sake for you but in Osaka..."


...shot pours you.


Arigato
-Waiter

This is Hibachi.

This is Hibachi . maybe not Sakura's Hibachi chefs but Hibachi nonetheless...

Arigato
-Waiter

2 dollars a hour

There isnt much separating a waiter from making enough tips to pay rent and utter failure.
none of it is helped by our meager 2 dollar an hour wage.

now around Sakura nobody talks about how much their wages are because its so ridiculously small. we compare tip pulls to each other along with war stories about that obnoxious drunk group of guppies at table 7.

now the other day a fellow waitress we'll call her Sarah comes up to me while i am at a table and tells me that she just got promoted to head waiter of the floor. Now I'm not jealous that she'll be earning $5.00 dollars a hour as head waiter, to my meager $2.00 dollars. It was the way she went about it.
First she interrupted me while i was busy doing something in the middle of the shift to tell me that she got promoted.

"nice, congrats"
i reply out of pure courtesy to her joyous moment.
immediately after she brags to me about the fact she'll be earning $5.00 a hour as if to rub it in my face.
if that wasnt enough she then says
"arent you going to congratulate me? say congratulations to me"
the fucking nerve on this bitch, i'm not quite sure if she meant to push all my buttons or if this is the first real recognition shes ever gotten her whole life...
"c-o-n-g-r-a-t-s"
i tell her a second time as if she really needs me to pat her on her 5.00 a hour back. I could taste the disdain as the word left my lips.
She immediately runs into the kitchen where i am later at and tells all the chefs that she became head waiter as if they would immediately jump up and down screaming "no way! omg! this is the best! yippie yay"
Her first response was a sarcastic
"He... made you the head waiter?" from Matsu the most senior chef, working at Sakura, since it opened up 6 years ago.
He then continues on with

"how long have you been working here?"

she quickly replies in astonishment...
"a year and a half, arent you going to congratulate me?"

"arent their other waiters who've been here longer?"

"yeah but The owner likes me the best I'm the most hardworking" , bullshit, utter bs... Sarah really just likes to suck up to the boss as if she were his wife in ownership of the joint. sure Sarah's a decent waittress but at 20 years old shes hardly the kind of waitress i want to have yapping orders at me.
The Chef Matsu looks up at Sarah with a grin and eyes that scream the words 'oookkkiieeeee'
throughout the night Sarah began to open her mouth to the other waiters and waitresses.

I encounter one of the other waitresses later on. Holly a waitress whos been here for at least 2 years and has been dating the Hibachi chef downstairs for at least 3 years.

"The FUCKING NERVE" she tells me before i can even say i word

"i know i know...." i reply

"She hasnt even been here for that long and then shes goes rubbing it in peoples faces??!"

"shes getting 3 dollars a hour but shes gonna be losing alot"
"how so" she ask

"well, if you must ask... shes definately lost respect from you, me, and the rest of the wait staff"

"true"

"and from the little scene i saw in the kitchen shes lost the respect of the chefs also"

"if she didnt it'd be a miracle" holly says

"but you know its not just respect shes lost the helping hand we waiters and waitresses give eachother when we're in th weeds.

"hek like i'd help her out anymore" Holly snaps

"but you know whos the real losers?"

"who?"

"us and the owner"

"why is that?"

"well... we get the added benefit of her powertripping over her higher wage and new found responsibilities, which is just a pretty way to say she'll be asking us to do alot of shit she doesnt want to or we dont really need to do just because"
"fucking shit your right she better not pull that bullshit but what about the owner" Holly says

"well... he just lost a satisfactory waitress and gained a mediocre one"

"wouldnt she be working harder?"

"well... now that she earns a extra 3 dollars a hour there is less incentive for her to really need those tips, that means less refills, less service, less caring about pushing the tip percentage with good service"

"sigh" she retreats back to her tables with a sense of defeat. In my mind i'd dont care what small wage us waiters earn as long as we earn the same wage. the minute the owner pushes the worth of another waiter up by 3 dollars for essentially doing the same thing we've all been doing already is the minute that every employee will begin to see that the extra she gets paid for is full of incompetence. We'll begin to nit pick and treat her not as one of us but as one of those snotty brats that can barely earn her extra 3 dollars a hour. 1 dollar for power tripping, 1 dollar for being a overpaid worker (overpaid compared to us who do litterally the same amount of work if not more), and 1 dollar for sucking up. bitch

just a few helpful notes.
try not to talk about your pay unless its about customers tips to eachother... and NEVER bragg about how much more your getting paid to a fellow waiter.

to owners and managers everywhere: you better make sure that that raise won't cause tensions between your whole staff because that is a nightmare for the whole business and morale.

there are ways to get raise and be modest.

then there are ways to get a raise and realize you've just become the most hated person on staff.

I'll bite my tongue for now. sadly i fill my mind up with thoughts on how to grief or sabotage a fellow waiter.

Its a short distance from fellow waiter to fellow traiter.

I need a drink.

Arigato
-Waiter

Family, Wealth, and Affair.

Its a Sunday Night.
I encountered a table juxtaposed by a couple on a date on one side and a cheap family seated on the otherside of the grill. The lady in the couple is dressed up in make up and a black dress with the neck cut down that i had to litterally stare at her sideboob the man is dressed decently enough nothing out of the usual. The family was a cambodian looking family that you might see in the local Pho shop.

The wealthy couple orders the Filet Mignon and Lobster to be cooked and ask for Toro(the most expensive and fatty part of a tuna)
The family is definitely out of their league in this enviroment as they ask me what Hibachi is.
"Hibachi food comes with your own Soup, Salad, a large sideof vegetables, Rice and your choice of meats here on the menu" The whole meal is a steal for the price of 20-28 dollars really but for this shoddy looking family i can feel their eyes cowering at the prices. The father is probably thinking that he wants to gtfoh, Get the fuck outta here, and eat at the local TGIF. "no luck pal your in the depths of sakura your in hell and a exit is a walk of shame up a flight of stairs, past the hostess, and through the peering eyes of the wait staff and the owner who graciously seated your family himself. sensing that hes stuck here wether he likes it or not I graciously walk him through the menu items carefully. The family ends up ordering dinner plates of traditional food from upstairs and only the child is eating the Hibachi meal. Filet Mignon and Chicken the small kid ask, much to the dread of the father whose wallet is about to get emptied.

As i serve them food i cant help by notice that the rich couple on the right is being very secretive and shady they both quickly glance up whenever a waiter or customer walked down the stairs into the floor. Someone must be having a affair.

I cant be sure but the family was very content with their meal eating every last grain of rice and tempura but i cant help but think they are disgusted at the couple across from them as they've had to endure their escapades of alcohol, public affection, and exuberance.

As I hand the checks out to the individual groups i can overhear the drunk man on my right order a cab and asking the taxi to hurry up. a Taxi means a few things in this town, your either too drunk to drive, you dont own a car, you don't want to be seen with a mistress in your own car and you went out of your way to get to a restaurant where you won't be seen by the nosey neighbor.

He leaves a decent tip 20% but doesnt leave it in the black check wallet like a normal person. no this man decides to place it on top of his check with the twenty dollar bill folded in half and standing as if to broadcast his generousity to the world.

The father wouldve rather sucked up the money loss and spare his wife and child the exit of shame, and he still tipped decently.The father had maintained his composure and made the best of his mildy expensive bill, 70 dollars, and leaves me a decent tip of 18% and is thankfully on their way to get away from the snobbery that is the adjacent couple.

The couple however was a different story, they didnt want to leave the table, sitting around for at least 45 minutes after all the bills, to-go boxes, and drinks have been drank. I knew they were enjoying the privacy of Hell. no spouse or friends to spy them out here in the dimly lit Hibachi floor.

His tip was nice but not that nice, I wouldnt be writing this blog entry if it were a inexact 30%ish tip. afterall they were tipping for privacy... but honostly i felt that it was the Father and his family that deserves the good tip.



Arigato
-Waiter

my name is waiter.
I have stories to tell.
I've been working at a Hibachi restaurant in the restaurant district of Downtown.
The following post are my trials and tribulations and epiphanies(if i ever get any) from my life in a 11-2 4:30-close lifestyle.

would you like fried rice or white rice?