Server Not Servant

Loot in the Boot

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service

Posted: 10/3/2011

What is the most original, fun tip ‘jar’ you have ever seen?

At our seafood shack in Provincetown, MA, we use an old boot that my friend and business partner, Andrew Morgan used to wear while shellfishing.

Our customers love the boot and have generously contributed to it this season. (There have only been a few that we’ve wanted to give the boot.)

What is the coolest tip vehicle you have ever seen, and where was/is it? Feel free to promote your establishment or one that you like with a link.

Warning: I won’t allow the comments to digress into another exhaustive argument about the pros and cons of tipping. Let’s just have some fun and identify the best tip jars around the world. Do you have any to nominate?

PS- Our last day of business  at Native Cape Cod Seafood will be on Monday, Columbus Day. Please stop in and say hello if you are in town.

Thank you.

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Diary of a Startup Seafood Shack

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Family-Life Experiences

Posted: 08/28/2011

This post is dedicated to everyone who has played a role in opening a new restaurant or small business, and everyone who helped us open ours.

Because of Hurricane Irene, today is the first complete day off I have had from restaurant-related work in about 4 months, although I did update our facebook page earlier today.

In anticipation of this blog post, I saved a few of the daily lists I used to manage the project of forming a company, creating a restaurant (Native Cape Cod Seafood), and operating it on a day-to-day basis. The following list represents a very small sampling of some of the detail involved in transforming an idea into a functioning restaurant:

• Finalize next steps with all issues related to lease negotiation.
• Tuesday 4PM Scott Kerry Insurance meeting.
• Schedule meeting with Attorney.
• Meet with Andrew (business partner) about budget and business plan.
• Shoes: ECCO Track 5 w/Gore-Tex? Chuck Draghi recommended Sears Diehard Oxfords.
• Consult with Scott Kerry (Insurance Agent) and Attorney Bill O’Donnell about LLC vs. S-Corp.
• Call Attorney to see if LLC name was accepted.
• Get schematic from Trimark guy and get list of kitchen equipment needed.
• Copy Andrew and his wife on draft of LLC operating agreement for approval.
• Commitment from private investor and coordinate logistics/next steps.
• Review current draft of lease with Andrew, note all outstanding items to negotiate and email landlord.
• Clarify who needs to be ServeSafe certified and finalize strategy.
• Meet with Andrew and Attorney and execute LLC operating agreement.
• Finalize quotes from 3 insurance agencies and make decision.
• Get # of cleaner, Keith Arnold and schedule ASAP.
• Do we need a small ice machine at the raw bar?
• Take ‘before’ pictures of space for Facebook page.
• Do I need to attend a class on FOG (Fats, Oils and Grease)? Check with Health Inspector.
• Meet with Health Inspector, Jane Evans on all raw bar requirements for licensing and inspection.
• Clarify whether or not we can use a neighbor’s ice machine to get started at raw bar.
• Surface requirements for food prep? (Cutting boards, Stainless steel, ?)
• Sink, awning and sneeze guard requirements at raw bar?
• All signage allowances/requirements w/town and landlord?
• Can we get raw bar operational and licensed, then inside concession later?
• Who will be covering during Health Inspector’s absence?
• Do we need to speak with Electrical and Plumbing/Gas Inspectors and get a permits before doing any work?
• Does description of work and/or diagrams need to be approved in advance?
• Confirm only 1 application for license is required, despite the fact that we will be operating 2 locations (outdoor raw bar and indoor concession).
• Be sure plumber inspects the water tank and that it’s operating properly.
• Hood cleaning: Status and requirements?
• Be sure proposed kitchen equipment fits under hood to comply with inspector’s requirements.
• Put gas and electric in the name of our LLC and be sure accounts are set up properly.
• Schedule meeting with kitchen manager candidate and finalize compensation and all details.
• Get referrals for sheet metal fabricators.
• Get referrals for fire suppression/ansul system companies.
• Open account at Seamen’s Bank.
• Research payroll companies. Seamen’s referrals?
• Brian Carlson @ Town Hall will be covering during Jane’s absence. Meet with him before Health Dept. inspection.
• Sneeze guard will be required for raw bar but no awning.
• Meet with builder of raw bar and discuss sink location and all specifics.
• Meet with Saki owner, Steve Schnitzer at storage in Truro @ 11am tomorrow to view used equipment.
• Confirm meeting with Thor Wednesday morning to discuss awning.
• Determine whether or not Andrew’s welder friend can build metal frame for awning.
• Talk with private investor. Status of funds and signed agreement?
• Review all requirements to file license application with the town and complete packet.
• Seamen’s Bank: Meet with Marie to finalize everything.
• Follow-up on ServeSafe study materials and testing.
• Talk with refrigeration guy about converting walk-in freezer to refrigerator.
• Respond to builder about sink location and fridge location at raw bar.
• Talk to Andrew about strategy for operating raw bar indoors during bad weather and slow times.
• Clarify where our dry storage space is and clean it.
• Meet with Mike from Perry in Hyannis to get fire extinguisher for inspection and discuss all ansul system requirements.
• Buy cash register for raw bar.
• Call refrigeration guy and terminate relationship and schedule new guy.
• Call EF Smith in Quincy for used equipment.
• Continue to pursue all updates/changes in lease language.
• Pursue lighted exit sign and emergency lights required for inspection. Landlord will pay for.
• Schedule inspection with Town Hall.
• Replace bad ceiling tiles.
• Review everything in our space with property manager and have him remove everything we don’t want.
• Finalize purchase and delivery of all kitchen equipment with Chris @ Patriot.
• Confirm ServeSafe test time/place with Heather McGowan.
• Email sign company everything they need to complete proposal.
• Email all insurance binders and requirements to Darlene in Licensing Dept. at Town Hall.
• Follow up with all awning companies.
• Find piece of stainless steel for wall in kitchen.
• Schedule consultation with Mocco, gas fitter for all kitchen equipment and ansul system.
• Study and meet with Heather for ServeSafe test at 10am on Friday at Orleans Library.
• Pick up oyster-shaped chalkboard sign for raw bar and review status of all other signs @ Young and Fancy Signs.
• Send landlord email; Lease amendments, keys, lighted exit sign and emergency lights before Wednesday inspection.
• Pursue short-term solution for raw bar shellfish display.
• Post ‘Help Wanted’ signs and hire counter and kitchen help.
• Find shuckers for raw bar.
• Exchange 1/2″ quick disconnects with 3/4″ before Mocco installs equipment to ensure better gas flow.
• Email Darlene in Licensing Dept. at Town Hall proof that I passed the ServeSafe test.
• Call plumber to dispute charge for raw bar sink installation.
• Pick up checks at Seamen’s Bank on Friday.
• Buy industrial stainless steel cleaner and clean hood and back wall of kitchen cooking line.
• Soak and clean all hood vents and put in place.
• Research fry oil removal companies and finalize game plan.
• Buy paint for walls and floor.
• Final prep and patching of all walls and floor for painting.
• Thank Kevin and Editor at The Provincetown Banner for running article on Server Not Servant.
• Laminate copies of ServeSafe certificate for raw bar and inside and post.
• Get chili sauce and replace 2 cans borrowed from The Lobster Pot.
• Call Chris at Patriot Equipment. Quote on stainless steel tables?
• Cash register for inside, research and buy.
• Set up a system to confirm all bank deposits and reconcile account.
• Call plumber, Jamie Meads. Steamer installation and fix sink.
• Call Mocco, gas fitter. Finalize installation of all kitchen equipment and all requirements for ansul system.
• Call Arty, Electrician and finalize all ansul system issues and electrical punch list for shack and raw bar.
• Empty walk-in and plug all holes in preparation for refrigeration guy.
• Landlord: Get receipt from last hood cleaning before inspection.
• Bring flyers to woman who works at whale watch booth.
• Inventory all menu and kitchen items needed and game plan about sourcing/vendors.
• Decision on selling Lobster Pot’s clam chowder.
• Patch big holes in concrete floor.
• Finalize smoke/CO2 detectors before inspection.
• Liquid nail cove base to new half wall.
• Complete promotional flyers to put into Film Festival gift bags.
• Copy chef on tartar sauce recipe.
• Replace can of chili sauce to The Beachcomber.
• Comcast will be at shop 2-5 on Monday to install 2 phone lines.
• Levi from Complete Payroll Co. appointment tomorrow at 10am.
• Kevin from Perkins tomorrow at 9am.
• Finalize strategy with fan or AC at back wall.
• Buy stamps, envelopes, push pins, sharpie, masking tape and pens.
• Call Mocco’s brother (welder) about steamer.
• Set up Perkins account and finalize terms.
• Paint board with chalkboard paint to use as menu.
• Complete set-up and breakdown checklist for raw bar and inside.
• Inventory everything required for raw bar.
• Set up account with linen company.
• We have 200 AMP, single-phase electric service.
• Get buoys, oars, nets, clam baskets and decorations.
• Follow-up with Chris at Patriot on status of used steamer purchased at Northeast.
• See and pay T-shirt guy $100 for temporary T’s.
• Set up account at J&E Fruit and Produce.
• Pursue business debit card from Seamen’s for Staples orders and phone and internet purchases.
• Finalize and launch Facebook page.
• Follow up on new business cards.
• Make copies of all forms required for new employees.
• Meet w/Dan, sales rep from The Provincetown Banner to discuss advertising.
• Remember non-powdered gloves, sink signs and paper towel for inspection.
• Stop at Days Propane early tomorrow and get part for fryolator.
• Finalize opening menu and sourcing of all ingredients and vendors.
• Credit card machine meeting 10AM tomorrow.
• Email T-shirt design to Brenda at Kaleidoscope.
• Finalize checklists for FOH, BOH and manager and put on bulletin boards.
• Be sure Chef coordinates shrimp order with Andrew so we don’t double order.
• Finalize all payroll issues w/Levi, account rep.
• Clean/organize dry storage in preparation for receiving Perkins order.
• Bank early tomorrow. Confirm accuracy of deposits and get reserve banks/change for the weekend.
• Research printer cartridge  and register tape requirements for both registers so we never run out.
• Pay all bills and start folders for every vendor.
• Learn how to program and operate cash register for inside.
• Research how to pay monthly meals tax online.
• Follow up with Chris at Patriot about part for fryolator.
• Finalize cold beverage strategy.
• Call NStar and be sure account is all set.
• Call Days, propane company and follow up on all issues.
• Pursue more pictures and decorations for the shack and raw bar.
• Finalize new schedule for next week.
• Get samples from other concessions of daily financial close out sheets and create one.
• Place J&E Fruit and Produce order at end of night.
• Follow up on catering proposal.
• Finalize all details for Industry/Hospitality Night.
• Follow up on Fryolator warranty/service issue. Schedule early in AM.
• Discuss $1 oysters with Andrew and run specials?
• Post payroll clipboard to track hours.
• Complete paperwork and folders for each employee.
• Tell Andrew and Chef about new oil removal company.
• Finalize decision on new signs.
• Pursue grease trap requirements.
• Pay monthly meals tax and record on bank ledger.
• Confirm when Women’s Week is and plan promotion.
• Call in payroll early Monday and record on bank ledger.
• Pursue September bus tour strategy.
• Replace both register and credit card machine tapes.
• Finalize T-shirts with Brenda @ Kaleidoscope. Record payment in bank ledger.
• Print more menus.
• Finalize decision on floor mats with Conwell.
• Check forecast every day for raw bar staffing and adjust accordingly.
• Pursue old photos from original Aquarium owner.
• Hardware store: Lighter for pilots, hand soap, and paper towel dispenser.
• Replace forks we borrowed over the weekend.
• Update both blackboards, including hot dogs and fried chicken on the menu.
• Finalize Perkins credit issue.
• Inform everyone scheduled we’re closed on Sunday during hurricane.
• Review and finalize everything on hurricane prep list.
• Prepare for Labor Day Weekend.

I’m sure this partial list will bring back memories for everyone who has owned and operated a start-up restaurant or small business. Even though we’re only a 300 sq. ft., take-out seafood shack, the day-to-day experiences, drama, surprises and challenges could provide very rich material for a reality show. It certainly has been an on-going education.

PS- There are a few items that didn’t make my daily lists but needed to be squared away:

• Learn what an ansul system is and how to spell “ansul”. (Every business has its own glossary of terms…)

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Shutting it Down

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service

Posted: 08/21/2011

Sunday night 9:30.

There are slow nights when closing early for the sanity and morale of your staff far outweighs the trickle of business you might do if you stay open, especially if you’ve had a great weekend.

No matter what business you’re in, closing early is often the right thing to do.

PS-We do not post our hours, further allowing us to make a discretionary call.

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Back In The Fray

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service

Posted: 08/16/2011

I am currently back in the line of fire as co-owner and operator of Native Cape Cod Seafood, a take-out seafood concession and raw bar in Provincetown, MA. My long-time friend, Andrew Morgan and I started the business from scratch after an opportunity suddenly presented itself in the spring. We built and opened the business by cramming what should have been several months of work into 4 short, tumultuous, anxious weeks without much sleep. More about opening the business will follow in later posts.

My days currently consist of arriving at the seafood shack before 8 AM, to manage the day-to-day operations of the business. That includes scheduling employees, cutting lemons, taking in deliveries, setting-up, banking, making our housemade tartar sauce, minimizing the internal and external drama, bussing tables, bookkeeping, working the counter, putting out fires, shucking oysters, cleaning, closing, and leaving the shop by 10:30pm 7 days a week. As with any short, seasonal business, there’s a time to go hard and a time to go home. August is the Superbowl (especially Carnival Week) for merchants in Provincetown, and I am right in the middle of the fray.

Thank you for your patience between posts. As I have often stated, this blog and my forthcoming book are intended to facilitate a conversation that fosters greater empathy, awareness and mutual respect not only between customers and service industry workers, but also within our communities where we live and work.

So get ready, because ServerNotServant is about to get up-close and very personal, very fast, with rich material from the front lines of my current project. The posts that follow will be spontaneous from the service side of the counter of Native Cape Cod Seafood.

Come by and say hello if you make it to Provincetown before Columbus Day. If not, please join the conversations that follow, and check out our business on Facebook.   

Thank you.

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Another Inconvenient Truth

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service

Posted: 05/10/2011

Today’s post comes courtesy of Jan Tessier, a loyal reader of ServerNotServant. Jan’s provocative email caught my attention in a big way, and we had quite a chat about her life in the service industry. Jan’s first job was de-tassling corn for $1.50/hour. Since then she has been a waitress, busser, cook, cabbie, data entry worker, office worker, security officer, bartender, home care provider and a university employee.

I am grateful to Jan for sharing her story with our readers.

Jan pointed out that thousands upon thousands of people work in convenience stores across America and around the world. Most of them take these ‘low-wage’, ‘dead-end’ jobs because they are:

• young and inexperienced.
• older and often unable to find work anywhere else.
• unskilled and undereducated.

Benefits, if there are any, are meager. Company-provided insurance often costs 1/4 to 1/3 of a convenience store employee’s annual gross. Most of these corporations don’t allow employees to eat or drink anything for free, or even at a discount. Raises are hard to come by. After working for a full year, Jan received a  stingy twenty cent increase and learned that the thirty cents increase, is reserved for  ”outstanding” workers who garner the approval of the district manager!

For that little money, convenience store employees are some of the hardest working people in the country. In addition to manning the cash register, their duties include:

• Attending to coffee and vending machines.
• Stocking shelves and freezers.
• Cleaning floors, counters, parking lots, and bathrooms.
• Lugging heavy trash bags and recyclables to the dumpsters.
• Updating inventory, deliveries and sales.
• Maintaining a welcoming presence at the counter and on the floor.
• Up-selling special counter items to meet monthly quotas on junk food, gadgetry and store cards, a clever scam to track customers’ information and spending habits.

On any given day, Jan arrives at 2pm for the second shift. After clocking in, she records lottery numbers and counts the drawer as a line of customers quickly forms.  She contends with customers so busily talking on their cell phones that they can’t tell her if their order is complete, if they are paying with cash or a card, or what pump they will be using for their gas. 

While the whole idea of a convenience store is service for people in a hurry, CSR’s  watch helplessly as lines back up for customers who will empty their pockets, pocket books, backpacks or gym bags to dig up exact change; rather than just turn over a twenty and get change back in a flash. A recent customer instructed Jan (and the customers behind her) to wait while she dashed to her car and returned with eleven cents apparently scraped up off a dirty surface. When Jan voids out these transactions to keep the line moving, she risks a reprimand from management who frowns on voids and the ire of the dilatory customer who’s been relegated to the rear of the line.

And convenience store clerks also endure:

• Underage drinkers and smokers  in the parking lot harassing older customers to buy them cigarettes and six packs.
• Drug addicts and drunks who angrily expect credit advances because, “I’m in here all the time. You should know me.”
• Every imaginable profanity and digital gesture from unruly, boorish customers who don’t get their way.
• Cleaning up the vilest of human messes all over the store and into the bathrooms. Yes, even those messes…
• Picking up garbage, trash, paper wrappers, cans and bottle all over the parking lot courtesy of thoughtless, slovenly patrons.

Jan will be the first to tell you that for all of the misery, she’s thankful for an understanding manager and for the opportunity to serve plenty of nice, well meaning customers—a cross section of society really—who come into her store. But as all of us in service jobs know, somehow it’s the difficult customers and harsh working conditions that discourage us and shake our faith in humanity.

When it’s finally time to cash out and get ready to leave for the night, Jan will tell you that she’s one exhausted grandmother in need of two more Aleves to ease her aching back, feet, and legs. She drives home exhausted, stressed and often in tears. And, she does not think she’s alone. Several conversations with fellow workers have confirmed that Jan’s inconvenient truths are pervasive within her industry.

Of course, Jan Tessier is not alone in her concern for the rampant incivility directed at working class people. 

So readers, what do you think?

Any other convenience store workers care to share their experiences?

Convenience store customers;  What do you see in your fellow customers or in the employees who work there?

Permalink | Posted in Human-to-Human Service | 15 Comments »

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