Restaurant Days

Sometimes I think I never want to own another restaurant. I am good at it. I know how to make money at it. I like the work. It's the ever revolving door of staff that disturbs me.

But I'm looking at them again.

As I processed these thoughts, I ate at my favourite sandwich shop for lunch. The place was packed. Customers were waiting up to fifteen minutes for their sandwiches. The manager was visibly upset. The kids working behind the counter were hopelessly running around trying to figure out what they had to do next. An employee was called in and started helping right away moving the line a bit quicker.

The whole display was quite tiring. The manager used to work with me. He is known to lose his cool. I wonder how long he can handle the stress. He might be a grenade with the pin already pulled.

I wasn't sympathetic, sad, happy, scared, anxious nor stressed as I watched the restaurant theatre.

There was a time when I would've wanted to help these poor comrades get through their rush. There was a time when I could actually sense their pain.

Today, the only feeling I had was fatigue. I was losing my energy the longer I watched the slamming of doors, the constant running, and hurried conversations.

I can find the energy to get into that grind again. But today I felt a bit lazy not caring about the issues on the other side of the counter.

I recently volunteered to work at a benefit Pancake breakfast. No one ran like crazy chickens. The customers were well served. And I had a blast. So I know I can still enjoy the business. But no one was paid. We had all kinds of volunteers and there wasn't a balancing act between labour, food cost and sales.

Having worked in restaurants for the past 10 years, some people look to me as a restaurant guy.

I have a lot of respect for those who want to run a restaurant. But I don't envy them.

Having worked on farms, in fish factories, in offices, and in a cubicle, the hardest job I ever had was in a restaurant.

And it looks like I'm going to get back at it. Lord help me. I may be losing my mind.