Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Listening

Nicki has her grad class at Xavier University on Wednesday nights, so that means that Ryan and I get to spend Wednesday evenings together. Thought we'd do something different tonight, so I took Ryan to LaRosa's. One of our favorite places.

Our booth was in the very front of the restaurant, right next to the hostess station. A new girl was in training tonight. Due to the close proximity of our table, I got to listen in on all the advice the veteran hostess gave to the rookie. I've never worked in the food service sector, so it was interesting to hear her take on the ins and outs of working as a restaurant hostess. I actually learned a lot.

For example, I didn't know that they prefer to seat people at tables, not booths. In fact, the vet even told the rookie a couple of techniques to steer people away from the booths and toward the tables. Hostesses must hate our family because, given the choice between a table and a booth, we'll booth it every time.

I also didn't know that there is an actual mathematic formula used to determine how long someone will have to wait for a table. I just thought they guessed!

One more facet of the restaurant biz that I was unaware of. I didn't know that prepping salads is considered a step up from being a hostess. That actually seemed backwards to me…until the veteran hostess explained it. When you're a hostess, you deal with people all day. When you're in salad prep, it's all lettuce and tomato. Given the choice, most people will choose the vegetables over the people. That's a sad commentary, isn't it?

It's interesting how much you can learn by listening. Something we ought to try a little more often (although eavesdropping probably isn't the recommended way to do it).