Tuesday 11/4/14 recap

Written By: Dusten

LY Lunch Sales:1377
Projected Sales:1404
TY Lunch Sales: 1825
+/- :33% over LY and $421 over projected
Lunch Covers: 93
Avg PPA: 19.62

LY Dinner Sales: 3174
Projected Sales: 3618
TY Dinner Sales: 3992
+/- :26% up from LY and $374 over projected.
Dinner Covers:141
Avg PPA: 28.31

Weather: gloomy and muggy during the day. Raining at night of and on. cooled of significantly.

Any Special events going on?: Texas Gubernatorial Election. Texas Lost.

Who worked?: AM: Clair, Krystin, Johnny, Kate CL, Kaori FR, Jason SA, Junko training Megan at the host station. 
PM: Krystin, Clair, Alex, Kate, Lindsey CL , Jason SA, Hiroe FR and Ixchel H.

Flow of Business, Cuts and Ticket Times:Today was not busy. I guess we did good respectively but I've never managed a Tuesday and it was no Labor Day or Columbus Day. I cut Clair for lunch at 12:15, Krystin at !2:45 and Johnny at 1:15. Dinner wasn't much different. We didn't have a significant pop so I cut Kate and Clair at 8:15. I felt two on was two much for Lindsey so I kept Krystin on as long as I could and she came to me in tears asking to be cut at the sight of a big and difficult table. It was 9pm so I let her go and went to help out Alex and Lindsey where I could.  

Specials? 11x Bento, 1x Kitchen special 2, 4 poisson cru, 3x tsukiji set, 6x tsukiji carpaccio, 3x tempura special.

3 Staff members that stood out (why/how): Clair was on top of her game today. I honestly feel she has come a very long way since her early serving days. In the past I would see her cut corners. When I would close I'd have to hound her to get her side work done correctly if she hadn't already disappeared for the night. Now I feel she helps maintain the ideal standard of service and I recognize a very genuine concern for Kome and our customers.
I didn't realize Lindsey had never closed sushi bar before. We weren't terribly busy and I didn't have her asking me for really anything. I gave her a few pointers that I've gleaned from experience and she was quite receptive. Despite all of this I don't think she is ready to handle the sushi bar. She passed on a party after I'd cut Clair and Kate and only took another walk-in party reluctantly because she had only 4 people at the bar.
Krystin did well today but kinda of crashed-and-burned at the end. She is going through a lot with the death of a close friend. She seems to deal with her stress by taking on more work for herself until she is buried by it. That and she is trying to quit smoking which I'm sure doesn't help. She did really well all day but I think was just beyond tired and needed to go home.

Any VIP's in? Sashimi Steve came in for lunch solo and then again with his wife for dinner. Rachel of the Rachel and Carlos team came in by herself for lunch and then again for dinner with her man. Darcy of Hausbar came in for lunch.
Kako Ito came in and gave Kate a bit of a hard time regarding the price of her bento. She was unaware of the $1 increase since we switched from the grilled salmon to the rolls. Also she upgraded to a Love for Sale which incurred another $1 charge. Kate was having a hard time talking with her at all and called me into the situation. I spoke with her and realized that she knew Take and Kayo and I extended the FNF discount to her which more than assuaged the situation. She even talked my ear off about her upcoming event and gave me her business card... which I graciously received with both hands.
Jonathan (SA) and his brother I think it was with his brother's girlfriend came in also.
A regular from lunch came in with his family. his name is Phillip. He'd moved to New Orleans maybe two weeks ago. I gave him a little jab saying he just had to drive all the way back for our sushi. He laughed and said he was in town for a wedding and a birthday.

Comps& Void Detail: So... had a table (the last table of the night) send back 12 toro nigiri... well 8. It was a party of 7. From the moment they walked in the door they were trouble. More about that later. They spend upwards of $600. Nearly all nigiri. Lindsey waited on them and came to me saying they wanted a manager. They told me the toro wasn't up to the standard. I didn't see the pieces on the table. I had already asked Lindsey to ask Kazu about the toro. He cut it. He knows more about the fish than I do, and is infinitely more qualified to answer questions regarding the fish itself. That answer didn't help so I talked to them. I thanked them for their feedback, albeit belligerent and condescending. They also mentioned the unagi being cold and one guy asked if all of our unagi was served cold. I explained that there was one person making not only the insane amount of nigiri they ordered, but for every other table in the restaurant as well. That was something they said they did not know. In any case their real problem was with the toro. It wasn't "fatty enough" and "tasted fishy." The fish tasted fishy. They said they weren't looking for compensation. I told them I'd "see what I can do for them." I went to look at their check in the server station and noticed all of the toro nigiri pieces they'd sent back. They ordered 12 pieces and sent back 7 and 1/2. I took 8 nigiri pieces off, sent them $30 kome bucks and hope that'd be the end of it. Kazu and I looked at the pieces, ate a couple. They were fine. I had already explained that every fish is different. Some pieces have more tendon, some have different marbling patterns, all depending on the fish and where from the belly the pieces were cut, but we never intend to serve anything sub-standard. They wanted all 12 pieces off... they said after one of them had a fit throwing all of his platinum American Express cards around and cussing out Lindsey. I didn't see or hear his grown-man-tantrum as I was in the office working on this blog. So I went back to the table. Apologized again and told them I did what I thought was right. They disagreed so I told them I'd refund their cards and remove the pieces and then recharge the cards accordingly. They'd originally paid with 3 cards, this time they gave me two. Lindsey did not tell me they had also given her $200 in cash towards the bill so when I went back with the cards the second time there was still a problem. I apologized for the mistake and said I would fix it. In reality, I had a drunk Chilean meat-head try to give me a basic math lesson that he didn't quite understand himself. I (and his girlfriend) told him "I've got it." I brought him all the credit receipts and the newest version of their invoice that reflected the $200 cash  and the $96 dollar discount on their toro nigiri and the balance split between their two cards and prayed that was the end of it. I heard them saying something about going to the Yellow Rose next. We locked the door and that was it.

Seriously... that was just the toro pieces. Lindsey says there were only two people at the table that had a problem with the pieces. Everyone else wanted to eat them and not see them get sent back. This group managed to piss off nearly every employee in the restaurant. From the moment they walked in the door they wanted to be sat as an incomplete party. There were 4 of them, said there would be 8. The party room was already occupied with a res I took earlier today. Ixchel told them they needed to have at least 6 people for us to pull two tables together for them and they could order drinks while they waited. I listened to one guy's voice in particular trash talk just about every restaurant in every city in every country he has ever been in. When they sat, Krystin came to me in tears at the sight of them asking to be cut and not have to take them because she was tired and couldn't handle it. When they sat they ordered 20 sake toro pieces among a plethora of other nigiri which obviously sent Kazu into a stressed state. They ordered two Kome salads that they expected to be out immediately. IMMEDIATELY. I had Vince rush those out. So far so good. They ordered two more salads and Vince had gone off to do something else. Even Hiroe thought the new salad order might've been a duplicate ticket because it was so fast and identical. Found Vince and he made two more salads. Alex said she recognized the main antagonist: A long haired guy from Chile. Alex said she had served him before and he is/was "an asshole." In the past she had brought him a glass of wine from a freshly opened bottle of wine, tasted it, gave it back to her and said "this is trash." Tonight they brought two of their own bottles which we charged them for corking fees. They ordered a couple of bottles of sake as well. Lindsey mentioned that they were spending money which made them slightly more tolerable. Lindsey told me more details about the tantrum the guy threw about not getting all of the toro initially discounted, and said he was verbally abusive to her, tried to tear up the Kome bucks I gave them. Threw credit cards around. Honestly, if they weren't into us for $500-$600 worth of food and drink i would have comped their meal, asked them to leave and told them to not come back after talking to my staff that way. Everyone makes mistakes and every situation has a solution to the problem, and NO ONE deserves to be talked to like that for simply trying to provide an earnest service. This person has no respect for himself, for Kome or it's staff and none of our customers. I'm glad we had maybe 3 or 4 other tables in the dining room when all of this went down because it he was embarrassing himself. I am casting my vote for 86'ing the Chilean Asshole from Kome.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah Voids and Comps. There were 4-5 birthday desserts over the course of the day. Alex won a sales contest for Dangerfield's roll special and got herself a tarantula roll. FNF to Kako Ito at lunch. Employee day off for Jonathan and his brother (?). Alex lost track of a Tsukiji Carpaccio for A4. They weren't upset by any stretch but I took 50% off for long ticket time to be safe.

R&M needs?: Still can't give featured dessert the birthday dessert discount.

86'd items/ need more? candles for birthday desserts.