Oh tables oh tables-- that's my topic for today-- the tales pertaining to the dining tables at the Segundo DC.
There are several types of tables at the DC, the diminutive, square tables by some windows on tall legs, matched by chairs of an equal height, the short, squat square tables with their shorters. Then there're the round tables and the long rectangular tables, each with their own array of chairs.
During each shift, there're workers whose supreme job is to keep the tables and the associated chairs clean and presentable. In other words, partially act out the role of a waiter.
It doesn't sound all that difficult, does it? It isn't that difficult, the job I mean. It also doesn't sound that interesting and in that (those of you who have followed my entries may well recall) is a mistake.
Keeping the tables presentable not only involves having its surface clean and the correct number of chairs surrounding each table (a feat that I have never mastered with the round tables-- people drag the chairs all over the place so you get things like a place that has three tables with six chairs and two tables with two and, recalling that the correct number of chairs seem to be around the 3-4 range, you spend a good deal of time wondering where the other chairs come from). The square tables are the easiest in this aspect-- one chair per side, no more questions asked. But the more interesting half of the job is the presentation part of looking presentable, or what I call "the table displays".
At the center of each table is, usually, a small glass vase with the flowers of the season, a small stand for holding whatever flyers are there ("Did you know that coffee actually does not help with hangover?"), and a small wire caddy with napkins, ketchup, salt, and pepper. This is where the adventure begins because people, while waiting for their friends or talking after dinner, do the oddest things to occupy themselves.
There was this one time when the flower was a sort of daisy-like mums, and someone drew a smiley face on the center of the flower with ketchup. While I appreciated the cuteness, the flower had to be replaced. Then there were the cases of "flower disappearance", where I truly have no idea where the plants have gone off to. Are they really so hungry that they'd eat the plants? Granted most mums are edible, the same for roses, but I'm not so sure with the freesias. Before you dismiss my theory as complete venting (which it is, partially), I have seen flowers that look like someone had taken a healthy chomp out of them. I mean, fibers? Sure. But we DO have a salad bar, hello? In some cases, the mysterious consumer of flowers (har) leave other things to replace flowers. I've had cases with candy sprinkles in the vase, cucumbers in the vase, and in one case, cooked asparagus in the vase-- making the ultimate statement in terms of interior designing. What I resent, though, is napkin in the vase. Or more specifically, napkin with water in the vase. Fishing out soggy napkins is very disgusting.
That's only to cover the flowers. There're cases where the water in the vase, along with the flowers, disappear. There're cases where the water is replaced. I've seen milk. Milk is good for growing humans, maybe, but not so for flowers. You've got to appreciate the sentiment, though. I've seen energy drink and no-- extra sugar and caffeine will not make the flowers bloom better, but thank you for trying. I've seen a mixture of milk and energy drink, with the milk curdling, and therefore causing my "hey that looks like copper sulfate" statement. In short, the flower display can be very interesting in terms of cleaning up.
And oh, the napkins.
There's a certain amount of napkins that must be put into the caddies, to ensure that during rush hours, where the table are never empty long enough for someone to refill them, the people won't have to wander around going "Hey, do you have any more napkins?" The management has, no doubt to save us the grief of "is this enough? No? How about this? And this?", defined "enough" as full to the point that there's barely enough room left to squeeze in the ketchup and salt and pepper. Just before I left though, the regulations have went up another notch and now they will be watching to see whether or not all the napkins are FACING THE RIGHT WAY, and neat, with their corners straight and so on. I suppose I should just be glad that no one has ever told me "You need 375 napkins per caddy" because oh, the counting.
Those of you who'd seen the "ketchup, salt, AND THEN pepper" yes, this is where it came from. The ketchup must be facing the right way, the right side up, and the salt must come before the pepper. In most cases though, during the clean ups we're more concerned with the fact that there's a top-less salt shaker at one end of the DC, and how did the top get all the way to the other end? As with the chairs, there're cases of 2 pepper shakers at one table, and none at the other. I've already mentioned my frustration with upside-down shakers. Maybe we ought to have "this way up" label on this.
In any case, as is true with most restaurants and other food-serving facilities, the place looks best when it just opened because face it: when there're hundreds of people eating, you're more concerned about whether or not there's still salt and pepper LEFT than whether or not they're standing in the right order in the caddy.
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