An Open Letter To Hostesses Everywhere

If you have ever been to a casual dining restaurant before you might have realized that the hosts/hostesses run the entire restaurant. Lately however things have changed and what used to be a pleasant encounter has turned irritating. Below is an open letter to every host/hostesses in the world.

Dear Hosts and Hostesses:

You have no idea how much power you have.

I know what you're thinking....after all you are just an hourly employee who gets bossed around all night by a disgruntled manager, but you have enormous control. With the single sweep of a pen or highlighter you can change lives.

I mean think about it - you control time. Who else can control time!? Not the managers, not the servers, not even the Pope.

You have a gorgeous, solid throne that you stand behind every single night. You sip on drinks that are so carefully hidden away on one of the shelves of your host stand/throne, and you doodle in the kids coloring books during most of your shift. More or less....you're royalty.

With so much power, so much control, so much authority......why do you always seem mess it up?

Before you go jumping down my throat and texting your friends to tell them what a maniac I am....I know how complex your job is - I used to be one of you.

Now that I have got that off my chest I think we can dive into how things always get screwed up at the hostess stand.

The stand, your highlighter and you are the nerve center of the restaurant. When it falls apart the entire restaurant goes burning down in flames.

It seems that customers are always the victims of this burning inferno.

We're told a wait time of 15 - 30 minutes. Can you be a little more specific? And why do we end up waiting 35 minutes?

We're walked to a table that's still dirty and then a busser comes and cleans it up with our threatening eyes watching.

We're taken to a table where people are already sitting and then walked around the restaurant looking for an empty table.

We're told it's our turn to get sat and then find out that the other host took another party to the same table.....and then have to wait 10 more minutes.

Why does this keep happening?

Maybe it's not your fault. Maybe it's because you're not treated right or you hate having to dress nice and then stand up for 6 hours straight. Or, maybe you just don't think you're job important.

Whatever the case is, it's time for you to start using your authority to do good for the customers. Start simple: tell us the correct quote time, check to make sure our table is clean before you walk us there, and then before you seat us, confirm it's our table.

Simple steps for such powerful people.

I know you can do it.

Thanks,

Dan