Hoping to have some stories and information as things
progressed, as I do not, I have decided to yet again bitch robustly about my
ex-business partner, Cletus. Just a few more episodes of his mental capacity,
of which there is little to none. These are, again, just off the top of my
head. Jesus, there were so many.
I don't recall a specific date, though know it was during
the winter months. We had a typical night of service, nothing out of the
ordinary. Cletus decided to run a bar special of hot wings. I only remembered
this because of the evening's outcome. Forward! We're cleaning up for the night
and I am taking things over to the dishwashing area. I notice a faint smell.
Hmm. I hadn't noticed it until that moment as I frequently walk that path back
and forth many times per night. Odd, but I go on about my way.
The bartender comes back and wants to know if we'll do
another order even though the kitchen is closed for the evening. Of course we
will. She rings it in and Cletus says, "It's just a couple orders of
wings." This meant he would take care of it as it was his department. I
complimented him on how great of a bar special that was as we sold a shitload
that night. He stated that he was trying to sell them all just to get rid of
them. Hmm, I suppose it's not that strange of a comment as many restaurants do
the same thing all the time. I'll give you an example.
We would run salmon on a Friday night. What we didn't sell,
I would make into salmon salad on a croissant or a teriyaki glazed salmon salad
for Saturday lunch special. If we would run Cajun prime rib and didn't sell it
all, I would run a prime rib Philly sandwich the next day. These items would
also be reduced to sell. This way we could use up leftovers and it was within
24 hours. Easy concept.
So the whole "trying to get rid of the wings" was
nothing new. He went on to say that after that last order, there were only a
few left. I told him to just take them home if he wanted since I figured we'd
just end up throwing them away. He declined, I was soon to find out why.
He was placing the container back into his cooler when that
damn odor hit me with full force. I exclaimed, "What is in your cooler
that stinks so bad!" He said he didn't know. Well, fuck. I go over and the
smell is so rancid. I put my nose to the meager portion of chicken wings left
over and it about knocks me on my ass. I yelled, "It's the wings! And
you've been serving these all night!?" He retorts, (paraphrasing, as
always) "Well, yeah. They are getting old so I wanted to sell them all so
there is no waste." Wow! I was really beside myself as I could not
comprehend how he, even though he is a fucking retard, he's worked in food
service for over 10 years and he had no idea how to tell if chicken is rotten?
How can't he smell that? It's impossible. I was pissed but more concerned than
anything. I tried to rationalize with him on how bad this was. He likely gave a
lot of people diarrhea at best, and possibly made some very sick. "People
can die from that...", I tried to explain to him.
He started laughing because I was gagging over the smell. It's
becoming clearer each and every day what a horrible mistake I make going into
business with this mongoloid. I let loose because of how lightly he seemed to
care of our situation by his laughter. I said, "If someone gets sick or
worse, you are out of here! I will go to the board and tell them how you think
it's funny to poison people. I will create my own entity and continue on
without you being a huge liability. That is it!" Well, that certainly took
the smile off of his face. He apologized and shut his mouth.
I took the remainder of the nasty wings and double bagged
them. I told him to take them to his house and dispose of them. He agreed
without an argument. I wasn't going to say anything unless the shit hit the
fan. Fuck, we've been open merely months at this point and already were in jeopardy
of being shut down and rightfully shunned by the public if anyone caught wind
of this. Food poisoning can easily be the death of a business. Ethically, I was
wrong. I fully admit that and have subsequently suffered enough for my shortcoming
in that department. There was just no way I was letting this dumb fuck take me
down after creating a very successful establishment in such a short time.
Nothing of consequence came from his actions.
Another happening was really basic and due to, once again, Cletus
going full Mongo and just being really stupid. We had an order for country
fried steak come back to the kitchen. The patron said it was the worst they'd
ever tried. Wow, that's pretty harsh, but okay. I ask what else they want
instead and the answer is nothing. They were so disgusted that they want
nothing. Holy crap. I grab the plate and look at it. Hmm, yup something is definitely
wrong with the dinner. The gravy was incorrect. I could tell because we put
pepper cream gravy on top, and I make it myself. I wonder what this stuff could
be?Sure as shit, Cletus put horseradish cream sauce on top because he thought it was "the same thing". He has that in his area because he does onion rings, and it's served as an accompaniment. I grab the waitress and tell her to fill out a gift card for a free meal, up to $10 for the gentleman. There was a kitchen error and we would like for him to give us another chance to right the situation. This idiot is costing me money on a daily basis. Simple mistake, but come fucking on! Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! How the hell do you think a yellow sauce and a white sauce with black shit "peppered" throughout are the same thing!
Another instance occurred when we were approaching our 1
year anniversary of being open. I took the broiler section without question so
I was responsible for steaks. Cletus only did it when I was gone for the night,
and that was maybe like 3 times. It was because I had to jump back into the bar
and tend if someone called in sick or was out catering. He was too dumb to do
either, including cook steaks, but we had no choice. Anyways, it was the first
night I actually had a complaint that a steak was a little over cooked. Nothing
up until that day and I had easily done a thousand. Steaks are easy to cook if
you know the cut of meat. So, to say the least, I was really bummed out. I knew
it was going to happen eventually, but it still bothered me. I didn't like the
notion that a customer didn't get exactly what they ordered. They were totally
fine with it and ate the whole thing and loved it. They just wanted to make us
aware it was a bit over done to their liking. Thank you! We need to hear those
things even if they are not pleasant in order to make sure things don't repeat.
I was now somewhat nervous when cooking steaks. Sounds dumb
but I felt like a failure. Cletus could see that it bothered me and to help me
be okay with it he said, "Well if it's any consolation to you, I've gotten
way more chicken back raw than you have steaks." Holy shit, that was very
much so correct. He didn't realize immediately that saying the aforementioned
made him look like a complete fool. I just replied, "Thanks, yeah, I guess
you're right.", and just smiled inside. He eventually came to terms with
his confession and said, "Wow, that didn't sound good." Because he
was trying to comfort me (lol) I only replied with, "It happen.", and shrugged my shoulders. Way to own
yourself, buddy.
Well I do have a few more but this post is already getting
too long as is. Until next time...in another day in the life of a line cook.
