This coming Monday, I’ll be the guest maitre d’ at Two Fat Ladies on Blythswood Street as part of the GRA’s Gourmet Glasgow week. While I’m sure that restaurant boss Ryan will prevent me from making too many monstrous blunders, I am feeling a little nervous.
I waited tables as a student and spent a stint as the night shift room service waiter at the Caledonian in Edinburgh but that was all a long time ago. For the last couple of days I’ve been muttering things under my breath such as ‘serve from the left of the guest, clear from the right, read back the order, check the cutlery, don’t drop the Cullen skink’. As a result, I’m fairly sure that I’ve got the basics down pat but less confident that I’ll get it right on the night.
Slightly more worrying is that as maitre d’, taking orders and serving food is supposed to be just one part of my duties. Apparently, I’m meant to be running the whole kit and caboodle. At least Ryan seems calm at the prospect.
It will be interesting to be on the other side of the fence for a dinner service. Reviewing restaurants for Metro and No 1 magazine, I don’t think that I’m too picky about service unless it has been grim. Serving tables for a night should provide an interesting new perspective.
There will be a Q+A towards the end of the evening so if you want to come along and ask about restaurant reviewing, compliment me on my perceptive writing or harangue me for getting a review unforgivably wrong then book in here. All the profits from the evening, possibly minus any dry cleaning bills, will go to Save the Children.
Make a reservation. I can recommend the fish platter.