spring break with a bang

Last night was one of the steadiest Sundays that I have worked in a long while. It wasn't really any special day, other than the fact that today is the first day of spring break in Langley.
I should probably mention that I am a manager of a local restaurant, one of many in a chain of restaurants, focused on good food, friendly and efficient service. This particular restaurant happens to be owned by a company that owns many restaurants, a various smörgåsbord (phew-spell check) of restaurants. This being said, I feel it is prudent to keep specific names out of the blog for the distinct fear of losing said position of managing one of the best stores in a group of many.
The night started off with us short 2 servers, due to some unlikely and unfortunate circumstances which left some blank holes in the schedule all weekend. We knew it may be a bit busier than usual, but last night takes the cake on busier than expected.
Normally, a busy night wouldn't be such a burden, even short a couple people, you just suck it up and bear it. By the end, everyone will have survived and has earned one more notch in their war belt.
The rough part of last night came at the end of the rush, which lasted almost 4 hours instead of 2, when it was time for the rollout of the new menu. For a rollout, we get the front end staff to come in (it turned out to be 22 of them) and taste the new items, which is a pretty good deal if you are a server - free dinner.
It's not such a great deal if you are the kitchen staff that just pushed out twice as much food as they were expecting too, without more than a 10 minute break in between to breathe and restock, let alone clean up.
In the end, it's 11pm, the rollout is over, and the kitchen finally gets to start their close. The front end staff has eaten, cleaned up, and for the most part finished what they need to do.
The Store Partner and I retreat to the office with a pair of Latte's - in a pint glass cause it's way more masculine than the girlie latte bowl.
After 2 hours of nightly and week-end paperwork, it's up to table 25 to enjoy a well earned glass of cabernet sauvignon. Time to reminisce about the day, the week, the future and the careers of two very tired and victorious men of war.

Then, it's back at it 9am Monday morning, because the battle is never over.