I haven't blogged in a couple days because we have been very busy! But last Tuesday was a crazy day where we had 4 events going on at lunch and Gracie and I had to make a presentation at Expedia to promote our private dining and catering to major neighborhood businesses. We offered them signature appetizers, like sweet potato in a pecan crust and slow-cooked chicken salad canapes, to sample. The day ended up going alright even though it was one of those when we couldn't think of anything else that could go wrong. All the events were pulled off flawlessly for the client! I helped Matt completely reset our ST. Charles room for our evening big event. Then Gracie, Adam, and I with the AV set-up for our dinner party as well. Yesterday I arrived early to help with another large lunch event. I simply was available to help the guests with any requests they might have. Then Gracie and I checked out J. Bookwalter venue for catering. We loved it!! the women who just took over are extremely nice and excited about a partnership of some sort and the wine and space are wonderful!! Finally today I helped Marco with meat consolidation again. Then Gracie and I went to the Parlor to meet Kayce and Crystal and see their venue. It was really cool! And it offers us with a good after-dinner outing to offer our guests and out-of-town business parties. Then it was back to help Marco with desserts, hamburgers, and employee meals. It's always good to work with Marco because he's sooo good at his job and really helpful at teaching me the ropes of the kitchen. Plus he's an excellent singer!

Today I worked with our beverage manager, Scott, for the majority of the day. I learned how important inventory is to a restaurant and just so we know what is in stock, but so that we know how much money we're making off of all of our products and who is sellin what. First, we had to manually count all of the liquor in our restaurant. Then we totalled it all up and entered it into a spreadsheet that calculates the total value of the liquor we have based on how much we buy it for. Next we entered it into another spreadsheet that calculates the COGS and the percent of sales. Scott did an excellent job of explaining all implications of this percentage and how he works to keep it as low as possible so as to maximize our funds. Then Gracie took me to El Gaucho, another steakhouse in the neighborhood, so that I could compare the different steakhouse and private dining options in Bellevue. It was interesting to see how different two steakhouses could actually be and to see what each company emphasizes in their sales and marketing of private dining.

-Lisa

Week 2: Lisa's Words

With one full week of work and a holiday weekend to recuperate with, working at Ruth's Chris is starting to settle down. Not settle down in the sense that I know what I am doing. Not by a long shot! But settle down in the sense that the unending new experiences and unpredictability of the events industry is becoming the norm. Today I helped Matt, a server, out with the weekly BNI networking luncheon, again. The second time through was much easier and smoother than my first time and Matt is very supportive in helping figure out the ins and outs of serving. I learned the Ruth's Chris method of taking orders, consolidating them for the kitchen, registering them in the computer, and expediting the final dishes. He also gave me some tips on appropriate fine dining customer service, such as how long to wait to greet the guests and when a drink needs to be refilled.

After the luncheon guests were comfortable and happily eating, I sat in on a meeting with Gracie and Lindsey from the Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau (of Visit Seattle as she likes to call it). Gracie and I learned about the pros of joining the organization and talked about ways to get our name out there and spread our range of customers into Seattle. Overall I think it was very productive and beneficial for our current objective.

Next I did my weekly "intern job" of bagging our cookies for marketing. Sounds like a simple idea, but when Gracie and I took them through the mall with copies of our Happy Hour menu, I was surprised by how receptive and excited our neighboring merchants were with the idea of Ruth's Chris famous happy hour.

I am excited for tomorrow because, once again, I get to do something completely new and different. I am shadowing Marcus, one of the chefs, during lunch.

~Lisa