Cluster? Maybe........

I had to work tonight. It was just me and Eddie. He is the other hot foods cook at the restaurant. So two hot foods cooks to run the whole restaurant, including pantry (cold foods and desserts). So I took the lead on prepping the cold side, to give myself a little break. When I get to work, I always check the books to see what's in store for the night. The books told me it would be a decent night, a couple parties of five, one of seven, and a few deuces scattered out. I went to the main kitchen to start prepping thinking it was all relaxed. There wasn't much to prep on either side, so Eddie and I joked around, having fun, just a chill atmosphere. I even created a special for salads. I ran across so good looking Stilton bleu cheese and decided to use that with some red oak lettuce, raspberries, pine nuts, and a tomato and jalapeño vinaigrette. Why not? Keep myself busy and look good to chef by staying creative and using up product for a profit. Like I said, everything's chill in the main kitchen. Little did we know what was festering out at the restaurant with the reservations. Got finished with all the prep and did line up with the servers, presenting specials, giving the 86 list for the night (things we don't have on the menu), and just keeping everyone informed. Took my break. When I came back, the servers told me we picked up two more parties of five and a party of ten and a few more deuces and threes. All within thirty minutes of each other. Eddie looked at ne and asked if I wanted any medicine (red bull), I said yes. He went and got us some and we were ready to rock! Now remember, two hot food cooks running all stations. First few tickets came in, I stayed on the cold side and Ed was on the hot side. All was smooth. We got out the t two fives and working on the seven, along with all the other small tables and room service orders. By now I had moved over to work grill also. Then the party of ten came in, which turned into sixteen. And that's when it got busy. The bar filled up and the remaining restaurant tables as well. So we're both running back and forth between our stations and pantry. The sixteen top order cold food apps which had a lot of my salad special, so I had to work those tickets. While I was over there, four or five more tickets come in, I'm working those and all the steaks from the big party and whatever orders have come in. I'm yelling at Ed to check my steaks while I get the cold orders out (by the way, my salad special sold out). Get that done and move over to my other station. Quickly get oriented with everything again and keep rolling. We get the party's food out and by that time it's 9 and we close at 10. So, we think alright, we got this in the bag, let's start breaking down. Um, no. More tickets keep coming in and finally we get those pushed out and it's closing time. I stayed for desserts and let Ed leave. A few desserts came in, but nothing major. Tonight could've become a serious cluster, but Ed and I (the dream team), rocked it out.