Let me first of all say that I after this entry I promise to make my entires shortes
So while my first two days of work where very laid back and casual in pace, Friday and Sunday both had very definitive rush shifts. Friday gets very busy during lunch because Friday just in America is the beginning of the weekend and people like to go out and get lunch to "celebrate". As the tickets began to come in much faster, I quickly began to feel overwhelmed. I was basically put in charge of making the sandwiches (which are by far the biggest attraction for lunch). While although it might not seem like that difficult of a thing when there are not many orders, it quickly becomes more complicated once multiple orders come in with several items on each ticket. At first I made a lot of mistakes and it was fairly frustrating because they all came one right after the other. However, you learn quickly from your mistakes and after about an hour I got into the groove of the rush and things went smoother (but not perfect). The two most popular sandwiches are by far the roasted chicken with basil mayo and a classic BLT. The bacon that we use though is very different, almost more like a small piece of pork crossed with bacon and you don't cook it crispy unless asked for (and even then it is never really crispy). I personally don't think I could ever get used to it knowing American style bacon. There is also a lentil, roasted veg and goat cheese salad that is quite popular and quite delicious.
Sunday was absolutely crazy. Not only are Sundays normally the busiest day but it was also Mother's Day in Ireland. (Side note... it was really cute to see dozens of young men caring around flowers Saturday night before going home). I tried to mentally prepare myself for the rush, which helped a little bit but it was still really hard. Brunch was the main feature of the day and menu items include a full irish breakfast (sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, black and white pudding, creamy mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and toast), eggy bread (basically french toast without any milk, vanilla or cinnamon in the batter) with sauted bananas and honey, a brunch salad (spring greens with black pudding, bacon, cherry tomatoes and balsamic dressing), scrambled eggs with soda bread and some sandwiches that are available during the week. I basically had to learn how to do everything again and like before made lots of mistakes with the orders and it seemed like the orders would never stop coming. At one point I just wished that no one else would come in. But like before, I eventually got the hang of things and Fabi and I cranked out the last orders of the rush just around 3:30 pm. I didn't get to eat lunch until 4:00 pm (I started my shift at 9:30 am). One of the best experiences today happened when quite a few people at first ordered poached eggs even though they weren't an option on the menu. Fabi didn't really know how to make them, but i had been working on preparing eggs in different ways before I left the states, including poached eggs. Because of this I was able to step up and really help out in a way like never before and felt quite proud of myself.
After the rush ended, all of us in the back relaxed a lot and joked about how mad everything just was. Sitting down to eat my sandwich never felt so good. I would say that today's shift was pretty much a love/hate kinda thing. At first I felt embarrassed and stupid because I was making so many mistakes that I felt as if I had never even cooked before. But by the end, I felt much more like a well oilded machine that quickly knew how to react when an order came in. I am actually really looking forward to my next Sunday shift now that I know how things work and really want to knock it out of the park. I still have a lot to learn and I can still get MUCH better, but after today I feel confident in my abilities to improve everyday and help make Urbun an even better restaurant than it already is.
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