Polishers’ Prioritizations:
1) Polished silverware is stocked and ready for service on your floor.
-Always make sure the brown silverware tray on your floor is stocked
-Check in with the runners every 15 minutes, they need longer serving spoons, steak knives, and oyster folks
-Check in with the SA’s every 15 minutes, they need dinner forks, dinner spoons, dinner knives, as well as dessert spoons and forks
-When the container of dirty silverware is full enough (about a third) that you cannot see the bottom, take to the dish station
-Have the dish team run the silverware through the machine twice, smaller loads come out cleaner, and make for easier polishing
-Your #1 job is to make sure polished silverware is continuously stocked and ready to use throughout the night
FOCUS LIKE A LASER!!! When you are on the floor, focus on the silverware: do the SA’s have a full brown tray, a full setting tray, how much is dirty, etc. The heart of your job is to be on top of silverware, and if you are on top of silverware, you are doing a good job! Always make sure there is polished silverware stocked and ready for service on your floor BEFORE moving on to the next priorities…
2) Share plates are stocked and ready for service (have been hand dried) on your floor.
-On floor 1, there always needs to be full stacks of share plates on the kitchen line, ready to use (dried by hand)
-On floor 2, there always needs to be full stacks of share plates, full stack for both the PDR and LB2 bar
-Check in with the SA’s, runners, and bartenders, we go through them fast
-Always check the dirty bus tubs, if you see a stack of dirty share plates, take those AND all the dirty silverware to the dish station
-When leaving dish station, always check the shelf by the dish machine for share plates to bring back to the dining room
3) Water glasses are stocked and ready for service (have been hand dried) on your floor.
-On floor 1, there always needs to be water glasses in the bussing station and on the shelf next to the bar
-On floor 2, there always needs to be water glasses on the shelf on the outside of LB2 bar
-Keep an eye on the dirty rack of water glasses. When it becomes more than half full, take it to the dish station and run it through the glass washer
-When you take a rack of water glasses down to the dish station, also check if you can take dirty silverware or dirty share plates
-Water glasses are most needed for setting tables. Pay attention to the rhythm of the night: when we start the second seating (7PM to 9PM – ish) and you see a lot of tables have gotten up, that’s when the team will be most in need of water glasses
-When you carry a rack of water glasses back to the dining room, also check if there are clean share plates to bring back at the same time
4) Polished wine glasses are stocked and ready for service
-The most important wine glass is the AP glass (we use by far the most)
-Shelves next to the bar need to be stocked with polished AP glasses throughout service
-On your floor, you need to stock all 4 kinds of wine glasses: AP glasses, Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne.
-This needs to be one of the first things you check, because you may need to move wine glasses from another floor. When you start the shift, check that roughly half the total in house number of wine glasses are on floor 1, and half are on floor 2
-Organization of the wine glasses is your responsibility: keep them tidy, and grouped by the 4 kinds of wine glass
-When you see the shelves in the bussing station are getting full, you need to start moving AP glasses to the bar shelves (on both floors)
Polishers’ Rules of the Road:
-Silverware is your #1 priority. Polishing silverware is 90% of the job
-You are supporting the entire team. We are all counting on you (no pressure… actually just kidding, there is pressure! Bring your sense of urgency every day)
-Bring 100 yes chefs with you every day. When the chef asks for anything, there is only 1 answer
-When you go up or down a floor, there is always something to carry, full hands up and down will make your job easier
-Never take just 1 thing. If you can take 1 thing (for example, dirty share plates) then you can take 2 things (use a bus tub and take dirty silverware as well)
-The table closest to the dish machine is for everything dirty. The table closest to the ice machines is for everything clean (after the kitchen is finished with prep for the day.) PLEASE KEEP THE CLEAN TABLE CLEAN… AND THE DIRTY TABLE DIRTY
-Take care to not leave fingerprints (always hold utensils by the end, and glassware by the stem)
-Latex gloves (for worry-free silverware) and alcohol spray (for streak-free glassware) are your friends
-Run silverware through the machine twice, smaller loads make for easier polishing
-Communication is the key to your job
-Continuously communicate with the servers, SA’s, runners, and bartenders about what they need, check in every 15 minutes
-Always keep in mind, the Polisher’s Paradox: THE NEWER YOU ARE TO THIS, THE MORE YOU NEED TO TALK TO THE TEAM (and it will be uncomfortable at first.) Here are some sample questions to help if you’re shy…
Ask the runners: “Do you have enough spoons and steak knives? How are we looking on share plates?”
Ask the SA’s: “Do you have enough silverware? How are we looking on dessert silverware? Are a lot of tables about to turn? Are we ready? What’s the next thing we are going to need after that?”
Ask the bartenders and servers: “How are we looking in terms of wine glasses? Everything is fully stocked? Do you need AP glasses?”
Ask Arthur: “How are you doing in terms of Monster cans? Do you need me to run to the store for you?”
-At the end of the shift, you need to clean the 2 filters inside the glass washer. First turn off the glass washer so that it empties out all the hot water. Take this time to clean and organize your station. Rinse the oval filter and the round spaceship filter in the dish sink with the spray hose.
-Keep a mental polishing checklist going in your head at all times about silverware (if you are going to dish station, ALWAYS take) share plates (take when more than a few), water glasses (most important for second seating) and wine glasses (lowest priority, but still your responsibility, ask the servers what they need if you’re not sure.) There are 3 floors and a lot of moving parts to this operation, and it’s important you stay focused. Your #1 priority is silverware.
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