Name dropping

Hi

How's it goin? 

I hate name dropping, it's something that happens a lot in the restaurant industry. Especially at Vincents. So many people in Aberdeen know Vinnie (the owner), but he can only remember about 7 of them. It happens all the time, when people are trying to get a free drink, or a better table. It's pathetic really. I even made name dropping one of the key elements in "The Playhouse."

People say all the time, "is Vinnie in tonight?" and usually I'll say no because he's honestly not. And then they will reply with, "that's unusual isn't it?" and the honest answer is no, it's not unusual. When I was the full time manager I was there all the time, it was unusual when I wasn't in the building. These guys are just after preferential treatment because they claim to be a friend of the owner, and sometimes they genuinely are. But after working in Vincents for over 5 years, (on and off) I have a pretty good idea of who gets a free drink bought for them and who doesn't. A couple of weeks ago Vinnie got name dropped 4 times by four different people in the space of 15 minutes. I was working in The Club and it was a busy night. A customer was wanting to go out the back door for a cigarette. I politely informed them that they had to go out the front door if they wanted to smoke as that was the smoking area. The customer replied with,

"Yeah but I know Vinnie."

I then replied with,

"That's nice, so do I, front door is that way." I pointed to the front door and served someone else.

Three very similar incidents followed with people wanting cheaper drinks, free entry and preferential service at the bar. I gave a similar response to each of them.

My name has also been name dropped, to myself. When I was in charge of Vincents people used to come in and occasionally ask for me, to me. Claiming that they knew me, or someone I had never heard of had told them to ask for me. At first I thought this was just people chancing their luck, then it started happening more and more. It was at this point I made a discovery. Whenever Vinnie was out on the town, and someone he didn't know asked about the restaurant or wanted to book a table, he would tell them that his name was Andy. So I would get phone calls all the time to confirm bookings that "Andy" had taken in a drunken state in some nightclub the night before.

I once got a failed name drop, last Christmas. It was yet another hectic day with drunken office workers being there usual drunken, annoying and rude selves. I was checking on a large tables main courses to make sure they were enjoying the meal, the table had about 25 people on it,  a blonde girl piped up, 

"Hey I know you!" She screamed across the table.

"Do you? Have you been in before?" I replied. 

She looked familiar but couldn't quite place her. This happen to me a lot as customers quite often remember me cos I give them good banter. I'm not showing off with that last sentence, it's true. I do give top notch cheesy waiter banter. But I serve a lot of people so most of them just blur into one.

"We went to school together." She said, still shouting.

That was it. Now I recognised her, her name was Louise. We didn't really speak at school, nothing against her, she seemed like a nice enough person, we just hung out with different people.

"How about a free drink then?" Louise asked rather cheekily.

"A free drink?" I replied

"Yeah come on! I think you should buy us a free round of drinks, we went to school together after all." 

By this point most of the table were listening into this conversation, in the hopes of a free round of drinks.

"What's my name?" I asked her.

Silence.

Needless to say, herself and her table did not get any free drinks from me that day. And nor did they receive any of my championship banter.


So let this be a lesson, name dropping will get you no where, it will just make you look like a twat!

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That's All For Now 

Until Next Time

Have A Nice

Andy G

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If you do subscribe then I will happily buy you a free drink if you ever come to see me at Vincents