July 1st, or June 30th, depending on where you slice it, business takes off. An overnight 50%, 100%, 200%, 300% increase in business. With minimal front end staff.
It's every waiter's nightmare.
People wander in, having boated over from Proctor, Harrop, up from Nelson, docked at the dock, climbed the patio stairs, seat themselves at the only dirty table on the patio (doesn't matter how many clean tables there are, the dirty table always has that allure), wait for service...you don't know they're new, think they're an old table waiting out the ferry, until they complain loudly about the service...
There's the split bills, everyone here splits the bill, even couples - couples?!! really?!! and you want to say WTF, but you don't, split the bill, allow each of them to pay, but you're looking at the woman, "Really? Really? And he's gonna get lucky tonight?..."
There's the families, double families, never all sitting together, never all sat at the same time, impossible to get an order from. Or when you do get an order, party of 6, 2 coffee's, a tea, 6 waters, a child's fries, bill under $20, and you're running full tilt...
The phone, constantly ringing, to-go orders, do you deliver?, do you have free wifi?, do you have power (??!! When the power goes out, they check the local pub...), do you have .. can I please speak to...?, do you have rooms for rent?, when does the next ferry leave...?
People wandering in to use the washrooms (despite signs clearly posted - everywhere - "NO PUBLIC WASHROOM"), to charge their phones and demand that we have chargers, to use the free wifi, to ask we refill their water-bottles, to drop off their garbage, to admire the art, the view, to watch wildlife from the patio overlooking the lake, ...
This is, without a doubt, every waiter's nightmare. But I've been to the Happy Hour, the fine hotel, they're nowhere near as busy as this, 6 waiters to 6 tables and the dirty tables, they're all still dirty an hour later, nobody's running there, they won't seat them or clean them, and I'm thinking - job-wise, that as much as I might hate this that I got lucky, this might just be the best gig for a couple of hundred miles...