🍸 TRL Weekly: How To Provide Ninja Service

Your weekly lesson and tactical reminders inside.

July 28, 2024

Happy Sunday, future server/bartender millionaire.

In today’s lesson Brandon teaches us how we can provide Ninja Service!

Our Last Three Weekly Lessons:

You can read the rest of the past weekly lessons here.

One of the biggest differences between a good server and a great server is their ability to do things unobtrusively!

We have had a previous email talk about “say less, do more”, which goes hand and hand with this email.

Ultimately, there are many times where the guest sees you walking over and stops their conversation.

This is exactly what we DON’T want to happen 90% of the time.

If they need to ask for something or you need to take their order then of course it is a good thing.

BUT, most of the time it is for something as simple as dropping off some more napkins or ketchup.

To avoid this, the first time you bring something like this to the table and they stop talking…DON’T TALK!

This sets the tone for the rest of the meal because now they won’t stop their conversation for little things like a manicure or a refill of water.

You might also offer 2nd or 3rd beverages silently.

To do this, you would just gesture to the drink (don’t point), and then make eye contact with that guest, smile and do a quick head nod.

They will usually nod back or even say “yea I’ll take another, thanks”; you can just smile and nod again and walk away!

There is no need to speak and interrupt the rest of the table.

(Note: If it is a 2 top then feel free to respond to the “thank you” in this situation.)

Your new goal should be to have the guests continue talking while you are serving instead of having them stop their conversation every 2 minutes.

Lastly, this does not mean EVERY SINGLE TIME.

You can obviously speak to your tables while you are filling water, but we never want it to be “here’s some more water!”

Instead, start small talk OR take their order while you do something to save yourself some time.

That’s all for week eighteen.

See you next week,

The Restaurant Launch Team