AIBU about food in pub garden?

[toboldlygo]

I work in a pub/restaurant/hotel. Today we had an informal booking for 20-40 people for a post-wedding gathering, drinks only. Between 11am and 3pm 45 people arrived and all wanted to order food, contrary to the booking. Not a problem, we'd normally have arranged for an extra staff member to help out for that number but we did our best and served them all.

Food service stops at 3 and doesn't begin again until 6.30 (same staff, split shifts, we haven't the capacity to serve all day) as advertised on menus, outside boards etc. I stated many times to the group that last orders had to be in by 3pm and that we were now running short of many items.

At 3.45 another group of people arrived and enquired about food. I apologised and said that we'd finished serving at 3 and jokily added that we'd been eaten out of house and home. They ordered drinks and headed outside with the rest of the group.

On going out to collect glasses I find that they've put together all of the outside tables and have a spread of sandwiches going on - six or seven plus snacks, coffee etc. I try to point out as politely as I could that they are not permitted to eat 'outside food' in the garden. They argue that we are no longer serving food so what else are they to do?

There's not much I can answer to that except to in my head consider that they've had five hours in which to order food, have been made aware at several points what time service finishes and I know from previous experience that I will be collecting up all of their rubbish when I return from my hour's break. There are plenty of parks and green spaces in which they could eat - the bakery they bought them from has benches and tables outside.

So am I (or rather the hotel, it's the manager's rule) being unreasonable to ask people not to bring in their own food when we are not serving any ourselves? I am a bit narked that they totally ignored me and carried on eating but don't know if it's because it's a bloody stupid request.

YANBU, that's completely wrong of them, they were chancing it and being very rude.

YANBU. It's a hotel/pub and not a picnic site. It's especially rude that you will have to pick up their mess when they haven't even bought it from you and are using your premises. This is very bad manners!

They are BU not you.

You told them the times for food etc, they should have graciously accepted what you had to say.

I would have got someone else as backup and asked them to move on.

I hate places that stop serving for a few hours in the middle of the day

With kids we often want to eat at 5pm

To be honest, if they had also spent all those hours buying drinks in your premises, I would turn a blind eye to it.

If they were not purchasing drinks from the bar, then yes I would tell them to take their food off the premises and come back after they had eaten it.

gumby that's fine - just don't frequent the hotel in question!

Gumby- whether you hate it or not the OP made the hours very clear to everyone, they were taking the piss!

I would also have turned a blind eye and I'm really surprised that given the recession that you didn't carry on serving food

Frankly I'd be pretty happy at 50 people turning up and drinking for 5 hours and I'd have done my best to make sure they spent even more money by providing them with whatever I had available.

YANBU. The cheeky fuckers.

I used to hate in when huge groups rocked up, dominating the place.

I imagine it's not worth kicking up about it though.

But isn't no outside food and drink a H&S issue? So if someone becomes ill from the food they bring, they can't blame the restaurant/pub.

Or so I've always been told.

You should have gotten back up and kicked them out.

gumby go to places that serve at 5 most places will by then.

My parents owned a pub last 10 yrs know exactly what u mean about the difficulty of serving all day and in some places it's just not cost effective if people want to order at that sort of time of day they should have chosen a wetherspoons or some other staff rich pub that could have met their needs.

Lauire, the staff work split shifts. If they'd carried on they'd be working for maybe 14 hours straight.

They are being UR and cheeky. I've worked in pubs/restaurants for years and yes I will turn a blind eye to a parent bringing in crisps/drinks for kids, or a snack for themselves, but to rock up and start a picnic outdide is a bit much. They should have ordered food when it was available, like everyone else.

That being said, the pub I work in now dosent serve food atall and we let people order takeaway and eat it aslong as they tidy up after and buy drinks.

I would think that if your employer knew a large group was going to be arriving over the lunch hour you would have enough food in to serve everyone, even if they'd only specified drinks. People are bound to get hungry during that time and after a round or two of drinks on empty tummies, it would be in your best interests to encourage those people to order some food (also very profitable).

Now that is the problem - they were all ordering drinks and the rest of the party had spent a considerable amount of money on food and drink. The manager turned up to relieve me shortly after and after discussing it with her we came to the same conclusion. I think after I left she went and had another word saying that I was right to have asked them to stop but on this occasion we would let it slide, so long as they took their rubbish home.

I think it's more the way they argued back and then proceeded to ignore me that rankles.

Gumby, we are a small business with very few staff (and poor management that won't hire more staff or appoint a proper manager) and Friday-Sunday it's the same core staff working split shifts. We cannot work 9am-1am without a break. Incidentally the other three pubs in the town work to similar hours, there are two cafés and a bakery that serve all day. I've often mooted serving food all day but they're not capable of the shakeup it would require re: chefs, staffing etc.

Yes Tee2072 it is a health & safety issue, the premises is responsible for all food and drink consumed on the premises and if the are in the beer garden then it is still the premises.

I'm laughing at the idea that because there is a recession on the should have served them. Were they supposed to have just conjured up more staff and food out of thin air. In most cases pubs and restaurants will do their best to serve all potential customers, they didn't turn them away because of a rule but because they were at that time unable to accommodate them

Whether the manger should have turned a blind eye or not is entirely their decision to make.

Im torn .
I can see that rules is rules and if you said 3pm to finish serving then that is the time everyone should stick to.

But these seem to be extras who have turned up - saw that the rest of the group had eaten and were being denied food themselves.

Obviously your hotel is a welcoming one and as such the whole group felt comfortable enough to stay there and continue buying drinks etc.A few sandwiches wont surely make a big difference -and after all its not as if the hotel will lose out . Food wasnt being served to anyone at that time.

I sympathise that you will likely have to do the clearing up -but that isnt really the fault of the large group. The manager should have made his/her presence known and arranged for the group to clear up after themselves by providing bin bags etc.

As has been said it is madness to turn away custom when so many businesses are going bust every week.

Better business sense would have been to continue to serve throughout the afternoon.

And it drives me mad too that in this country there are many places that still operate to 1950s rules and are run solely for the owners /managers convenience.

And yes - I do stay away from them. I spend my money buying service I want when I want it.

Maybe your pub should offer a bar snack menu throughout the day. Anyone could rustle up a sandwich and a portion of chips. It wouldnt need a qualified chef to cover that for a few hours.

So you have a wedding party come in and they want food from the menu, you ring up a couple of staff and ask them to come in early, ask a couple of staff to stay late. Send one staff member to get extra food from the bakery, buy all there stock and sell it to the wedding party for extra and make a profit.

Put all the tables in the garden together and serve the extra people a picnic style late lunch.

get the ice on hand and see if you can sell bottles of wine rather than by the glass.

catering is an industry with long 14-16 hours.

Take advantage of the situation

Sriracha - you might expect some of the group to eat in that situation but every single one of them ordered food. It had been booked specifically for drinks. It wasn't just sandwiches but full hot meals, full English breakfasts etc. We also did a busy usual service and actually lost a few customers because there was nowhere left to sit or they were intimidated by the large group in the garden (no problem with behaviour, it was just a big group and they'd used most of the furniture).

If we'd known they were all eating we could have done a simpler set menu, put on more staff and asked our casual/relief chef to give us a hand and potentially run service longer but we just didn't know. As it is I have to be back in an hour, as do all waiting staff. If anyone asks to order food at 11pm tonight I may explode.

I'm puzzled by the idea that extra food should have been bought in evrn though they arranged drinks only If they hadn't wanted food the hotel would have been left with it to try and shift before it went out of date. Hardly good business sense.

Op yanbu, they should have been more organised.

I was in a pub garden a few months' ago and a big party of Belgian walkers came in, ordered drinks from the bar and then got out their packed lunches. I think they had got it confused with the picnic site next door.

YANBU - 3pm is not a bad time to stop serving and they knew that when they made the booking

I think they have a point to be honest.

The picnic group turned up at 3:45pm and tried to buy food to be told they couldn't have any. They stayed and ordered drinks, so making a profit for the pub. They'd have spent more money if able to.

They then managed to get picnic type food from somewhere and ate it while consuming drinks from your pub.

Surely thats better than the whole group leaving to go to a different pub thats still serving food?

I would say 3pm on a saturday or sunday is a daft time to stop serving.. weekdays yep, it would be quiet, but at weekends you expect a stream of customers all day long who might want to eat..

A pub near us has no kitchen, but has a contract with the deli opposite, and uses a menu from them, and rings them with orders.. works really well.