What’s it like working in a cafe?

[TsunamiSurfer]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic - what’s it like working in a cafe?
I have no hospitality experience but a strong customer service background.
it would be for 3 x 4 hour shifts a week which would fit perfectly around school and family commitments.
i want to hear your good, bad and ugly.
its a local family owned business

Are you serving or kitchen? My son worked KP as his first job and even as a fit 16 year old found the first few days exhausting. The kitchen was downstairs so it was multiple trips an hour to bring dishes and food up and trays of dirty dishes back down. Plus he needed to double glove his hands as they got wrecked with all the detergent and hot water. He enjoyed it though. There was a rhythm to the day of course with it being quite frantic from 8-10, a bit of a lull then mega busy 12-2.30. Another lull then after school crowd 3.30-4.30 and I think they shut at 5. He enjoyed it though but was made redundant during Covid.

There's a tips jar at the counter in pretty much all cafes, it gets shared out at the end of the day. At least there is where I am (South Yorkshire).

I work in what is essentially a cafe and it's great although can be hard work. .

We mainly get regulars in who are never rude to me and always like a chat.

I do 6 hour days and definitely don't do 50,000 steps, more like 12,000 unless it's a particularly manic shift. I can't get to 50,000 doing a 4 mile walk, a 6 hour shift and running a half marathon all in the same day (not far off though!)

Get some good trainers and you will be fine, your feet will throb for a while if you aren't used to being on your feet for hours but they get used to it.

We are not understaffed, some days might be busier than expected but then the following day could be dead despite the previous week being steady. So whilst we might have the odd day where we are understaffed we just get on with it because it's nobody's fault, it's just one of those things, same with staff sickness.

I've always worked front of house though ever since I was 15. I keep thinking about changing jobs for a "proper one" but it's so flexible around the kids and it's a 5 minute walk away from my house so until I get both kids in high school it's a no brainer to stay put especially because I enjoy the job.

I would say....... kind of...... no.
Tips in cafes are minimal.
That's one of the things that makes working in a cafe worse than working in a restaurant.
When I was a waitress the tips in restaurants were way, way better.