I recently worked a very exclusive function, as wait staff for a small sit down affair. The client was a major Global Banking Corporation (very well known), very serious money going on.
I was quite nervous before it started as we'd been briefed that it was going to be a very formal affair, selected wines for different courses, all fine dining, when all I've done previously is finger food (with virtually no waitressing experience). The wine was served from decanters, and thank god the other guy I was working it with had previously worked at
Rockpool, a classy Sydney restaurant, where they serve all their wine decanted (apparently).
They were very heavy, and I would never have been able to pour with them.
One of the difficulties is that the section of the specialised venue they were in, was quite narrow, once they were seated there was absolutely no room behind them, so it was all reaching across and dow the table. Fine for the other guy, but I've got short arms! I suspect the gentlemen were quite looking forward to all the leaning (over them) actually, but thankfully I did little of it.
As the evening progressed I needn't have worried too much, basically the other guy was running the show, being much more experienced than myself, and I was there to support him. I didn't have to serve wine at all except for some initial glasses, so I stuck mainly to carrying plates and pouring water.
It was quite a small group though, especially when I'm more accustomed to function sizes of 100+, it was a single table, long enough to be a hassle reaching, small enough that it didn't need splitting. One of the things that interested me about the group was there was only one woman.
It was a party of executives, celebrating promotions, and I couldn't help but feel the glass ceiling must be well and truly in place. I could be wrong of course, perhaps there aren't many women pursuing Finance and Investment Banking as a career, and this woman certainly didn't look like she'd slept her way to the top.
In contrast, the organisers of the function were two lovely women in their thirties, fun, bubbly, easy on the eye, who, while not to cast aspersions in any way, could very well have slept their way there.
At the end of the day however, people are simply people. And even well-to-do, overpaid executives get rowdy when they've had too much to drink, breaking glasses, swearing too much (dropping the C-bomb!). I think it was a successful night though, there was much laughter interspersed with the "shop-talk" and even a bit of gossip.
We farewelled them, thanked them for their tip (which was very nice Thank You)
Well there's the haves and the have nots, and the Haves (had)
Wines served included
Penfolds Grange 1995 - If you click through this link you'll see that the first Grange's can sell for $50K a bottle! When this was decanted the corks disintergrated, which is apparently quite common, but I'm glad the waiter was pouring it, I would have freaked out if that had been me!
2006 Noble One by De Bortoli (dessert wine) -Depending on the vintage, about $50 a bottle. I managed to snaffle a 3/4 full bottle to take home of this one...
We ran through approximately 110 wine glasses, for one function, with ONE TABLE! Thats how many wines were served, 2 wines for each of the three courses, plus Moët on arrival (with canapes). I was thoroughly sick of polishing the glasses by the end.
I'm certainly not built for full time hospitality, I was totally fagged at the end.
