Planet Hollywood

Planet Hollywood 2001

Age: Twenty-Six

I love Hawaii. I love the sun, the beach, the warmth, the culture, the nature; I love all that Hawaii has to offer.

 I moved there with my sister after college just because. No other reason. We wanted to experience a place other than the Midwest and our dear friends, the Fonio Family, had lived there for thirteen years and had always raved about it.

So, after contemplating the idea for a few minutes, our decision was made, plans were executed and in a matter of weeks, off to Hawaii we flew, eager to get out of the cold and onto a towel on Waikiki Beach.

Our Minnesota selves found a studio flat two blocks from Waikiki Beach. It was such a great place to live. It put us right in the middle of all of the action.

We spent the first few weeks of our existence sun bathing by day and club hopping by night. Duke’s became our second home because of the tiki hut atmosphere and the close proximity to our apartment. Ahhh….the beach life. It was sooooo sweet. Too sweet, I guess, because we soon realized that we were spending an awful lot of money in this expensive Honolulu town without an income. Enter project job hunt.

We filled out countless applications and were turned down by almost every restaurant in the city. After a month of not working and only spending, we started to get nervous. Then, out of nowhere, our luck changed and Planet Hollywood came to the rescue. Soon we were waiting tables and pulling in some much needed cash.

Initially, I believed that Hawaii was a paradise where one could go and never have another problem again. Really that was my thinking. Unfortunately, I was wrong. In my defense, I was not alone in this sentiment. My friend Rudy honestly believed that if he moved to Hawaii, paradise would change his sexuality from gay to straight. He soon realized that switching location did not change his sexual preference and lo and behold, he was still gay. 

I was not trying to run away from anything, I just hoped that life in Hawaii would be carefree and laid back. No worries. But truth be told, normal problems are everywhere, even in paradise.

My horrible night in the beautiful city of Honolulu occurred at my workplace. There was nothing abnormal to start my shift; a Friday night, the usual Friday night staff, lovely weather and the outdoor patio.

The patio had a tropical feel with a tiki bar, a beautiful dolphin water fountain and a live band that drew in customers. It also overlooked Kalakaua Avenue, which was always busy with cars, buses and pedestrians. Even though we were not located on the ocean side, this popular street helped us stay in business.

The patio held about twenty tables that were split between three servers. We were busy but usually had few complaints. And a busy server often means big tips. It is a weird phenomenon but when a restaurant is slow with fewer customers, people tend to tip less and if a restaurant is packed and servers are running around under control yet with purpose, people tend to tip more. Strange but true.

Speaking of tipping, we included tip cards with the bill for all of our foreign customers. Most European and Asian countries do not tip. The servers in those countries are paid a decent hourly wage or salary therefore tipping is not necessary. In the US, servers are paid minimum wage (if that) and therefore live off of tips. Tip cards respectfully inform foreign travelers of the US tip custom. I was reluctant to us this card until I got burned a few times. Working for minimum wage does not pay the bills in Hawaii.

That night customers started flowing in at a normal pace, allowing for time to deliver drinks and make small talk with the guests. Soon we had a full house and a waiting list. Good for us. Well, good for us until it started raining.

The bar was inside and had half as many tables as the patio. People usually filled up the outside leaving the inside tables vacant. Well, after it started raining, our customers moved from the outside in and overflowed the place.

Customers on the move caused so much confusion. I knew my customers according to their table numbers and their orders, not their faces. Now, I had to seek them out as drink and food orders came up hoping to remember who ordered what. In the meantime, the rain started to let up and the tables outside began to fill up with new customers. So now, I had several tables inside that I couldn’t keep straight and new tables outside that added to my stress level.

I was running around, trying to make sense of it all, when I noticed that the food servers were unaware of the rain and the problems it had caused, so they were delivering food to the table number on the ticket. Because my customers had moved inside, the table numbers on the ticket were now incorrect and needed to be ignored. But in the chaos of it all, the food servers were ill informed, so they brought food out to the wrong guests!

Then I saw it. A table of two, who had not ordered a thing, was eating food that was accidentally delivered to them. My “real” customer, the one who had actually ordered the food, noticed the problem and said, “Hey, are they eating our food?” I did not know what to do except walk out to the guests, eating food they had not ordered, and explain to them that this was a mistake.

Well, these customers happened to be Japanese and did not speak a word of English. So, I tried my best to explain the controversy, I noticed that several other food orders were being delivered to the wrong tables as well.

I immediately left the Japanese couple and stopped the food server to explain the rain dilemma. Then, I grabbed the food tray from him and luckily found the customers who had actually ordered the food. I desperately needed a minute to catch my breath so I could start thinking clearly, but that was not going to happen. As I turned from my only satisfied customer, I ran into a stream of words from a disgruntled customer that included “incompetent” and “disorganized.”

I was starting to lose my mind. I did not know which problem to fix first. I had to reorder food to replace the food that was delivered to the wrong tables, I had drinks sitting on the bar that had not been delivered, I had people waiting for their tab and others waiting to order. Ahhhh!!!!!