I went on an interview
Establishment: A Village Eatery
Location: Greenwich Village
I was very unhappy with my current job. What looked like a good waitering position quickly turned into a situation where I was just not able to support myself so with self preservation as my guide I began looking for a new job.
So I show up at my interview. I\’m a few minutes early. The only person in the entire restaurant is a porter who speaks no English. Being a few minutes early I figure it\’s wise to wait. So i wait…and i wait and i wait and i wait.
About a half an hour later a gentleman who had obvously been partying very hard greets me. he had been in the upstairs office, didn\’t know i was here and while one of the managers…not the manager I made the interview with. He keeps me company untill the general manager shows up (\”she gets here when she gets here\”) and this guy was a mess. Wired out of his skull, eyes bugged out, lip licking cotton mouth, slurred and disjointed speech.I decided to hang more out of the same kind of morbid curiosity one would feel when viewing a bloody car crash. When the gm finally showed up she didnt even remember she made the interview and told me to come back two days later at the same time.
I sent her an email the next day to confirm my appointment and when it wasn\’t confirmed I decided to blow off the interview completely.
And lucky me…I ended up scoring one of the best jobs I\’ve ever had and remain there today. An event which wouldn\’t have happened had I ended up working for these people and stopped my job search. I\’m so happy I love my job.
Few nights ago on my way home from work I passed this \”popular little village restaurant\”.
The windows were papered up and it was out of business.
Village Restaurant in Greenwich Village…I salute you.
Comments
That is why I have so much trouble believing anything on this site. I have been a server, bartender and floor manager for many restaurants over the years and I have seen post after post that was just bs. I just read one about Red Robin and I find it hard to believe that a nationally successful chain would let any of their franchisees run the place as was mentioned. All I am saying is don’t believe everything you read. The Village Pourhouse is accused of not paying properly. A business usually won’t be able to retain employees or vendors or anything else if it doesn’t pay. I agree with the poster. A lot of people open restaurants because it sounds like it will be a fun business. The reality is that it is a very difficult business and the hardest part is managing the young people who want to make a quick buck as servers and bartenders and who could care less about anything else including guests.
You lost subway fare?! Boo-Hoo!!! Welcome to reality, you spoiled, little brat! Quit your Bitching!!!
OMG! You spent $5 for subway fare! Not only did you not get an interview, but you were screwed by the MTA! You should have only spent $4.50 for the round trip! No wonder you are so bitter… Boo-Hoo! Quit your bitching and join the real world you heartless f*ck!
i am in the real world.
you guys are asking for compassion when you give absolutely none. last year when i showed up for my interview i needed the job. i had no money. that 4.50 i wasted along with my time would have been better spent feeding my family some mac and cheese but instead i had to be subjected to crackhead theater.
i have worked for restaurants that have closed down on me…four of them in fact. guess what they all had in common?
managers who did too much coke and blew off their appointments.
the only thing that would make this sweeter is when some of your resumes come across my bar…they’re going right in the trash.
good luck…thanks to you guys i know how hard it is out there.
I’ve been looking for a job he in the city for 4 months. I can’t tell you thea mount of confirmed interviews I’ve gone to only to have the manager not be there or to be told to come back the next day. It’s not fair, but it’s not uncommon. This site is a forum to let people know about the sketchy restaurant jobs are out their so we can avoid them. Thanks for the warning, but T\this place is closed, so this posting is of no good use to anybody.
I think the bottom line is it’s just very rude to make a scheduled interview appointment and blow it off. All it takes is a calendar book or electronic scheduler. This wouldn’t happen at a professional interview (i.e. not a restaurant) and they’re much busier and have a lot responsibilities.
Give the guy a break, yeah, $5 is not so much but a whole afternoon wasted, that sucks.
Why do you care so much about this? Did you really want to work there so bad that you’ve carried this chip on your shoulder? I say you are better off without it, so who cares?
i cared~at the time i was also working a full time job that wasn’t paying my bills. i had two afternoons a week to go job hunting, my rent was late and my utilities were rapidly approaching a turn off date. as stated above all it would have taken was one simple phone call. the non coked out manager…when she finally showed up rolled her eyes at me, didn’t offer an apology and told me i simply have to come back later.
you know what? the way it works in this city is these two people are probably going to move onto another management position behaving the same exact way bringing everybody else down while the people they hurt are the ones out of work and money trying to get by and those people who are actually getting hurt are feeling guilty and sorry for people who used them. i for one am tired of it and it made me feel justified…yes justified seeing this business fail. it restored my faith that eventually people get whats coming to them. the only reason i didn’t post this here last year was i didn’t know this website existed at the time.
i do now.
this is hardly the first nightmare interview i’ve been on…what makes it stand out for me is the precision of it all. i had two options: either go back for a “follow up” interview which was never confirmed or look elsewhere. had i blown off my “elsewhere” interview and chosen to go back and see cracky and cranky i probably would have ended up homeless…one split second decision changed the entire past year for me.
point to all this: you guys find yourselves in a similar spot get the fuck out and stop sticking up for the people who abuse you.
and yes…i do believe the managers spent their last few weeks being awake for 80 hours.
Hi, I worked at Village and the people there where wonderful! Quite honestly, it was the best job I’ve ever had in my life. I worked there 7 years with Stephen Lyle, Chef/Owner, and he happens to be a great man. I learned so much from him, both in the buisness and in life. There was a time that we had Manager problems, true (we went through a string of them in one calander year), but in the last 2 years we had the same two managers and they were great! I’m sorry that you got screwed on the first interview, but you should have come back! You missed out on working with really great people and at a great spot for West Village Residents (ofcourse, if you had, you would be like me, looking for a job!). The reason the spot closed was the landlord doubling the rent….we lived month to month for a full year before someone picked up the bloated lease and we were kick out. Had nothing to do with cocain or crakhead managers. And for the record, I was never abused by, nor did I ever see anyone be abused while working at Village Restaurant…it was a great place and I will remember it fondly for the rest of my life. And since you brought it up, is you place really hiring?
Saying your rent doubled sounds like a spin to me. I can believe a business can fall so far behind on it’s rent and bills that it *feels like* your rent doubled (I’ve seen this happen).
Sorry you guys lost your jobs.
The restaurant business would crumble in this city if it weren’t for the coke. The restaurant business crumbles in this city because of coke. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it.
Probably WHY a once successful restaurant went down.
Have you ever been working for a place that is on the verge of closing? It is quite a traumatic time for everyone involved both emotionally and financially. Have a little compassion. So what, you didn’t get an interview for a closing restaurant. Why cry and make such a big deal about it? Does it make you feel better to smear a dead restaurants name and reputation? In the final month Village was open, the Managers worked around the clock, 80+ hours a week, trying to find a way to litterally keep the place open, and you wanna bitch that you didn’t get an interview? Let it go… Let it go. Just be happy you have a job and pray that your restaurant doesn’t close on you with minimal notice.