executive chef

sous chef

assistant restaurant general manager

assistant general manager

host/hostess

Buca di Beppo

A typical day would start with me checking the reservations for the day, calling people to confirm and marking them as confirmed or canceled. Next would be making sure that all reservations have a place on the floor chart with a two hour grace period in between. Once that was done, before the restaurant opened, I would do a quick check of the bathrooms and the paper towel dispensers to make sure that everything was stocked. At the host stand, I would go through every single menu and make sure that each page was clean and dry and ready to be used. I would make sure that the closing host had put away all of the order pads for to-go orders and sales leads in the right place and tidily stored. 
   I learned much about interactions with guests following an assortment of all possible issues involving seating and planning issues. What I have learned as a hostess, and later a server, is that sometimes the best possible circumstances are indeed out of reach for your guest and yourself, and it is your job to inform and assist as necessary to try and make the guest's experience as worthwhile as possible.
   I have had an assortment of managers here and all have been corporate trained by Buca di Beppo headquarters, sometimes transferring in from other restaurants or other Bucas. Managers here do things by the book.
   My co-workers were the reason, besides the pay and the food and the environment, that I ended up staying there so long. I made lifelong friendships and connections there and memories that I will never forget! We had a Christmas party every year and a secret santa program, and we were encouraged to form working relationships with those that we could depend on and learn from. 
   The hardest part of the job is the fast-paced, often stressful learning environment that can be confusing and overwhelming at first, but soon becomes second nature as you learn the routine of opening/closing and providing service. 
   The best part of the job is FAMILY MEAL. Family meal happens when there is new food being added to the menu, we are working during a national holiday, or somebody canceled a large order after it was already prepared. Everyone has their favorite dish, mine being the Spicy Chicken Rigatoni, but virtually everything served at Buca is delicious and addicting and staff collectively RUN to the food to huddle around the kitchen table, standing and eating quickly so as to return to their front of house or back of house duties.

When I went in for my interview, I waited an hour before anyone spoke to me. I knew I should have walked out right then and there if management was already so unorganized before I even secured the job. When I began working, I worked 22 days straight despite being a high school student with other obligations. I wasn't paid my first check until over a month into the job because they "didn't have" my recorded hours. My second and third check was lumped into one sum for the same reasons. The best solution to my issue would have been to give me my clock-in number from day one, and each day I went to work I continually asked for it, but I was never given one until two and a half months into the job when I was finally paid my third and fourth checks and submitted a written record of my hours (although management questioned the validity of some of my days as if I was making things up). Every manager is very unorganized, short-tempered and dishonest. One of them especially had the audacity to refuse to put me on the schedule for a full two weeks because I called out of work because of a family emergency. Another manager, when I told her I could not come in, told my coworkers that I "always" try to call out of weekend shifts when I constantly requested more days to work so that I could save for senior and college payments. When I tried to request being put on the schedule for my coworker's shifts (she had other obligations and could not show for those days) he refused again then grew angry when I asked for the branch manager's contact information so that I could get hours through her. Long story short, he hung up on me in the middle of the conversation.

Over my time at Buca, I worked tirelessly without complaint until they began to limit my schedule time and, in the process, reformed the reservation and server organizer, created an efficient method for reserving tables, at least fifteen minutes before the start of my shift each day, that includes the school week, took up the mantle for bussers when that's not in my job description, took the heat from management over issues concerning the servers and bussers, and got three of my friends hired there. I was not formerly trained and this was only my third job, but I worked the best I could to ensure that everyone, from my coworkers to the guests, enjoyed their time at Buca di Beppo. I'm leaving because they do not respect honest and hard work from their employees.

My job here would normally consist of many duties, i was initially hired under the stipulations of being a server, considering i had 3 years of prior serving experience.
i was told that just after the holidays i would be transitioned to a server, but was asked if in the meantime if i wouldn't mind hosting.
i agreed to hosting until after the holidays, only to find out that i would never actually be transitioned to a server.

i never truly got an answer as to why, even though i came in when asked and did any task needed. instead i decided to not beat a dead horse and try for different positions, i eventually moved to busing, and dishes, and food running, mainly busing, i didn't learn much at this place considering busing i feel is primarily common sense, more physical labor if anything. i honestly did not care much for this position but still stuck to it do to my personal commitment, i would rather hold a job than leave multiple. Overall the management was absolutely horrible, no organization whatsoever, we would run out of silverware every weekend, and plates just as well as cups, which for a restaurant that did pretty good business, to me is appalling, when the busers and servers would get yelled at for these issues, when there were not even enough utensils and plates for the establishment to begin with.

the managers would hardly work with my schedule or many others, i ultimately felt like i was being taken advantage of and one manager in particular was extremely offensive, rude, and unattached entirely from what management should actually be or look like.. I started this job on a high note, very happy, with hopes of what was too come, and ended up wanting nothing more than to just find change. horrible management, no benefits, IMMENSE favoritism, just overall absolutely terrible, and possible one of my worst jobs ever, which beats out fast food when i was just starting to work. 

not to mention they would only give just under thirty hours to avoid giving any benefits, but would often ask servers to work off the clock just as well, to help benefit them not giving benefits.

I’ve been working for Buca almost about six years. I will say in the beginning, it was enjoyable all around. It was always busy, but things ran smoothly. Most employees did or attempted to meet position required responsibilities with help from managers that bothered with accountability and seemed to care. Management has been ever changing, as with most restaurants. However in the past  couple years, it’s really just gone down hill. The building needs lots of updates, it’s an older building, but it needs functionality repairs and that’s putting it nicely. The overall food, leaves much to be desired when it comes to selection, and even with a menu that has been about half deleted, we seem to always be out of or not have something prepped. The size portions seem to be shrinking, while the prices increase. Quality decreasing also, cutting sauce amount and cutting corners to help with food cost numbers doesn’t really seem ethical, or popular with guests.   Most all employees are new hires, but need desperately to be retrained and coached by management, but that is not a priority or even something that seems to be on the radar for the current management team.  Managers are supposed to be managing, but are in the back playing on their phones most of the time. If you have any questions or concerns or ask for clarification or for them to show help explain anything, beware of setting off a negative sarcastic condescending rant without a helpful or productive response. You’re better off not even bothering, and you won’t be getting any type of managerial support. Seems so backwards. The worst part is that it is totally avoidable, or more like unavoidable. It really was a great place to work before. The money was great too. Now the scheduling is sloppy, either super over staffed or super understaffed. Tips are still descent, and at the end of the day, that is why I continue to work there. I once upon a time looked forward to going into work. 

Run don't walk away from here. If you are a server you've got the best spot followed by hosts and AGM's, forget big cash If you are bartending, servers don't tipshare as they should and Buca doesn't do anything to promote the bar except push specialty drinks from table servers which bartenders must fulfill. If you are management or sales then things get really interesting. While pay is good it's not fair for the amount of stress that goes with it! Expectations being barked from remote upper management with little explination or support to execute. New protocols are almost as plentiful as the coupons that are sent out which systems are not sufficient for handling or management shown how to do it correctly so numbers are frequently off. Communication severely lacks from top to bottom setting everyone up for failure. Beware of the major holidays. Operational staff is worked to the bone especially due to under staffing. Management must make the best of it and sales are pushed to meet high expectations but no correlation between all the systems to gain an actual forecast to effectively plan for them. Very little encouragement and support are given to anyone top to bottom. A box of treats at the holidays, an extremely small budget to feed staff on the holidays and blackout dates from Thanksgiving to the week of New Year's are wonderful for encouraging time with the family also being forced to work 6 days a week while dangling 3 days off after only works if you are allowed to have enough staff to cover that amount of time off. Little tolerance is given for time off even if you have it coming to you. It's a decent time gap filler before your next career stop but as so many others don't expect job security especially in the local sales area they have a national sales office in Orlando that does all the same things outside of hosted events or trade shows that local staff do, they wiped out all the sales managers and drove business back to corporate not so long ago so they're not afraid to do it again if sales in the restaurant don't meet spec.

I have only been there about 3 months now, and so far it’s been pretty ok. I was only so generous with my above score because I made so much money there. It won’t be like that for long though because people are getting tired of the inflated food prices and then having to tip the 20% of that inflated price also. My training was everything but professional, half the time my trainer didn’t even know they were training me or they just weren’t on time and I was stuck sitting there waiting. Every single day I come in we are 86 at the very least 3-5 MAIN ingredients so I have to write down all of the dishes we can’t sell for the day, and we usually run out of a few more further into my shift. Management was way too good for that place, they went above and beyond for a lot of stuff they didn’t have to. The whole restaurant has a very old, dark, HOT, and musty gross feeling to it. They never even told me to use a sanitizer or even windex to wipe my tables down literally just a towel and sink water was okay for them. Can you imagine the build up from all the servers before me on that table??? Yeah disgusting. Customers were pretty cool when they weren’t mad that we were charging them so much money for spaghetti. Be prepared for your hours to get SLASHED for no reason, just because it’s been “super slow” lately… they pretty much told me and a few others that we are very good at what we did and there is a place out there that is more deserving of our skills, but unfortunately it wasn’t buca…. Not too sure what that means but from what I heard is that things got so slow they couldn’t afford to keep us on. 
It was a pretty cool laid back place as long as you didn’t eat there, and made friends with anyone. You would be able to be late every day if you wanted and majority of the time no one would even notice? (Food quality was like if you made a dish and decided to eat it 3 days later…. Thats what EVERY dish tasted like :P)

At one time, Buca di Beppo was a fantastic place to work, especially for college students or people in need of a second job. The evening hours were attractive, the tips were decent, and the corporate philosophy included loyalty to employees and providing a positive work environment. All that changed when Planet Hollywood bought Buca. Suddenly, the perks that promoted a good environment disappeared. It was little issues at first, but then employees noticed that all the positives disappeared and the negatives started. Buca employees must work nearly every holiday. That includes Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, and typically the day before and after. We used to rotate, but soon management made holidays mandatory. The store level managers are typically untrained, not team players and micromanagers - the antithesis of what every management program teaches. Management tends to have their favorite servers, and of course they get the big parties and the high tipping guests. The rest of the employees must scrounge what tips they can get from the rest of the guests.

Buca consists of a good idea, with decent employees, run by self-serving and petty, untrained managers. They are directed by a corporate climate that promotes dishonesty, no employee loyalty, programs that distract from the core mission, greed and a system that blames employees for the poor decisions made at corporate.

My recommendation: don't rely on Buca for a living. If you need a second job, it is easy to make some money there. However, expect to be treated as a servant and if you work hard and do everything they ask, expect to be treated like dirt some more.

It was a awful experience to say the least where to begin if enjoy holidays and time with your family you can forget about it more then any other restaurant job if you're looking for room for growth there is none here to be had all you can really expect is stressful work environment designed to fail the favoritism is extreme and very self evident and you will be held accountable for things that have nothing to do with you they have a labor and a food cost that is unreasonable and no one ever bonuses and if you are looking to manage forget about it you will be stuck in a hourly role and still have all your management duties to perform finding anyone that wants to work here is difficult when you explain that they will be working Christmas eve and Day and New Years and Thanksgiving employees that have been with the company for a while are basically paid informants to upper management and will continue to sabotage any changes you make and report any minor mistakes you make directly to people way above your head you will be held to standard that doesn't exist as well broken and unusable equipment that you will never be able to get Repaired or replaced the revolving door of management means there's never any stability and promotion from within is non existing the training is just as awful and you will most likely be sent out of state for weeks getting sick is not an option and you will be reprimanded for any time you have to take for being ill doctors note and all overall avoid this place at all costs and save yourself and your career 

Reviewing and returning all messages/emails from prior evening.  Constant contact with clients/guests with exceptional service. Inputting daily inquiries into the Delphi program. Including ten cold calls per day. High phone volume. Setting up to ten off site meetings with corporate contacts to provide essential materials of our services, regarding in house dining and catering events.  Setting up three lunch meetings with potential clients per week. High standards of public relations and customer service.

I've learned that follow up is a strong component to securing my client relationships and  sales goals.

The management team is a strong support of my services and this is in relation to daily communications we build together.  

The co-workers are amazing and caring to not only myself, but to all the guest services that are required.  Communicate with me on all levels to assure a positive guest experience. Positive enviorment!

Unexpectation of high sales goals without evaluating the yearly economy. For Example, during the recession I was still expected to meet a high sales goal

The most enjoyable part of this job for me is assuring that each of my clients experience the highest customer service from me.  I appreciate building lasting relationships with my clients with loyalty and honesty.

During the slow season there is less shifts available during the weekdays. Weekends they bring in a few more people. This past year (during the slow season) I've seen servers walk out with as low as $10 in tips because only one table would come in during the whole shift. Morning shift for servers often don't get a host/takeout/food runner/busser (no extra pay for taking on those positions) BUT you keep those tips!
Theres more shifts and the restaurant is overall busier during the holidays, and they tend to hire a lot more people to help out. If there aren't enough servers already or they aren't able to hire enough they usually try to move people up to that position. Heads up during the holidays it's hard for the restaurant to stay consistent with their inventory or quality which can be difficult to explain to guests.
Management isn't consistent with uniforms and the standards of upselling and can at times be unprofessional when communicating. Workplace culture with upper management tends to be better for employees who stay on managements good side.
There's been a high turnover for hourly employees and even higher turnover rate for upper management. Sometimes this can prove to be tricky considering everyone has their own way of running things. 
They forget to mention before you apply but you are required to work Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Executive chef 2 salaries reported	$69,541 per year
Sous chef 1 salary reported	$60,000 per year
Assistant restaurant general manager 31 salaries reported	$63,355 per year
Assistant general manager 1 salary reported	$65,000 per year
Host/hostess 7 salaries reported	$13.14 per hour

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