line cook

cook/dishwasher

server

prep cook

personal assistant

Grand Lux Cafe

My first job was at a restaurant, but it was nothing compared to this. For me it is extremely stressful here on busy days. Extremely. People expect A LOT from you here, the guest, the managers, the servers, and being a hostess you have to deal with everyone. Sometimes it is very unfair. On slow days there's really not much to do so i end up working about 2 or 3 hours as a hostess, sometimes even 1 hour 1/2. I wouldn't recommend it. The management is horrible. Example: I've been trying to do something other than being a hostess, I wanna be more productive, so I've been wanting to become a food runner and after that i would like to become a server in the future. I've mentioned this to the same manager three times and he has said the same thing "there has to be a server class". the first time i asked; out of no where there was a server class and we got new servers. I was never informed. The second time I asked; I was told I would be spoken to and again "there has to be a server class, and you just missed it". Nothing happened. The third time I asked; same thing. Also a server class did happen, I wasn't informed AGAIN and they had new food runners. I have informed other managers about my desire to move up, still nothing has happened. I had started studying the new items that were gonna be added to the menu but I started to realize what was going on. Why am I gonna put the effort into something when I am not given the opportunity? When I am oblivious to them? Managers say they wanna see us move up, they wanna see you do more, and I have the desire to do that so why not give me the chance to do it? Also I had quite the encounter with one of the managers. I was basically told I was at fault for him getting yelled at by a guest, it was the most unprofessional moment I have ever experienced. I didn't get the chance to explain the situation and I was already told before I could finish I was doing my job wrong. When I am in the wrong I own up to my mistakes but at no moment was this my fault, an argument started to develop in the front desk and we took it to the office. It was so upsetting, It was the most stressful moment in my life and I should've walked out that day because I didn't deserve to be disrespected i such a way.  I've been there for almost a year now. I am currently looking for another job. There have been some things I have learned, this job has made me confident enough to believe that if I can work here, I can work anywhere. This job has made me stronger and tougher, for this reason I am glad I have experienced this.

This place is awful if you want to work somewhere where you will hate every aching moment of working there no less then a month after being hired then this place is perfect for you. 

Management is so unorganized and passive aggressive they will get upset and angry for the rest of the day at everyone  even if 1 mistake is made no matter what it is it's your fault. If a guest doesn't like something  they blame it on "tour guiding" it's another way of saying we have such high comps and inconsistent food we are going to blame the server for not warning guests of certain meals or 1 ingredient in the dish. You never know if they are going to be nice or horrible everyday you walk in. They will never have your back and go against their own rules constantly to make you look bad and the guest happy even if we get a warning or talked to behind the scenes that we shouldn't do that or can't do that for guests.

The favoritism here is rampant if management does not like you they will make it their mission to make your shifts unbearable giving you no hours and awful sections. Hostess only seat the servers they are romantically involved with and you will open or close with different servers having 1 or 2 tables when another server may have 5 tables due to constant favoritism.

The money is not consistent and has been getting worse and worse they over staff every single day putting as many as 20+ servers on weekends and 10+ on weekdays  you will never get more then 3-4 tables and even though they aren't hitting their expected sales even during "busy season" more then half the time you work a Sunday-Friday you will phased in 2 hours with little to no tables in a lot of sections. You can go on even a Saturday or Sunday and make no more then 100$ on most shifts as checks are higher and tips are getting lower and lower. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The volume and pace are real. If you want to sharpen your operational skills in a high-traffic, full-service environment, you’ll get the reps. The menu complexity and guest expectations will push you, and the floor experience is genuinely transferable.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Toxic leadership culture. Concerns raised through proper channels go nowhere. Good people burn out or leave.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The floor staff are solid and the volume is real. But the GM is the core problem. External managers coming in for training often see it within days and walk …and they’re not wrong. The red flags are visible that fast. If you’re an experienced operator, you’ll recognize immediately that this isn’t a place where good leadership is valued or modeled from the top.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Open or close a high-volume full-service restaurant, manage a large floor team, handle guest recovery, run pre-shifts, and keep operations tight  all the things a good manager does. The actual work is solid. The drain is everything around it: navigating a GM who undermines rather than supports, second-guessing decisions you shouldn’t have to second-guess, and watching good people disengage in real time. You spend as much energy managing up as you do managing the floor.

Middle managers only care about you not making any mistakes. Expects write ups for basically anything. Especially if they do not like you. Coworkers tatle tale about other coworkers to managment . People here are shady. Money is not consistent either. Managers show favoritism. If the GM is there and mistakes are made he is upset the entire day so steer clear. You cannot explain yourself to management about a situation without them blaming you. They will always side with the guest because they would rather not lose a guest and risk loosing employees instead. Their turn over rate is going to get higher due to the lack of respect management does not give to employees and yet they expect us to respect them. Not enough food runners ever. They say we are a family but it is far from that. Feels more like a prison not a restaurant with a manger watching your every move. Policy says you can call out four hours in advance but when you try to do it the day before it's a write up but isnt that more than four hours in advanced? Not consistent with policies. Certain managers talk down to you with an attitude and expect us not to defend ourselves. If one mistake is made managers attitudes change and the rest of the employees feel uncomfortable. You will only enjoy working here the first few weeks then it gets depressing.

A typical day of work was coming into Grand Lux helping to clean the tables and silver ware before opening. I worked here as a second job only two days a week as a hostess. As soon as we open our doors we'd have to have a smile on our faces and be ready to greet the guests properly and walk them to their tables to be seated. 

I've learned working at this job that everyone won't respect you but sometimes you have to brush it off and walk away with a smile on your face. 

Management was awful. I've had the worst experience with one of the managers talking down to me, and being very unprofessional when it came to telling me something that I needed to do which he thought I wasn't doing properly. Which was making more conversation with the guests while walking them to their seat. The way he talked to me was very unprofessional.If he had pulled me aside rather then talk rudely to me in front of guests and workers I would have understood him better. 

My coworkers were always so friendly but I never really built a friendship with them since I only worked there two days a week for only so many hours. 

The hardest part of the job was trying to make sure everything you were doing was perfect, because there were managers all around and they weren't afraid to critique you. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was probably the food!

This was the first restaurant I have worked at, and if you are a first-timer when it comes to restaurants, you should start at another restaurant to get experience first. For hostesses, there are runners, greeters, and fillers. If you are starting as a host at Grand Lux, they will not let you fill tables at first. This means you won't get enough hours for months, and even after that, you still may not get enough hours. I would get an average of 8-12 hours a week, and I could not live off of that. The management team overstaffed the entire restaurant. I do not recommend being a host here for your first host experience. However, if you have hosting experience, then by all means, apply. Basically, do not choose Grand Lux as your first restaurant period, because it will be hard to advance. Otherwise, most of the staff was super nice and helpful, but management was inconsistent. Some managers were super nice and helpful, some micromanaged, and some needed more management skills. Overall, working here was not bad, but if you want to start in the restaurant industry, I would recommend starting at a local restaurant and working your way up from there.

When you start managers tell you that this company is a great place to work, that you have fun, have the opportunity to grow in the company and that every one is a family but none of this is true. The job is very stressful no matter the position, you either get stressed by coworkers or by guests. I have worked here for 2 years and was almost the last one tu get promoted even tho we started at the same time literally and there reasoning is that we are to good on that position for them to move us up and loose us. Rather hire new employees that promote. Constantly over worked due to coworkers calling out, even though we would do the favor of working multiple stations due to someone calling out we would still be getting managers all over rushing us. And the last thing is that there is a lot of employee preference by management, no matter how hard you work, management will only see when you do something wrong. What’s good about the place is the scheduling, availability, insurance and some coworkers are cool and make that shift go by smoother and faster.

A typical day is to go in, check email, run reports from previous business day, count the safe, go through all servers/cashiers/bartenders previous days paperwork and assure the correct amount of money is deposited/ received by each staff member. Look over time reports and check for discrepancies. Input all invoices. Do any misc paperwork, such as: donations, guest letters, payroll or benefits related items and file.

I have learned mostly about accounting related items, accounts payable, labor laws, benefits. Checking id's for new hire paperwork, E-verify, I-9's, W-4's. Anything HR related.

The company is managed very well, just sometimes we can be so busy, it can get hard to get everything done in one day when you keep getting pulled away from your daily routine for things that take a great amount of time like when the system may crash ect.

It is a great company to work for, I have made some great friends, and enjoy the flexibility of my schedule.

My time with this company was nothing short of fantastic. I truly wanted to stay and grow with them. However, they offer peanuts for salary to staff being promoted into management whereas an outside candidate receives a competitive offer. I made leaps and bounds more than my salary offer with a fraction of the responsibility merely bartending or serving. Despite that aspect, I couldn’t have been happier or more proud to be apart of their company. It speaks volumes that they have such strong staff retention compared to other restaurants. Very common to visit a location and have numerous staff members who’ve been there 5 and 10+ years! They take incredibly pride in their methods and systems of operation, it’s remarkable. You don’t know attention to detail until you’ve worked for them. Today’s climate is tough for it to be lucrative for a server or bartender but the culture is worth giving them a try... they’re unlike any restaurant I’ve ever worked for.

I have very little to say about the grand lux cafe! I love the job and the pay from being a server is easily enough to cover my monthly expenses. The lack of a guaranteed income is hurting me in the financial community and my credit is an important issue to me. I have decided that an hourly compensation and or a salary based compensation has become desirable even if it ends up as less than I currently make as a server.
   A typical work day is an enjoyable exercise in greeting new people and providing them with an excellent experience. The pace is high and the management is highly professional and courteous. 
   The team that I work with is very skilled and knowledgeable. I think of them as a family and will do anything to help them.
   The hardest part of the job is in dealing with the unimaginable situations that present themselves in any service industry.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Line cook 1 salary reported	$16.63 per hour
Cook/dishwasher 1 salary reported	$13.25 per hour
Server 1 salary reported	$15.50 per hour
Prep cook 1 salary reported	$26.00 per hour
Personal assistant 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour

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