AND ROOM SERVICE

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 698.

TEXT 2

Give the detailed retelling of the text.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE DEPARTMENT (PART 2)-

BARS, SNACK-BARS, COCKTAILLOUNGES

Inaddition to a restaurant, most hotels also have a bar or cocktail loungewhere drinks are served. Bartenders work behind the bar, which, of course, is the long counter familiar through­out the world. They mix drinks and serve them to the custom­ers at the bar. Additional waiters or waitresses are needed to serve customers who are seated at tables. In a very busy bar, one bar­tender may fill orders only for the waiters while others take care of the guests at the bar. The bartenders usually act as cashiers in addition to their other duties. The bar or cocktail lounge may also offer food service, although it is usually simpler than the food served in the hotel dining room. Fast food, such as sand­wiches or hamburgers, is customary.

Providing meals and drinks in the guests' rooms is another Service extended by most hotels. Room service is ordered by telephone from a menu that is placed in each room. The menu itself in some cases is the same as the one for the dining room, but more often it is simplified to make for easier preparation and service. Special employees take the orders and special waiters carry them to the rooms. To ш! down on orders for ice and soft drinks, many hotels have machines on each floor to dispense these items.

Room service in most hotels closes down at the same time the kitchen does, normally between ten o'clock and midnight. A few hotels, however, are prepared to provide sandwiches even during the late-night hours. Some luxury hotels have small kitchens or pantries on each floor that are used either for warm­ing food or for preparing breakfasts. More room service orders are for breakfasts than for any other meal. In some hotels, the guest can order breakfast before he goes to bed by filling out a slip which he /eaves outside the door. The meal is then served at the time the guest has specified.

Even in hotels with more than one restaurant, there is usu­ally just one central kitchen. The special types of food served in the various restaurants are normally prepared by different chefs and cooks rather than in separate kitchens. The food and bev­erage service is then supplemented and the delivery of it speed­ed up by means of service bars and pantries. There are, of course, exceptions to this arrangement, but the efficient use of space for storage of the many items that must be kept on hand for the restaurants and bars. These items include not only the food and beverages themselves, but items such as table linens, dishes, knives, forks, spoons, plate warmers, trays, ashtrays, aprons and dish towels.

One food and beverage facility that is often not connected with the main hotel kitchen is the snack-bar. The snack-bar is small unit that provides fast-order foods and drink service to guests who are using the hotel's swimming pool or some other recreational facility. Snack bars are a prominent feature of re­sort hotels. Where the recreational facilities are in great demand, the snack bar often has its own staff of cooks, usually of the short-order variety, and waiters and waitresses.

Hotels generally employ a large number of workers in pro­portion to the number of guests; this is especially true in the food and beverage department. The restaurant business as a whole is one of the most labour-intensive of all industries, and this is true whether the restaurant is in a hotel or not. Much of the activity in connection with food and beverage service is invisible to the guests, but many of the employees in the department have fre­quent contact with them. These especially include the dining room and room service personnel. They must adhere to the same standards of hospitality and courtesy as all the other employees who meet and talk with the guests in the hotel.

(by E.J. Hall)

Comprehension questions:

1. What are some of the jobs in the bar and cocktail lounge of a hotel?

2. How does food service in a hotel bar usually differ from food service in the restaurant?

3. What is involved in providing hotel room service? How do many hotels cut down on orders for ice and soft drinks?

4. What amount of room service is customarily provided at night?

5. What meal is most frequently ordered from room service? How can this meal be ordered in some hotels?

6. Why do most hotels have only one central kitchen? How is food for different restaurants prepared in this case?

7. What additional space is needed by the food and bever­age department?

8. What kind of food and beverage facility is often not con­nected with the main kitchen? What kind of food and beverage service does it provide?

9. Do hotel food and beverage departments employ a large or small number of employees?

10. Which employees of the food and beverage department have frequent contact with the guests? What standards must they adhere to?