Category Archive

Tonight I received a phone call in regards to a guests’ experience in Derry. She explained she had a very long day and was stuck in horrible traffic on 93 so came in to eat to escape the traffic, relax and kind of decompress from the day. She was with her daughter and just needed to come in for some food and wrap up her day with a drink before going home. She continued to stress how she needed to just have a nice meal. I started to feel like she was about to tell me of a horrible experience when she just needed to have an enjoyable time for whatever reason. I could hear the shakiness in her voice. What followed made me incredibly proud of my server. Tara took wonderful care of this mother and daughter. Made them feel well “taken care of”. She was kind and friendly and made their experience worth the stop. See, What had happened that day was enough to exhaust and deplete anyone. They spent the day at CMC. Her husband had Bi-Pass Surgery that day and although it went well it was a terrifying day. They experienced exactly what they needed. When Tara came over with the check she delivered a chocolate cake and said after  a long hard day you deserve to have a piece of chocolate cake. Maybe that will make you feel a little better once you’ve made it home. Tara could sense her sadness and just made one very simple gesture to try to make her smile. It was so heartwarming and to think Tara didn’t know anything about this woman’s day but was moved to do something kind. The woman did all she could to not be moved to tears inside the restaurant and waited to get home to call me and thank me for Tara’s Random Act of Kindness.  After she shared her story and wanted to make sure I knew how special Tara’s experience was with this woman I asked her for her address and am sending her a Gift Certificate so she and her husband can come out to eat and dine in once he’s recovered and home. They of course will ask for Tara. This isn’t my typical RAK story done on my own but certainly worth leaving here as it embodies everything our RAKs  stand for. I will be reading the story at premeal and give her a gift certificate in front of her peers so she can know how special she is and what she did for this woman and her daughter on a most difficult day. I’ll share it on Staff Matters once I’ve made a big deal about it “in house” 🙂

I had the pleasure of meeting a woman who has befriended a young man that lives next door. He is Autistic/Asperger’s Syndrome and is high functioning so he helps her out around the house, does her landscaping, odd jobs etc.. She helps him with social interactions, someone to talk to and brings him out to lunch. He only comes here!!! Although he struggles with social skills, he is confident ordering a chicken pot pie and dining in at our Derry location. He is a triplet and at 20 years old he is watching his sisters go off to college and it difficult for him since he doesn’t get to do the things we take for granted. This woman is his friend and our store is his place. After he left I sat and joined the woman for a little bit while she told me their story. I presented her with a gift card so they could come out for lunch again and gave her the RAK certificate to pay it forward and together find someone they could give it to. She wanted to let him give it to his parents and proudly say it was because he did such a good job today saying “thank you”. We went one step further and I issued another Gift Card so he could give his parents the opportunity to go out to dinner themselves.  She was thrilled and of course I made her cry. It was a very emotional conversation and was at the beginning of the shift. It definitely changed the course of the day for me as I’ve been having my own personal world a little upside down lately so this was a huge reminder that there are better things to focus on and be grateful for.

Yesterday a young woman came in anxiously awaiting the arrival of her sons. They joined her, ordered drinks and an appetizer, and left almost as quickly as they came in. She was left with an order she had placed, asked for it to go and was visibly upset although clearly working hard at not showing it. I went over, asked her about her day and she explained it was supposed to be her birthday lunch with her sons. I wanted to make her birthday day a little happier. I bought her take out and gave her a gift card to come back with her family for a nice meal. It definitely made her feel a little better about spending the time alone. We wished her well to enjoy the holidays and asked her to pass it along with a RAK certificate. Not the birthday dinner planned but at least we made it a little more special!

A couple months ago, I received a message on our Derry T-BONES FB page with an image of a young boys homework. It showed his family dynamics and things the family does that he loves. Amongst it was his favorite place to go and favorite thing to do as a family. Guess what it was…….”go to T-BONES”. So I responded back asking his dad to message me with their address so I could send him a letter addressed to him with a GC attached so he could come in and buy his own dinner next time. His dad messaged back and after he received the letter let me know how ecstatic he was and what it meant to him. Tonight they visited and asked for me, thankfully I was working. I asked his family if I could take him to the kitchen area and show him a surprise. On our “star” board is a picture of his homework. I brought him over and showed him when people say something nice about our servers we like them to feel good and display the message. And that’s just what his paper did. He was awestruck to see his writing and copy of his homework on the board saying Going to T-bones is what’s so special about his family. They were visiting to celebrate his mom’s birthday tonight. They wished for no dessert so when finished I went over with a GC for their next visit so he could take his family out for dessert and then do something nice for someone else with our RAK certificate. He was there with extended family so they explained the idea to him about paying it forward and he thanked me for making his night. The big smile on his face when he walked out with the RAK certificate in hand it couldn’t have felt any better.

A very nice gentleman came in this evening and asked one of our employees if he could take advantage of our military discount day. He was mistaken which day we appreciate our vets with the 25% discount day. Anthony kindly responded with no I’m sorry you are a day early. If you come in on Tuesdays, you will receive a discount up to 6 people of 25%. After telling me about the situation, I decided to offer him a better deal. We took care of their meals and offered up a RAK certificate to Pay It Forward and he was super impressed with how we took care of him tonight. It makes me proud to be able to show our appreciation to not only our valued guests but those that are military veterans who deserve the respect and appreciation every day.

I was getting in the Christmas Spirit, so I wanted to do a little something different. The RAK certificates I have on hand expire shortly so I wanted to just do a few nice things for some guests. I was talking with guests about Christmas shopping recently and getting ready for the holidays. Amongst those folks, I’d look at their bills to see who had appetizers I could take off. To promote a chain reaction of giving, I’d then go strike up a conversation with a few different people and tell them I had started early and was buying them their appetizer. They were surprised and I just said “All I ask is you do something nice for someone else”.

Tonight Christy told me about a couple that visits our store regularly. They have a daughter that was not with them but her boyfriend was. They shared with Christy that he had taken the parents out for dinner and was asking for their daughter’s hand in marriage. He was taking her tomorrow and had a whole plan in place, it was beautiful. This young man impressed upon the rest of us that maybe…just maybe chivalry is not dead. We bought their meals this evening, shared a GC with the young man, soon to be a fiancé, offered up a RAK certificate to pass along the RAK. We can’t wait for him to come in and share their story!