Patron Small Talk / Chat

[Adan]

11 hours ago, Jonathan Hughes said:

I don't think the chef going around table to table is that common. Manager yes, chef no. Maybe I just don't go to fancy enough restaurants. But unless you know someone, I wouldn't do it. I'd be really uncomfortable and a bit annoyed if someone came to my table and I was forced to0 converse with them instead of whoever I was with.

Fair points. All of this falls under the categories of "people skills" and "reading a room." You can either make a positive difference or you can mess things up, depending on your talents in those areas. Being a musician (i.e., spending countless hours alone with your instrument or locked in a room with a few bandmates) doesn't necessarily have much cross over with developing good people skills. I would credit my good people skills to my parents and my day job. But we all have to work with what we've got, and if you don't have good "work a room" skills, you're probably not going to develop them in time for a gig next week.

[re Pete]

In the past, I took a solo weekend gig at a restaurant playing a console piano and the pay was subpar. I did it to develop as it was my first steady solo gig.

The tips were ok, but the owner thought apparently it was ok to pay you low and suggested I work the room going table to table. 

Personally I found it insulting to work while on break. And if I was eating a meal why would I want to be interrupted? So no. I talked with them as they went by the piano if needed and acknowledged the regulars. 

I got some useful playing experience but owner was so cheap he only tuned the piano 2 times a year. 

I went out of my way and tuned it each month for nothing. 

I had enough and departed.   

[Adan]

Playing a place that has a regular crowd is a very different thing from a one off event. I've made good, long-lasting friends who I met because they were regulars where I was playing.  Sure, they might be degenerate barflies, but so am I when I'm playing these gigs. And of course, in a gig like that, you end up in conversations between sets.