Below I am going to document things that have happened to me throughout my career.

Well it is Saturday night about 6:30. The restaurant is full, we are on a wait and there a rail and half full of tickets and somehow the gas line behind the fryer springs a leak and is shooting out a steady flame from the hose. This causes the the plastic coating to the line next to it catch on fire. The cooks panic and all leave the line, so I go around the kitchen to find the main valve and the only one I can find is the one for the back prep kitchen. I stop seating the restaurant until we can get the fire out, hoping we do not have to call the fire department. So, I then very carefully pull out the fryer to create enough space to reach back with a long pair of tongs and turn off both the fryer valve and the flat top valve, poor water on the plastic that is on fire, push the equipment back, tell one of the managers to go find all the cooks and we are back in business. However, it is a rough night since we are down one fryer and can not toast our hamburger buns. It sure beat having to close and losing all those sales.

Mothers day 2008 and we are getting ready for a huge brunch and 30 minutes before we open the power goes out. I send people next door to see if they have power and do! I start checking every breaker and I find that the main breaker has blown and won’t reset. I remember from past experience that the Ansel system, when blown will trip main breakers in the area that has went off to shut off power to that area. Only difference is the entire restaurant has lost power. So, I walk around the building looking for anything that might help and I find that someone has broken the glass over the shut switch that the fire department can use to shut the power down. I reset the shunt switch, reset the breaker and fortunately it worked and we are back in business. I could not imagine losing the sales for Mothers day and the only thing I could come up with is that either a prankster, or a disgruntled employee did it, but who knows.
Mothers day in orlando