For this week’s Career Spotlight, Matt Al-Nimri sits down with Dear Normal to discuss his experience as a server in the food service industry.
Matt Al-Nimri works at Martins BBQ, a local Nashville bbq chain where locals and tourists alike love to eat. Matt works as a server at Martins where he must take on several roles and juggle multiple tasks as well as dealing with customers and a working team all at once. Matt has the responsibility of completing a number of tasks while working an average shift such as taking orders, running food, making sure that the presentation of the food meets the restaurant’s standards before bringing it to the table, making sure the restaurant is stocked, cleaning throughout the day, and making sure that the customer experience is one to write home about.
Matt also works in the world of catering through Martins BBQ. With catering comes several unique opportunities and the chance to create a unique experience not only for loyal customers of Martin’s BBQ but also for himself. Through catering he got the opportunity to work with the Atlanta Falcons, the Tennessee Titans, and several more interesting organizations. While setting up a unique experience for fans to enjoy, Matt gets to interact with the players, team members, and loyal fans and customers of both Martins BBQ and the team that they are supporting.
Matt describes his favorite part of working at Martins BBQ as being able to interact with people from all over the world, and the unique opportunity that the service industry provides to meet people within all walks of life. He provides detail by saying that it is very inspirational to him that he is able to hear someone’s story and make an impact on someone’s day through the act of creating a pleasant food experience for them. With Martins being one of Nashville’s faces of bbq, there is a lot of pressure riding on Matt and the team to make the customer’s experience worthwhile.
Matt continues to reflect on the many lessons that Martins has taught to him and the ability it has given him to come up with solutions on the spot and the opportunity to guide a team through a successful shift. He says that he knows it has been a great shift when both the customers and the team can walk away smiling.
See you next time,
Dear Normal
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