[Blarg]

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Blarg,

The hostess in a place like this is not generally of any supervisory or managerial nature. And it's pretty standard for bars/restaurants to go straight to hell if an owner/manager isn't there. That's just the way they work.

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Don't agree on the latter. If that happens, it's probably because the owner is either the chef, or because he has not properly trained his employees. I'd count any business where the owner steps out and the place crashes down as a significant failure no matter how much money it's making. I don't think you're giving enough credence to proper training, to empowering employees to make decisions even expecting it of them, and even to hiring a manager if you can't figure out how to do those things yourself.

I've been in charge of things like this, and my family has experience in this kind of thing. Every little fart in the bathtub getting to the owner is not the only way to do this.

You may well have to go through a LOT of people before you find ones good enough to not make this the case, though. High turnover industry, and not always voluntary.