maid cafe @ karaoke party 2 -- feedback!

[chrono]

Thank you all for coming to our first Maid Cafe!
It was a lot of fun, and we hope you enjoyed as well

If you have any shout-outs, comments, feedback, pics, please post here!

[Binah]

I had a couple issues. I think there should have been more than 1 person in the kitchen. No offense, but it was taking a while for items to be brought out and I feel if it weren't our friends waiting, strangers (like if it were at Genericon or something) may have gotten a little antsy. If there's that many people at once, especially for a larger table, maybe 2 fast paced workers in the kitchen is a good idea. Like one does food and the other does tea. I noticed the maids (and butler) were just standing around waiting most of the time...
Also I feel being able to pick your maid is a bit unfair. I don't mean to sound this way, but more people may pick others (whether they know them or other reasons) but it can hurt other's feelings that aren't picked and that sucks.
I don't mean to drop names, but I know that majority of the reason why she wasn't picked was because most of the people there were new and no one really knew her from her being gone for 8 months. But still I really felt bad cause I know her and so did a handful of us. I liked being able to pick someone (given reason) but at the same time, I still felt bad. So maybe this could also be worked out in some way.
Those are my only two cents. I think Amber did a good job organizing it for a first chance. I think everyone was cute and did a good job. The little game at the end was funny. XD
I hope this doesn't offend anyone or upset anyone, it's just what I feel could be fixed to make it better. ^_^;

[Phoenix]

No I agree with you Nikki. You really needed one person plating food, one doing tea and one doing dishes as they come in. Alyssa F. was nice enough to help with dishes, a big thank you there. I was trying my best to get things out fast, but the flan was giving me a huge headache. Next time, NO FLAN, NO ICE CREAM. These things take too long to plate. Maids were originally going to serve the beverages themselves, but that changed last minute. I think it would help if they did that, if there aren't enough people to help the kitchen out.

Also, I told Amber that the guests shouldn't be able to pick their maid,as I thought that this would be unfair and overwhelming for anyone with a lot of requests. I don't think you can pick a maid in traditional Maid Cafes. I mean, you can't really pick your waitress in a restaurant.

Other than those things, I think everyone had fun. ^_^

[EndofWorld]

I agree about picking your maid/ buttler and feelings etc.

As far as the kitchen I didn't know that help was needed even though I was just kind of standing around chatting. Next time if help is needed for specific jobs feel free to ask. Especially since it was mostly our own club members anyways. As somone new to meetings I was trying to stay out of the way but wouldn't have minded helping out in the kitchen.

To help with the influx of people maybe revise the time slots, number of available tables, or up the number of kitchen staff which was kind of hard with the small kitchen.

I don't know exactly how the kitchen was running to make suggestions about stream lining the drinks but I don't think that with a small kitchen having lots of people coming in and out for drinks would have helped.

I also noticed that it was really difficult for Amber to get people's attention for the final event once everyone was dispersed. Eventually it came together but if we were to get a bigger cafe or more guests this may be a problem in the future also.

Having sign up sheets for events is really useful. Its helps people know what needs to be contributed and lets organizers know what is left to take care of.

[chrono]

What, no ice cream?! D:

[chrono]

On a related note, I'm curious if anyone ordered maccha on top of their ice cream?
I had kinako/caramel on my first scoop, and azuki on my 2nd, and they were both very good

[chrono]

Also I feel being able to pick your maid is a bit unfair.

I agree with this concept.
Not even thinking about what repercussions it may have, I've never had a case where I've gone to a Maid Cafe and was able to pick my maid.

[pink_pen_faerie]

Okay, let's see...

Picking out your maid or butler: I understand why everyone would have a problem with that, but here's why I did it; we only had one butler. I was a bit concerned that Jen would be in kind of high-spec because everyone else there was dressed as a maid and she was the only butler. That's why it was a first come, first serve mentallity. As for how people actually got chosen, tables were assigned to everyone. Alex waited on who she did because there was a group of 5 people and we only had one big table. I waited on DJ and his co-workers because I saw them as something akin to a critic, so I wished to personally handle them. Taking us out of the equation means that there was only two maids left to pick from. Understand, I have no problem having it just be, you get who you get, I just don't want to hear any complaints from anyone though. That means you need to be ready to be served by someone other then who you could have picked, even if you wanted the butler.

Flan malfunction: That one was completely my fault! I made them a bit on the small side and put them in larger cups then they should have been in. Normally, you would never have that kind of problem with getting flan out of it's mold.

Ice cream: I would hesitate to take that off the menu. I mean, Stacy I can see why you wouldn't want it on there since you were the one who had to prepare it, but I think it would not have been that much of an issue if we had stuck to the original plan of having the maid prepare the drinks for their guest (see "training" for further thoughts).

As for the lack of space: This is problem that I don't know how to work out. We had 1/2 of the meeting hall. If we were to do another karaoke party/maid cafe, I'm not sure if the floor space could be re-worked or not.

Here's my major gripe; we all needed to have had a training day of some sort. Yes, we had a review of what we were gonna do, but what we really needed to do was go through the proccess physically. As in, actually, pour tea, serve coffee, get someone a refill of something, have your Maid/Bulter Name and charming ceremony already picked out and practiced. Yes, we had some power of food service experince behind us, but we needed specific training for the maid cafe. For example, proper way to add sugar, or the idea I had for hot chocolate, getting a maid's attention without interrupting a guest, and so on.

I know this sounds kinda dumb, now that I type it, I can see that, but keep this in mind; it's part of the ritual a maid does. We all saw on the vids how the there is something of a short ceremony where the maid or butler brings out and prepares the drink (even when serving the juice!) or when they drew stuff on a person's rice omelette. Yes, I know we can't make this exactly like a maid cafe in Japan (I'm not asking us to), but if we are going to sell this idea as being about the interaction and not just centered around the food, we need to keep some of these things in mind.

As for the Maid/Butler Name, no I can't force you to have one, but I would strongly encourage it. It may seem pointless to you since it was a lot of friends getting together, but look at it this way. We took vids of some of the activities that we did at the cafe and they are gonna show up online where anyone can see them. I for one do not want my name out there anymore then neccessary. Yeah, okay, call me paranoid but remember that there is a reason why all the rules established at a maid cafe center around leaving the maid alone. Japanese guys aren't the only Otaku capable of the creep-factor.

So, yes, there's my rant. Questions, comments, flames, whatever! Get em up there, let know what you think.

m(_ _)m

[chrono]

Here's my major gripe; we all needed to have had a training day of some sort. Yes, we had a review of what we were gonna do, but what we really needed to do was go through the proccess physically. As in, actually, pour tea, serve coffee, get someone a refill of something, have your Maid/Bulter Name and charming ceremony already picked out and practiced. Yes, we had some power of food service experince behind us, but we needed specific training for the maid cafe. For example, proper way to add sugar, or the idea I had for hot chocolate, getting a maid's attention without interrupting a guest, and so on.

Yes. Not having actually gone through the motions is probably what had me the most nervous all day (and I wasn't even doing anything for it!). If I had been a butler, I would have insisted on a practice run

[Phoenix]

I really do agree that we need to do a real run through if we're going to do this again. Maids weren't making use of the tray tables I brought in to set their trays on, people we're coming up to me asking me about things I couldn't answer for them...etc.

For beverages, we need to do it like a fine dinning restaurant next time. A table needs to be set outside the kitchen with carafes of coffee, decaf, hot water and tea bags. All tables need to be set with the appropriate dishes and utensils. Cream and sugar need to already be on the tables. When a guest orders tea, the maid would bring the hot water and assorted tea bags for the guest to choose from.

Are we still going to be doing something like this at the Halloween Dance?

If we are, who is doing the planning?

Do we have volunteers already?

We have more time to do planning and training this time around and can offer Saturday nights at the church for training and practice.