The Hospitality Star of the Month - May 2008

Michael Mooney Server The Cheesecake Factory

Michael was hired as a server for the Cheesecake Factory in February 2005. Dina Barmasse, the Vice President of talent for the Cheesecake Factory nominated Michael for his role in making a child’s birthday dinner such a happy experience. Below is the description of how Michael used his innate sense of hospitality and caring to make a birthday visit truly special for one of our guests.

The front desk told server Michael Mooney that his table #2 was celebrating a birthday. After taking their drink order he realized that the young child celebrating his 8th birthday was deaf. Table 2 was party of 6 which consisted of Brian, (the birthday boy), his two parents, grandparents, and his older sister.

Throughout their lunch, Michael could see that Brian and his family were all having a great time.

Although Michael was not familiar with sign language he could see they were all laughing and truly enjoying their time together. Brian was a very funny child, making funny faces and obviously very excited about his birthday.

When it came time to order dessert, Michael approached a couple of staff members and asked them if they would help him figure out how to sign "happy birthday". As Michael was walking around asking for the ever popular "singers, singers?", word got around quickly. Pretty soon he was told that the filler at the front desk Wes, and a baker Kat, both knew sign language. Michael walked up to Wes and asked him to teach him the whole song. Wes said he would be happy to, but that he also wanted to come with him and join him at the table when he signed it. Pretty soon, numerous servers, front desk runners and bakers were all joined together at the bakery learning the entire song together.

Our GM Dave Wade, and Area Director Joe Phillips were standing by the front desk and walked over to see what all the commotion was. At this point the group had grown to about 15-20 people. They all quickly made sure they got the song right and Michael grabbed the Adam's birthday plate and walked over to the table with everyone around him. The family had called earlier to ask what we did for birthdays, and we answered the usual "we can give you a complimentary birthday sundae, or if you purchase a slice of cheesecake we will be happy to personalize the plate, and your server can sing happy birthday." So, the family was expecting a simple plate, and maybe a server or two to come and sing. You could see the surprise on their faces, when they saw 20 people walk up to the table and Brian's huge smile when Michael signed "I brought some friends of mine along to help me with this song." They all started to sing Happy Birthday and do the whole song in sign language for Brian.

Soon after the staff walked away, Brian's parents called me over to the table. The mom told me how touched she was that Michael had not only taken the time to learn Happy Birthday in sign language, but that he had gotten so many people to do it with him. She said that her son loved it and he was now referring to their server, as "my friend Michael."

As Dave and Joe watched the family walk out of the restaurant, they stopped and thanked all the staff that they recognized who had been at the table. You could see how Michael and the rest of the staff had turned an already special occasion, into an unforgettable day. When we later asked Michael how he had thought of such a touching gesture, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "I thought, if that was my little brother, what would I want his server to do for him? "