What goes on a server station sheet
The station sheet is the one page everybody reads before service. It should answer one question in seconds: where do I work today, and who is with me?
The essentials
- Date and service. Dinner on Saturday the 10th, so nobody works from an old sheet.
- The room as it is set up. Patio open or closed, private room booked or not.
- The floor plan with station lines, each station numbered, so a server finds their area at a glance.
- The teams. For each station, the server and the assistant, with a clear mark for who is closing.
- The tables in each station, listed under the team. The host needs them to seat guests, and servers need them to check the map.
- Support staff by position. Runners, drink runners, bartenders, barbacks, hosts and polishers, each listed under their role.
- A quote or a note for the team. One short line near the top that everyone sees when the sheet is posted or shared.
- A manager sign-off. A name and a time. It turns the page into a record you can look back at.
Make it readable
One landscape page, large enough to read from a few steps away. Use the same layout every day so people learn where to look. Print it in black and white if you have to, and make sure it still reads, because the station lines and numbers carry the page.
Make sure everybody sees the same sheet
Post the printed page at the lineup spot, and send a picture of the same page to the team's group chat. Last-minute changes happen. When they do, reprint, and keep the earlier version so you know what was posted when.
Check it before it goes up
- Every table is in exactly one station.
- Every station has a server.
- The closers are spread across the room.
- The room setup matches the sheet.
Keep the signed copies. When someone asks who had which section three weeks ago, the answer is in the pile.