Captain
A captain is the senior server who runs a section in a brigade-style dining room, guiding the menu, taking orders, and directing the back servers and food runners who support their tables. The captain owns the guest relationship for the section for the length of the meal.
The captain sits at the top of a station’s hierarchy, above the back server and the food runner, and the arrangement exists so that one person can stay with the guests while other people handle the work that would pull them away from the table. The captain takes the order, times the meal, and does the table touches. Back servers clear, reset, and pour water. Food runners deliver plates from the pass. A sommelier handles wine service where there is one.
Captains are also the relay to the rest of the room. An allergy, a celebration, a table in a hurry, a guest the owner wants looked after: the captain is who passes that to the kitchen and to the maître d’ mid-service.
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