who's been a waiter before?

[Drem]

in a quest to prep myself for restaurant management i've scored my first serving job for a local college's formal events. this rounds out my kitchen experience, finally, but i honestly have no first-hand experience as a server. i've only dealt with them when i'm cooking and have a really good idea about what type of server i should never act like

so this'll be fun. i gotta wear a vest and bowtie for waiting dinners ;\

wish me luck

[leah]

ugh, i have. but i waited tables at a village inn, so i'm hoping your experience is a lot smoother than mine. i hated it. i was pretty good at it, but definitely i hated it.

[araby]

I've waited tables. Since I lost my job over the whole "jail" incident, I still do. I have exceptional work ethic. I love waiting tables. I hate sidework, though. What do you want to know?

[Drem]

i'm not sure yet. i'm not sure for these events if all orders are decided beforehand from a menu of a couple items or if they order on the spot. all i know is it's not drop-in dining. it's just big banquets, events, etc.

i don't even know yet what sorts of food the chefs put out

it's gonna be weird i think

[leah]

see ashly i'm the opposite--i loved sidework and hanging out in the back but the actual table-waiting was not fun :\ i think it's because our clientele was either grumpy old people who left 50-cent tips (because their meals were only $5, of course--SENIOR MENU FTL) or obnoxious high school kids who didn't know the first thing about tipping and more often than not skipped the tip altogether. assholes. to this day, i am overgenerous with tips because i was scarred by my experiences hehe :P the lowest tip i ever leave is 10%, and that's only if they did a really really bad job.

[Harrison]

I've thought about being a waiter before because I'd find it a challenge.

Then I see how people treat waitstaff and want to punch them, and imagine what it would be like if I was in their shoes lol

RAAAGE x2

[araby]

I think you have to find a good place to serve. No one would want to serve ungrateful, grumpy people, ya know? In my diner, our customers never complain, the food is so good that every table compliments the chef and we've been featured on Diners and Dives, so we get a lot of people who are vacationing. We even get famous folks. (Greg, from Dharma and Greg, the cast from Army Wives and Bill Murray frequent our diner.) Everyone loves to eat our southern fried goodness.

I love our food, our chefs are pretty fantastic, so I love serving our food. We are a kitchen, we have three guys cooking, five of us serving it all. I am there to make their dining experience a good one, they came out for a reason, and if they don't appreciate my service, I haven't done my job. I do everything with a rhythm, waiting the tables is fun for me. I approach the table, tell them about the specials, offer to get them a drink and take it to them. As soon as they put their menus down, I ask them if they have any questions about anything. Then I take their orders. I bring them extra napkins after that, or anything else they might need (peppered vinegar for collards or mayo/mustard, plates for apps) and then I don't return to the table until I serve their food. Two minutes, I check back, ask them if they like it. I say, "I'm glad you like it. Enjoy."
I don't go back again until it's time to take their plates or refill a drink. I ask every question with, "May I take your plate" or "May I fill your drink" and I think my choice of words, along with the fact that I don't bug them makes their experience a good one. Plus, like I said, every single thing we serve is really, really good.

Sure, we get the occasional old couple that doesn't know you should tip 20%, we get the younger kids that don't better...but mostly it's a good experience and I almost always make good money. Can't really complain about that, honestly.

Our sidework though, is a fucking joke. We carry two bucketfuls of ice at a time, dump slop buckets and carry heavy plates, dump heavy trash...it's really physically hard work. There are some restaurants that do not have any sidework, which I think is smart. When we're concentrating all of our time on our tables and the food, we could turn them faster and give better service. I think we should have a backwaiter doing all that bullshit sidework, or at least the guys from dish emptying trash and slop buckets...it truly grosses me out to think that I just emptied the trash, then poured some drinks and delivered food. Even though I of course wash my hands, it still seems disgusting.

[Drem]

your DMOs don't take out the trash? that's silly. in my first restaurant job ever the DMOs did everything shitty and the server sidework consisted of breaking apart the booths and keeping their floor stations immaculate. they did have to get their own ice tho

i was actually told i couldn't serve at that restaurant (i was a chef) because i wasn't presentable enough. sure i got mad, but the business also went franchise and they do have their shit together so i just took it to heart and cleaned up my appearance and now? bam, hired as a server instantly

and leah, that sucks. nobody wants to serve at those types of restaurants. any restaurant with an early bird special or senior menu is setting itself up for failure. nobody will come for the actual breakfast or dinner courses if they can come earlier and get it for half price and take some home so they don't have to come back tomorrow

[Harrison]

Shit, I want to meet Bill Murray

[leah]

WORD. which is why they closed luckily i got out a few months beforehand and started working at a grocery store, which i LOVED.


interestingly, it also closed. as did the place i worked before the village inn. i think maybe i am an angel of dooooom for my employers :P we'll see what happens if/when i move on from my current job hehe

[Drem]

yeah the wine shoppe / bistro i was working at closed down because the GM was a moron that had no idea how to manage a restaurant. it would've been perfect for an episode of Kitchen Nightmares. he fired 24 people and works by himself selling wine now. fuck him

[brinstar]

Bill muthafuckin Murray

uhhhh holy shit, wtb autograph

[Drem]

haha he served RZA and GZA's table in coffee & cigarettes

[brinstar]

dude yeah hence the "muthafuckin"

[Tikker]

to this day, i am overgenerous with tips because i was scarred by my experiences hehe :P the lowest tip i ever leave is 10%, and that's only if they did a really really bad job.

tipping is over rated

I have zero issues leaving a tip for someone that does a good job

if you do a shitty job, you get the token 3 cent tip so that you know you did a shitty fucking job

[araby]

when he comes in I just feel happy to be in the same room. I feel too awkward to talk to him.

[brinstar]

he is one of my favorite actors

if i ever met him i would probably gush like a 12-year-old fanboi

[Drem]

when he comes in I just feel happy to be in the same room. I feel too awkward to talk to him.

so were you on the episode of diners and dives? what restaurant do you work at?

[Maeya]

Geeze, is 20% really the expected minimum now?

We usually leave 20% if they did a pretty good job, 25% for an exceptional job, and varying degrees less than that if they sucked... but I always thought we were being generous. I thought 10-15% was still the expected norm.

[Tikker]

anything over 15% is stupid, imo

seriously, congrats on bringing me the food I asked you to bring me, and not fucking it up along the way

I'm much more likely to buy the cook/chef a drink for a fantastic meal than I am to leave a big tip for a plate carrier~

[araby]

I'm at Boulevard Diner. Mt Pleasant, SC. Pretty neat place for a plate carrier to work.

[Harrison]

anything over 15% is stupid, imo

seriously, congrats on bringing me the food I asked you to bring me, and not fucking it up along the way

I'm much more likely to buy the cook/chef a drink for a fantastic meal than I am to leave a big tip for a plate carrier~

I thought I was an asshole for thinking that way lol

Kinda pretentious to EXPECT a tip for doing your job, IMO

[Arlos]

Well, to be fair, the job DOES depend on tips. Restaurants are not required to pay waiters minimum wage, at least here in CA. So, the bulk of their income IS entirely dependent upon tips. At a time when the normal minimum wage was near $5 an hour, the people I knew working as servers were making like $2.25.

If the person does even a marginal job, I'll leave 15%. Someone has to suck pretty good for me to leave less, and I can count the asshats who were SO bad as to get me to leave nothing or the fuck you 1 penny on one hand. If they do a good job, especially if they bring me refills on my drink without me having to ask, etc. the tip goes up.

-Arlos

[Harrison]

I understand that, but WHY is the point.

I am a ridiculously good tipper. Bars, restaurants, cabs, etc.

But, I'm an idiot. I am too nice to people.

[Arlos]

No clue how it evolved that way, but that's the way it is now, so not much choice other than to just deal with things as they are, really.

Not to mention, if you go to a place regularly, it certainly doesn't hurt to get known as a good tipper and make friends with the staff, you can get a lot of benefits thereby...

-Arlos