Waiting Tables
These weekends get me nostalgic. I'm remembering my sojourns into the world of food service. In 1981 I worked as the lunchtime seating hostess at a Greek restaurant. I eventually also learned how to wait tables. Sometimes we'd get really slammed and I'd have to help out one of the waitresses or it would be that weird nether time between lunch and dinner, when all the day people had clocked out and someone would wander in looking for a cup of coffee and a bowl of avgolemano soup.
I have always been grateful that I had this job experience. The owner was an ass and his brother, the head chef, was a sexist pig but most of the staff were really terrific people and we had some pretty good times.
Toward the end of the decade I did some more restaurant work. I had a "real" job by then but there was a wine bar/restaurant that I frequented and just before the holidays one of the bartenders quit to take another job. I volunteered to work the bar on the weekends, for tips. The owner also paid me in bottles of wine from the little shop attached to the restaurant. It was a pretty sweet gig. During the all the Saturdays from November through January I poured wine, served up soup and once in a while got to manage the complexities of full-blown table service. It was even better that time because it wasn't my job. I had the freedom to screw up. Which I hardly ever did. I also made really good tips, much to the chagrin of the other bartender (who I had briefly dated) because a) I was a dilettante and 2) my lunch tips were more impressive than what he got at dinner. (That's because charming and adorable trumps cool and efficient every time. So there. Neener neener).
Amusing story: I did once piss off a chef because I didn't put my order ticket where he liked them to go so he "punished" me by ignoring the order until my customer was getting steamed. I placated the customer (comped his lunch, for one thing) and got through the afternoon but when the head chef found out what happened (she was also a friend of mine) she tore him a new one and made him apologize to me and from then on he was my lap dog. Neener neener again.
All of this is to say that I have a very important "fall back" skill. If I had to - God forbid - but if I had to, I could always get a restaurant job.
It is also my belief that everyone should be required, by law, to work in the food service industry for a minimum of 3 months, just to get the perspective. Because while I'm sure we could all tell stories of wretched service and rude waitpeople, it is also a really hard job and most of us don't appreciate that fact near enough.
And the tag on this video is wrong. This song charted in 1980.
I have always been grateful that I had this job experience. The owner was an ass and his brother, the head chef, was a sexist pig but most of the staff were really terrific people and we had some pretty good times.
Toward the end of the decade I did some more restaurant work. I had a "real" job by then but there was a wine bar/restaurant that I frequented and just before the holidays one of the bartenders quit to take another job. I volunteered to work the bar on the weekends, for tips. The owner also paid me in bottles of wine from the little shop attached to the restaurant. It was a pretty sweet gig. During the all the Saturdays from November through January I poured wine, served up soup and once in a while got to manage the complexities of full-blown table service. It was even better that time because it wasn't my job. I had the freedom to screw up. Which I hardly ever did. I also made really good tips, much to the chagrin of the other bartender (who I had briefly dated) because a) I was a dilettante and 2) my lunch tips were more impressive than what he got at dinner. (That's because charming and adorable trumps cool and efficient every time. So there. Neener neener).
Amusing story: I did once piss off a chef because I didn't put my order ticket where he liked them to go so he "punished" me by ignoring the order until my customer was getting steamed. I placated the customer (comped his lunch, for one thing) and got through the afternoon but when the head chef found out what happened (she was also a friend of mine) she tore him a new one and made him apologize to me and from then on he was my lap dog. Neener neener again.
All of this is to say that I have a very important "fall back" skill. If I had to - God forbid - but if I had to, I could always get a restaurant job.
It is also my belief that everyone should be required, by law, to work in the food service industry for a minimum of 3 months, just to get the perspective. Because while I'm sure we could all tell stories of wretched service and rude waitpeople, it is also a really hard job and most of us don't appreciate that fact near enough.
And the tag on this video is wrong. This song charted in 1980.
cobbled together by Moi at 9:44 AM
11 Comments:
Love love love! I remember my mom being "very uncomfortable" with the Waitresses song and wouldn't let me listen to it if she was around. Isn't that so silly?
Important ripple effect - Sir Sean learned to understand the good in tipping seeing his Princess working so hard pleasing ungrateful patrons. He's tipped ever since, bless 'im.
Hear, hear! Customers too frequently suffer from a total lack of empathy. National mandatory food service for all (although I'd keep it down to a month).
--Legal Alien,
Dishwasher & Busboy, Olympia Diner, 1991
Head Cook, Baja Tacos, 1992-1994
E: Oh, yes, very important to keep girls from understanding the power they have over men. Bad. Bad.
Dame J: I did not know that. I am so impressed.
LA: I salute you. (Yeah, maybe a month is long enough. But mandatory it must be).
I too worked in the food industry as a cook and even held the illustrious title of night assistant manager for a while.
Them were the days. I can honestly say that we never went hungry...:P
It is a noble brother/sisterhood, Grish. And there is something to be said for free meals.
Welcome home, Charlie. Are you very jet laggy?
Damn. You're messing with my head again. That is very unkind.
Watching that video is always the same thing for me....
wait for it....
wait for it....
"Special!"
So special.
I agree on the 'everyone should work in food service' issue. I did my share of table waiting (got me through college), and damn, I was good! I always made the best tips in the place. From your description, I believe you and I shared the same characteristics whilst working in this industry. I went on to cocktail waitress in a disco (the early 80's) for a while as a second job. Made tons of money, but working around drunks and getting my ass grabbed got old. Cocktailed at the Officers' Club at an AFB - a much better gig with great tips, great customers, and no ass grabbing. It does make one appreciate food servers (I usually tip too much), but also makes one a bit more critical of poor service I think. I still tip bad servers, just not as well as I do good ones.
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