I will give you some advice from the wise words of one of my server friends, “Everyone needs to work in retail or in a restaurant for two weeks of their life. They’ll have a whole new outlook on life.” Bingo! Travis, you were right! Honestly people, the restaurant world gives you a whole new outlook on life, how to treat others and gosh, how to have some manners will you! (aka, please don’t walk in looking for a four course meal ten minutes before we close. Please and thank you!) Okay, so I have worked in a restaurant for almost three years now and can tell you, it is not all sunshine and rainbows. Dealing directly with the public is a scary, scary thing. As a hostess, I can tell you, pray for America. Or wait, hope that they know that lasagna does not come with pasta sir, lasagna IS PASTA! I am certain that anyone who has held a restaurant job knows the struggle. The struggle is real, am I right?
1. “Behind you.”
If you work in a restaurant, this phrase or something like it will become second nature. After all, you don’t want to get burned by the bowl of pasta fagioli soup! And oops, it may even slip out from your mouth outside of the four restaurant walls. Oh well, at least your warning someone of your presence, right? Wrong. People who don’t work in restaurants don’t get it and will just think you are talking to yourself. End of story.
2. You go out to eat and instantly bond with your server. After all, you know what it's like.
You are not that annoying friend that feels like the server is your actual servant. You treat them as a human being! Hello, common courtesy. After all, every time they bring you something, fill your glass of water, or take a plate, you say thank you. Let’s not forget that you have to apologize for the actions of your rude friends who have never worked in a restaurant (aka, don’t ask them for something else every time they walk by…they have other tables, you know!)
3. You try to alter you dish as little as possible.
This is a menu, not a personal chef business. Yeah, I am guilty to changing up a dish here or there, but not the whole thing. You are not the chef, you cannot create a new dish! After all, chances are the messages I will have to send to them to “modify” our dish will be like a scroll ten feet long, and your order might get messed up!
4. The “f” word is used like hello around here.
Whether it is because the chef dropped a dish he just finished preparing, someone broke a glass, you cut your finger, or the customer at table 10 is annoying you, it is bound to happen. Uh oh.
5. You sweat like no other even if it is in the dead of winter and there is snow on the ground.
After all, chances are you are wearing some LOVELY uniform that makes you hot, aside from the fact you walk in and out of the kitchen on stand next to an 800-degree pizza oven all night.
6. You’ve learned how to shovel down food in less than a minute flat.
We all know in that eight-hour shift, you’re lucky if you get five minutes to shove something in your mouth. However, you better do it fast before a customer comes in, the phone rings, or your pager is buzzing in your back pocket.
7. You’d think after a $200-plus takeout order, or any order that is, you’d throw us a buck or two! After all, you just bought half of the menu.
Does this even need explaining? We need to make money too, people!
8. People walking in and wandering the dining room are SO annoying!
Since when do most restaurants have a seat yourself policy? Did you not see me standing at the podium as soon as you walked in? Or better, did you not see the sign that blatantly says, “Please wait to be seated"?
9. People ask why you don’t have weekends or holidays off…
Um hello, I’m the person working at the places you go out to have fun at! Remember! We’re lucky if we’re closed one day a year, maybe two (if we’re super lucky!).
10. You always have cash on you, especially singles!
Get your mind out of the gutter people! I do work really hard to make my money and my tips, but not that way. I have to ask you what kind of salad dressing you want with your chicken Parmesan dinner…However, more often than not, when I pay for something with all singles I feel the need to explain, “I work in a restaurant," as I sheepishly hand over the 80 singles I procured from last night’s shift.
11. I know better than to walk in a restaurant at 10:55 when they close at 11 p.m.
Come on now! We want to go home too. We want to relax, eat dinner (yes, at midnight), and catch up on Netflix too. We close at 11. That does not mean we want you to come in then, OK? OK!
12. You eat “dinner” at 1 a.m.
More often than not, especially on the weekends, you get home late. Therefore, you eat late. Yep, you find nothing wrong with eating a full meal at 1 a.m. Oops, worst part of it all; hate that messed up eating schedule!
13. People don’t understand why they can’t have the booth at 6 p.m. for two…
Do you have any idea how many reservations I have tonight, lady? No, I cannot put you and your husband in a booth during the rush. I need to squeeze six people in that booth and another 11 are going against the wall where you wanted to pick to sit. Do not complain when I have a full restaurant where you get seated. You’re lucky you got in at all. You’re welcome.
14. You can spot a non-restaurant worker in a hot second…
You can clearly tell when someone has never worked at a restaurant. They have no idea how it goes down. No, we cannot take calls at 7 p.m. on a Saturday night with you asking about each special of the week and specific ingredients. Just no. Do you not know I have three phone lines ringing and a lobby full of people waiting for me?
15. You and your co-workers instantly bond over covering for each other.
Your restaurant BFFL will be that friend that stands in front of you as you shovel in a morsel of food or take the blame for your mistake if you’ve already made like, ten that night.
16. You have some of the most hardworking co-workers you’ll ever meet.
That line cook or busboy works 12-plus-hour shifts, seven days a week just to put food on the table for his kids. How sweet. Also, when people knock the restaurant business, do they not realize how hard everyone works? Yeah, someone may be a “career server," but they’re probably making more than some of you….and by the way, I work here to get myself through college. *insert phony smile*
17. The calm before the storm is a blessing (or a curse).
The quiet time before the rush of the night is the most beautiful thing there is when you work in the restaurant business. However, it can be pretty rough if it stays calm all night. After all, we do work on tips! Come on in, people…I need to make money!
18. You have work nightmares.
-Whether it was that you didn’t answer the constant ringing phone or forgot to put in an order, chances are you will wake up one night panting, thinking your dream was just reality. Whew, thank goodness that didn’t happen, I would’ve been the next special on the menu!
OK, we all know that this list could go on forever, so I’m going to stop now. But let’s be real, are these not so accurate? Working at a restaurant, or anywhere really, is no easy task. However, the restaurant business is not for everyone! You need to have a thick skin and learn to hold back the tears when a cranky customer goes to rip you a new one. But hey, experiences and life lessons learned from working in a restaurant cannot be replaced with anything else!
