X. Benedict Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 Obviously you don't know the contempt the back of the house has for the front of the house in the restaurant business. My short time working in a kitchen, that was the one thing I learned.
Booster4324 Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 Obviously you don't know the contempt the front of the house has for the back of the house in the restaurant business. Seeing as how they (back of the house) are too !@#$ing illiterate or so mentally disturbed they can't deal with people, they take a job that is harder for half the pay. Fixed. Damn smart people in the back of the house.
Booster4324 Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/o...er-do-part-one/ 1. Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting. Something to strive for. This cannot be accomplished instantly every time. 2. Do not make a singleton feel bad. Do not say, "Are you waiting for someone?" Ask for a reservation. Ask if he or she would like to sit at the bar. Umm the first bit is good. Asking if they want to sit in the bar works for me, but this guy is so pedantic, others like him will take offense. 3. Never refuse to seat three guests because a fourth has not yet arrived. Umm Duh? 4. If a table is not ready within a reasonable length of time, offer a free drink and/or amuse-bouche. The guests may be tired and hungry and thirsty, and they did everything right. Define reasonable length of time. Is this a late reservation or is this a packed place on a Friday night? In the latter case, get over it. 5. Tables should be level without anyone asking. Fix it before guests are seated. Umm Duh? 6. Do not lead the witness with, "Bottled water or just tap?" Both are fine. Remain neutral. LMAO this is his beef with suggestive selling? 7. Do not announce your name. No jokes, no flirting, no cuteness. Wow...simply wow. Maybe absolute fine dining, but even they give their name. Robot server coming up, oh wait point 9. 8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment. Agreed 9. Do not recite the specials too fast or robotically or dramatically. It is not a soliloquy. This is not an audition. Considering point 7...perhaps you have a perfect script and attitude all should follow. 10. Do not inject your personal favorites when explaining the specials. Umm ok, the guy who eats the stuff all the time should keep his mouth shut. 11. Do not hustle the lobsters. That is, do not say, "We only have two lobsters left." Even if there are only two lobsters left. Valid complaint, but this idiot probably doesn't know that the servers are pushed to do so by the restaurant. 12. Do not touch the rim of a water glass. Or any other glass. Umm Duh? 13. Handle wine glasses by their stems and silverware by the handles. Umm Duh? 14. When you ask, "How's everything?" or "How was the meal?" listen to the answer and fix whatever is not right. Umm Duh? 15. Never say "I don't know" to any question without following with, "I'll find out." Seriously, this man was paid for this? 16. If someone requests more sauce or gravy or cheese, bring a side dish of same. No pouring. Let them help themselves. Umm Duh? 17. Do not take an empty plate from one guest while others are still eating the same course. Wait, wait, wait. Completely wrong depending on the venue. Some fine dining insists on this etiquette, the majority will whine if you leave a plate in front of them. 18. Know before approaching a table who has ordered what. Do not ask, "Who's having the shrimp?" Agreed with the exception of large parties where people are moving around 19. Offer guests butter and/or olive oil with their bread. This is a restaurant policy. The server has little control over this. This man has no clue about the actual business. I will come back for more of this. This guy is an idiot.
Chef Jim Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 I guess the same way that you (as a customer) are superior to the wait staff by default. No, I'm superior to the wait staff because they were idiots. I'm superior to customers because they were morons. The difference is subtle, but there is a difference.
Chef Jim Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 My short time working in a kitchen, that was the one thing I learned. I'm glad it was tought very early on in your career grasshopper. NOW GO PEEL ME A BAG OF CARROTS!
Booster4324 Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 I wonder what this guys Per Person Average is expected to be? Maybe this attitude will cut it in a particular niche, but I doubt it has broad appeal. Overall, it is a mix of duh and "wait, are you sure you should open a restaurant" moments.
Chef Jim Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 Fixed. Damn smart people in the back of the house. The only smart ones are the ones who no longer do it.
Booster4324 Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 The only smart ones are the ones who no longer do it. A rare point of agreement.
Chandler#81 Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 No, I'm superior to the wait staff because they were idiots. I'm superior to customers because they were morons. The difference is subtle, but there is a difference. True this. In the past, they were both actually recognized medical conditions, based -I believe- on I.Q., along with inbeciles and retards. Now, they're just derogatory terms.
BuffaloBill Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 The only smart ones are the ones who no longer do it. +1 - it is a young person's game - long hours, hard labor and flowing booze (among a long list of intoxicating substances) don't play well with aging.
Gordio Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 Seeing you asked twice it must be an important question for you. Couple of reasons. Some I would admit is jealously and some is true contempt. First the kitchen crew showed up much earlier than the waitstaff. Often 5 or 6 hours before. We'd have busted our butts getting set up for dinner and they'd come rolling in. You smelled them first. They felt that several douses of really cheap cologne would get them higher tips I guess. They'd start hounding us for free handouts, and this was before they even clocked in...bastards. Then we'd be stuck in the hot kitchen burning and cutting ourselves and for what? Two free meals a day and $8 an hour, well at least when I was younger. Then they'd finish, count their several hundred dollars in tips and split. We'd be left to clean up several hours after they left. That was probably the jealously part. The contempt part? We did it because we loved it. We loved to cook for people, make them happy, make them want to come back. It was us the customers actually came for. Not Troy the gay mother !@#$er from Detroit who always wanted to act. They didn't give a ****, it was just a gig to them to pay the bills. I know I've told my story here before how if food sat under the heat lamp too long I'd find the waiter who it belonged to and ask them if they were an actor. Of course they'd all say yes, then I'd tell them to act like a !@#$ing waiter and get the food out of my kitchen before it got ruined. Contempt....yes the contempt I remember one night I came back to the kitchen to get something I had forgotten. I walk in and there was this munchkin of a frog in his penquin suit standing at the mesquite grill cooking up some steaks. How he got into the locked refrigerator I don't remember but the look of abject fear on his face when he saw me come in was priceless. Lucky for him I had an opened beer back home across the street I needed to get back to or he'd be the second person killed in that restaurant. The first one? Nasty work by the sous chef. I always wondered why when we had such nice sharp knives why he used his bare hands. Oh well I digress. Yes sometimes we worked in harmony but usually we put up with each other for the good of the business. Waiters...pffffff, what a bunch of fags. This post pretty much summarizes why you are one of my favorite posters on this board. Pure genius, laughed the whole time I read it.
Chef Jim Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 This post pretty much summarizes why you are one of my favorite posters on this board. Pure genius, laughed the whole time I read it. And this post pretty much summarized why I feel you need psychiatric help immediately.
Gordio Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 And this post pretty much summarized why I feel you need psychiatric help immediately. Hey, I will not argue with that, this post still made my morning. I am still laughing over it.
tennesseeboy Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 never forget to ask the customer whether or not he or she wants fries with that. Always give the customer a chance to supersize his or her meal. Always pretend you washed your hands when you leave the restroom Never sneeze into the food when the customer can see you. When the tip is less than 15% try not to let your "What the f.ck" response be heard by anyone not within reasonable earshot (15 or 16 feet.)
Metal Man Posted November 3, 2009 Posted November 3, 2009 No, I'm superior to the wait staff because they were idiots. I'm superior to customers because they were morons. The difference is subtle, but there is a difference. I worked as a waiter for some period of time and a lot of what you went over in your comments Chef about the dislike between the groups and your anti-server post was spot on. I think someone should stick up for the front of the house a little bit though because your opinions only make sense from the stand point of a very good and efficient kitchen staff. From the server's point of view a lot of the anger at the cooks can come from the fact that the kitchen can directly control the quality of the service for the customer in many ways. I realize that most people don't think the servers actually prepared the food, but the servers are the first line of defense with any problems that come out of the kitchen. Poor quality of food, or untimely delivery, not the fault of the server will still bring a 5hit storm of complaint down on that server and most likely seriously affect the tip. So while the cook can have a bad day and still make his same amount of pay, that same bad day can cost an otherwise very good server a ton of money. I'm not looking to start a cook/server board battle. You were accurate with the "part time gig for most of them" statement and I am in that group as only doing it while in school for a while here and there. I just wanted to give the server side of this age old war of the front and the back a little light so as to not confuse people into thinking the cooks are always the protagonists in this drama.
ExiledInIllinois Posted November 4, 2009 Posted November 4, 2009 I like when the server tells me good choice after I order. Makes me confident that what I have coming is going to be pretty good. Saying it implies other things are bad is reading too much into a simple statement. What happens if you get the order and hate it? What does that say about the dorky wait staff? Sorry, I don't need sunshine blown up my ass...
ExiledInIllinois Posted November 4, 2009 Posted November 4, 2009 No, I'm superior to the wait staff because they were idiots. I'm superior to customers because they were morons. The difference is subtle, but there is a difference. Ralph Wilson surley knows the difference too... Yet, he is still a dick.
Chef Jim Posted November 4, 2009 Posted November 4, 2009 Ralph Wilson surley knows the difference too... Yet, he is still a dick. Better to be a dick that an idiotic moron.
Delete This Account Posted November 4, 2009 Posted November 4, 2009 51: never fart within sniff-shot. 52: if fart happens, never call it because everyone knows the drill: "the person who smelt it, likely dealt it." jw
stuckincincy Posted November 4, 2009 Posted November 4, 2009 Couple of reasons. I'll offer a (small) defense for wait staffs who are forced to say crap like "Hi! I'm so-and-so!!! How can I help you!!!!" I dislike the dropping down of plates followed by an immediate "Is everything alright?", and requests that get answered with "No Problem!" A fellow classmate in college chemistry and graduate school was a waiter. He was a native Buffalonian of strong Polish extraction. Top shirt button always buttoned. I once visited his place of employment - back when dining out was much more rare than now...reservations etc. He acknowledged me as Mr. _____. He set his own tables - silverware and glassware placed in the formal dinner fashion. He served from the left. Knew when silverware placed on the plate meant removal. After serving a course, he came back 5 minutes later, and asked if all was suitable. If not, he would rectify it. Nothing was wrong. When we were finished and wanted the bill, all I had to do was raise my head and look around, raise a finger. He acknowledged, walked over, and I said "bill, please." And it was delivered, and all he said was "Thank you for visiting us, Sir." None of this "Have a good day." It wasn't just me, because he was a colleague of mine and putting on airs. I observed him - 'twas the same for all of his tables. I hope he's still in the biz.
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