Have you had any interesting experiences as a waiter?

Question

I have a friend who is a part-time server and he says he could write a book about his experiences. Could you?

To all the respondants: It's worse than I thought. And to E: Maybe YOU should write that book. It would probably be a best seller, especially in Texas!

Answer 1

Lol @ this one.
Where should I start?
There's the woman that had 20 people for her birthday party... She demanded a margarita and got impatient with me (It was the bartender's fault that her drink wasn't ready promptly), so I just abandoned the whole group of twenty and let them figure out how to wait on themselves... Poor guys never saw it coming.
There's the time that I dressed up as a fairy for Halloween and wore the costume to work... I had customers coming up to me weeks later asking, "Aren't you the fairy guy?" That was a blast.
There're countless instances involving broken dishes and spilled drinks and condoments. Once I got covered, literally head to toe, with ranch dressing.
I've gone to tables crying because they were being too impatient and bitchy with me. I've had people come into the restaurant crying, and I had to be their therapist.
I had one guy come in recently; he was probably like 19 years old. He ate some fajitas, then paid the tab with a mound of change... literally seventeen dollars in change. If I had known he was in such a position, I would have paid for his fajitas myself.
Sorry I can't think of any good ones right now. I'm tired as I have been working all day, and I have to get up in like 6 hours to work a 13-hour shift.
Tell this friend of yours that he should get his book published. I'll buy it if he promises to autograph!

Answer 2

Many years ago, as a student, I worked in a revolving restaurant. The diners' tables were in the revolving part of the building, which was at the top of a tall building. The kitchen remained stationary in the center of the building, and there were 2 doors leading out from the kitchen to the revolving dining area. It was hard to keep track of which kitchen door you should exit from. Waitstaff had to split tips with the "busman" (who cleared plates) and bartender. At the time, waitstaff were taxed on a fairly high percentage (I think it was 7%) of the total bill, including beverages. You were paid a nominal hourly rate, something like $2/hour but they did not include prep and clean-up time. So if you didn't split your tips "sufficiently" with the busman (a bully) and bartender (a thief who literally ran off with the till one night), your tables wouldn't get cleared and your drinks would get messed up. And if someone tipped you less than 7% it cost you money to wait on them! I don't know if this law is still in effect. At 5 o'clock the lights went down and you had to stuff your swollen feet into high heels for "happy hour." All the cliches about who tips well were pretty much true..."verbal tips" and the occasional origami in lieu of cash being the worst. You find a lot of people who have substance abuse problems doing this work as it is cash at the end of the day, so if your kid wants to do this for a job be aware that it's usually a rough crowd even in a "nice" restaurant. But to this day I am a big tipper, having been there. It's really hard physical work and if you get good service, that is not the time to start fussing about an extra dollar or two (consider what you paid for a skimpy appetizer, after all!) So anyhow, any business in which there is a quasi "servant" class is intrinsically interesting. People show their true colors in how they treat their "subordinates" and there is tons of fodder for a book (or two) there.

Answer 3

well almost everyone could. Life is all about experiences, and each is as uniqe as the person that it happens to. if you think back, and think about a time you changed, a time you loved, or about any time that you felt SOMETHING, the you'll find that you might be passionate enough to write about it.