What all industry people should know
Establishment: Everyone
Location: Anywhere
I am an an extremely attractive, recently married (to a fellow restauranteur, mind you) female. I have been in this industry now for 20 plus years, having started ground level at age 15. I have done it ALL… dishes, bussing, prep work, waiting, bartending, culinary school, sommelier certification, management, consulting, and ownership, all in high end, fine dining establishments. I have made well past $250,000 annually, personally, since the age of 29. I’m not bragging, I’m not cocky. What I am, however, is sick and f#&*ing tired of the whining and sense of entitlement I see in people in the workforce nowadays. In order to be successful in this industry in the long run, you have to work your ass off, be diligent about learning and progressing, and dedicate yourself to the passion of food and wine. Follow these rules, and you might just be O.K….
A.) Just because Mommy and Daddy tell you you’re special doesn’t mean that you are. By doing the best that you can do in any situation that you are given, and to do it with a sense of humbleness and humility, with an open attitude to learning from your triumphs and mistakes, that is what makes you special. (My parents are multimillionaires- but I wasn’t handed anything. I paid for my own college, cars, apartments, wedding, EVERYTHING! For this, I thank them daily, because they taught me my own worth by having earned it!)
B.) You have to work from the ground up. Enough said. Respect every position in the restaurant, and do every job until you have mastered it.
C.) Don’t skate. Just because some people can get away with not doing their share doesn’t mean that you should. People DO recognize those who pull their weight, and eventually, those slackers will find their butts on the street.
D.) Time on a job (seniority) does not mean a darn thing, unless you are a stellar employee. Good management will see talent and hardworkingness and reward it, and will eventually let go of the dead weight, but you have to prove yourself to be indespensible first.
E.) In the restaurant business, when you start, you truly cannot become a master of the biz if you pigeonhole yourself into one position. Learn as much as you can from each position and each establishment, then move on. The best moves are from one tier of restaurant to the next, and from one level of responsibility to the next. Ex./ Dish to bus,( 1 year), bus to back wait, (1-2 years), backwait to server, (1-2 years), server to headwait or captain, (2-4 years, varying level of restaurant and cuisine differentiation (French, New American, Thai, New Southwestern, Asian, Continental, Fusion, etc.) sprinkle some bartending in there somewhere, (usually after 3-4 years of intensive serving), then assistant management, management, and then becoming G.M. somewhere. If you REALLY want to make yourself an asset when you get to the management realm, you may want to consider culinary school and/or sommelier certification, thus making you well versed in any/all restaurant positions. Remember, when you own your own place, you need to be able to take over any position if need be to make the night run smoothly.
F.) Kiss Ass. Look, the customer is always right, except when they are blatant as#%*es, in which case, you will hopefully have a manager or owner that will have your butt if you are doing all of the above.
G.) Never question a guest as to gratuity. Sometimes, people don’t tip on wine, (though they should), may be from other cultures that aren’t aware of proper tipping procedures in the U.S., or sometimes, you might be having an off night and really don’t deserve 20%. Be honest… it really does all even out. For every 12% bastard out there, there is a 40 or 50% table out there who evens out the score in the course of a week.
H.) Smile. It’s not a distaster… no one will die over dinner. Things will go wrong, it’s life. But long ticket times aren’t basis for self important tirades to the kitchen, or to wax poetic about the injustice of your night.
I.) Don’t drink on the job. Or do blow. Or smoke pot. If you happen to have ANY kind of off night, no matter how ON you think you are, someone will notice that you aren’t totally focused, and that’s totally grounds for you to be let go. Of course, whatever you do on your own time is no one’s business, unless you ever show up late, bleary eyed, unkempt, smelling of liquor, or not focused, in which case, you may very well be fired, and that’s your own damn fault.
J.) Don’t steal. I know that filet mignon looks tempting, but your employer will probably sell you it at cost, MAY even be cool enough to deduct it from your check if you don’t have any cash, will realize that you’re an honest sort if you ask before you snag it. Also, remember that loss in a business will affect costs, which will affect bonuses, raises, and may very well result in the closing of a new business.
K.) Constantly educate yourself. Read Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Wine Spectator, and Saveur. Read Restaurant Trends, keep abreast on the internet, and always keep learning. Just because you knew it in the 80’s doesn’t mean you know it in 2005. (Just think… otherwise we might be innundated with peach and teal and Naegle prints, not to mention other ongodly 80’s phenomenon, like black lacquer…)
L.) LOVE IT. Just because this may not be your life doesn’t mean that you can’t be excellent at it. Work with class, finesse, and style, and this can be as "real" a job as you ever do. The connectiions you may come across if you are great at what you do can parlay into untold possibiliteis. They did for me!
Comments
yeah, you are the reason servers all over this city DESPISE working in the industry in LA the customer is NOT always right and NO ONE deserves to be treated without respect. PERIOD. you are a joke.
To the first poster, something tells me in reality you’re old, burnt out, and only gross about $17,500.00 per year and that you’re only posting your supposed “advice” because your own sorry ass has been throw the ringer a time or two, and that your own nose has seen more snow than Mt. Everest.
Lady, you are preaching to the choir! No offense, but who do you think you are to assume that any of these people are like the inept losers you may have worked with?
I have done just about every job there is, also-waiter, doorman, bartender, barback, cook, manager. Working in some of LA’s most exclusive restaurants and nightclubs never got me anywhere near $250,000. The thieves and scammers don’t even make that much, so I must question your credibility.
On the other hand, you had some good points, though I do think that most of us already know that these jobs require hard work and ass-kissing on a daily basis. When I was a manager, I hated the fact that it was my job to make everyone happy and whatever I did always left someone mad at me. If I did my best to make sure the employees were taken of, the owner felt that I was being too soft, then if I was hard on the employees, they called me a slave-driver and the customers were only happy with me when I gave them something for free.
Bartending is the best, but people expect so much. If you aren’t one who gives away the house, you have to bend over backwards to win them over, because you are competing with other bartenders who will give the customers whatever they want, including free drinks all night for a good tip. Fortunately, I am a great ass-kisser, so I have survived and kept my integrity intact.
The truth is that we are all right in our views, because each of us comes from different situations. It is more the system that needs to be updated, as it is not fair that payment is optional for any job. Tipping is the root of all evil!
What kind of dream world is this chick living in?!
Your parents are multimillionaires?! Did they pay for your fake rack too?
Poor little rich girl with all the opportunity!
Good management will recognize good talent?
Once again you’re dreaming!
$50000 to $75000 a year is at least believable
I have alot of talent and experience can I send you a resume?
What a load of crap!
That first post is meaningless without pictures, (beauty is in the eye of the beholder.)
Having worked for an accounting firm during tax season $250K for restaurant management isn’t that far fetched.
Think about how many finer restaurants gross more than $10 million. I’m guessing GM and Chef are both knocking down $250K.
This lady is living in a dream world. First of all who the hell would take the time to write all that bull@#$% and all of you morons who agree with her should be slapped. The restaurant industry is f ing pathetic anybody who wants to do that for a career I feel sorry for. Restaurant owners/managers are the scum of the earth. Let’s be honest the owners are just greedy, and the managers who support their evil empire are short, fat, uneducated losers who couldn’t get laid if their life depended on it. That’s why they gravitate to that industry, so they can feel a sense of power, and sexually harass the girls who work for them. Wake the f up it’s just food, you piss and $#@! it out anyway. Anybody who gives it more that it is lying to themselves. It is not art, it is just something for people to do who have no talent. Usually the rich elite who have inherited their wealth instead of earning it. They love to sit back and bitch and complain about their meal, while they watch the little people actually work for a living. By serving those people and helping them consume you are doing an injustice to the middle and lower class of the nation. You are perpetuating the cycle of abuse and keeping alive their dream of holding people back and keeping them down. You are a slave to the man. Working for the bread crumbs they throw you. Working for that bitch who posted that rhetoric. Fight the power.
Having been in the restaurant biz for what seems like forever, the whole tip thing sux. Lots of people do not know how to tip, or that servers make a low hourly rate. My friend actually said to me the other day, that you dont need to tip on alcohol! I was like “what the f@#K” As for 250k a year - definetly possible Nice restaurant, expensive, nice wine Hot / skilled servers definetly get the best sections…..
Here are the first lines of the lady’s spiel:
“I am an an extremely attractive, recently married (to a fellow restauranteur, mind you) female. I have been in this industry now for 20 plus years, having started ground level at age 15. I have done it ALL:
it’s truly hilarious because she can’t even spell the name of the profession she’s been in for 20 plus years. It’s RESTAURATEUR, AND NOT restauranteur! For someone who thinks she knows everything, she sure doesn’t know much!
This lady’s post is a joke. How is being supposedly extremely attractive and recently married relevant to the rest of her long-winded rant? She just wanted to come on here and “brag” and we were the unfortunate ones to have read her spiel. I want my three minutes back.
$250k is unheard of except for owners. NO MANAGER IN HOLLYWOOD IS MAKING $250k.
But, like so many have said…if a post starts out by saying “I’m extremely attractive” why read the rest, but for entertainment.
To Kenny: Not all managers are P.O.S. Otto at Cabana Club and Ritual is definately a good guy. So is George (owner).
And a few others around town. They are there to protect the restaurant/clubs interests.
Really? Getting stiffed on my tip is okay because someone else is going to tip me well later? Um, I don’t think so. It is NOT okay and it’s up to management to make it right, either by asking the table if everything was okay or by comping something off the check so that I get my money (or both). The reason we only make between 50 and 80k a year is because half of the losers in LA leave 15% (or worse) unless you lick their…
I’m REALLY friggin’ good at what I do, but it seems like my “talent” (if you want to call it that) is going to waste because I wait on idiots who are only at the restaurant I work at because of the name, not because they have a desire to experience really good food and amazing service.
And I definitely have to agree with what most of the other people said in their response to this woman. What does being married or attractive have to do with anything? Yeah, you’re hot. So am I. So is everybody in LA. Nobody cares. And let me know when a position opens up in that restaurant where you make a quarter of a million dollars a year. Geeeeeeezzzzzz…..
All of you asswipes just proved her point with your comments. A bunch of peckers that think they deserve everything without working for it. She is correct about the workers today. A bunch of losers.
She could work at my restaurant anytime with her attitude. The rest of you are garbage.
Kevel you are a retard. Don’t you work at McDonalds? Isn’t that where your kind works because they have special programs to better you people.
Lady, how does being attractive in LA give you credibility over the rest of us, who are also HOT? The points you made were all valid, but where do you get off thinking that you’re the only one who knows all of this? $250,000 a year? Really?!? Where?
Working for tips is a terrible way to earn a living, giving those we serve an unfair balance of power. It’s abusive, shameful and the reason so many employees steal. Until bar and restaurants owners realize this, they will suffer in loss of revenues due to theft. Personally, if the owners don’t care about their staff making a fair, honest living, then I think they deserve it.
So lady, get off your high horse and tell us where you work, so we can come in and abuse you and leave no tip. Let’s see how you like it.
bitch, please. You lost me at “I am an an extremely attractive, recently married …” We make fun of people like you in my restaurant.