Winston
Platinum Member
I will enter the thread here. I paid my way through graduate school waiting tables with several different restaurants in several different cities. I was a power server. I only worked at places where there was always a wait, mostly hopping from grand opening to grand opening. I chewed up waits, Just having me on your staff dramatically cut those wait times and increased the throughput for the kitchen. In five years I never wrote a single order down. Party of twenty, no problem. Triple seated three six tops, no problem. I was a legend, and still, almost thirty years later, it is not unusual for me to dine at a restaurant and have the manager come out and comp my meal when they find out I am there.
A good server goes unnoticed. He doesn't strike up flippant conversations with the guests. They came to have a meal, not meet a new friend. Like one of my guest told his friend, who was questioning me and worried I was not writing down his order. "I have had this guy before, he knows what you need before you do, just sit back and enjoy the ride". And yeah, I got paid handsomely. I paid my way through school and paid for a house at the same time. It took several years working professionally before I even made as much money as I did while I was in school.
Black males, yes, for the most part they tip poorly. That much was reflected in the podcast. But I will take all the black women tables, all the old women tables, hell, all the all women tables, you can seat me. No flirting, completely professional, just treat them like they are special and the tips roll in. In fact, the percentage is highest among all females for a good male server. Families would run second, take care of the kids, entertain the kids, and walk with a great tip. Dates would be third. The female wants the male to tip hell out of you because you were so awesome but the male has to reign it in a little so you lose a bit, unless the woman is paying. Then you make bank as they say in the business.
Large parties, every place I ever worked automatically added a gratuity of between 15% and 18%. Not me. When I delivered the check, or the checks, I always told them I didn't add the gratuity because I believed I was worth more than 18%. Nine times out of ten, I got more. One of my most memorable tables, in Raleigh. Ten couples from Duke University's medical school, doctors and their interns and their dates. The couples didn't sit together, they were spread out among their friends. Complicated orders, special requests, mixed drinks, add-ons. It was complex and I never wrote anything down. When it came time to drop the check they told me it was ten couples. When I asked who the couples were they told me to figure it out. I came back a few minutes later with ten checks. I delivered each check to the male and pointed out their partner explaining how I determined they were a couple, rather it was body language, conversations during the order, or eye contact. When it was over I was ten for ten and the whole table jumped to their feet and started asking me what the hell I was doing there. They backed off when I told them I was getting my MBA at Carolina.
The jist of the story. Serving is a real profession that takes real skill. It is a job where you get paid what you are worth and there can be no bones about it because no one is requiring you to be paid anything. And from my own experience, it is a dying art form. Good service is harder and harder to come by. Servers don't know from which side of the guest to present the food, they don't know the meaning of an overturned fork, and they honestly believe that tips are mandatory and don't have to be earned. Pre-setting a table hardly ever happens. Greet times can reach double digit minutes. Sometimes, you are waiting for the check for what seems an eternity. The art of "turn and burn" is either dead, or all to prevalent as you get your salad before you app. I have toyed with the idea of starting a consulting firm to teach real service to wait staffs and that may very well be how I spend my retirement.
