– An Easy Spread –

Every day millions of Americans go out to eat. In our hectic lives, we often do not find the time or the energy to cook at home, and would prefer to go out and have someone serve us. What you don’t know is that while you enjoy a nice, relaxing, quiet meal at a restaurant, it really takes a ton of work behind the scenes. Being a server, I am well aware of all the work (and patience) that goes into making a successful guest experience. Below is a timeline of a typical day-shift for me:

10:00 a.m. - I arrive at the restaurant (food prep people have already been working for 2 hours). I begin setting things up for the day: set soup bowls/spoons out, get garnish for the soup and set that out, set up the soda stations, brew tea and coffee to set out in pitchers, cut lemons and limes, set out sugars, fold linens and/or roll silverware for the tables, wipe down all the tables to be sure they are clean, set up bread station (i.e. find the bread knife that always goes missing), set up tables for any large parties that have reservations, etc.

11:00 a.m. - Restaurant opens. I might not get a table until 12:00 p.m. (depending on the amount of people who decide to go out to lunch that day), so I walk around being bored and only getting paid $2.13 per hour. The manager usually yells at me to “go do something productive.”

12:00 p.m. - People start coming in for lunch. This is when it gets hectic. Suddenly I have been triple-sat (after not being sat for an hour) and am trying to greet and get drinks for three tables at the same time. There is obviously no way I can greet all the tables immediately, so I choose one and proceed with my long introduction and list of specials. They of course interrupt me and ask a million questions, such as “what sides does such and such dish come with?” I politely hide my annoyed look (can’t you read what it says on the menu?) and answer all their questions. Meanwhile, my other two tables are getting frustrated that I haven’t greeted them yet. I finally interrupt and say “how about I just get you some drinks for now and give you some more time to look at the menu?”.

12:04 p.m. - I make it over to my second table, only to go through the same process. By the time I get to my third table they are obviously steamed and snap at me that I can get them such and such drink and they want to order now. I quickly put their food order in and then go about getting drinks and bread for three tables.

12:08 p.m. - When I come back to deliver the drinks to the first table, they have a million more questions for me to answer (even though they can clearly see that I am holding a heavy tray full of drinks for other tables).

12:10 p.m. - When I deliver the drinks to the third table (who has already ordered), they inform me that they would like an appetizer, and they want it out before their meal. Great, now I have to set everything down and run back to the kitchen to make sure that they make that appetizer “on the fly,” so that it beats the table’s entrees. This in turn puts the cooks behind and, consequently, everyone else’s appetizers will take longer.

12:12 p.m. - In the meantime, I have been sat again. Once I get this fourth table situated, I have a very brief amount of time (maybe 2-3 minutes) to catch up with everything (make sure all my tables are “prepped” with ketchup/mustard/salad dressing or anything else they might need for their food, refill drinks, check on the status of the food, etc.). Every time I go back in the kitchen a manager is yelling at me to “run food” to other tables, so I can never leave empty-handed. I am also required to go to the front desk and help seat guests at other tables whenever I have free time.

12:15 p.m. - Inevitably, my third table’s entrées come out before their appetizer and they are upset (even though they didn’t tell me to ring it in until about 7 minutes after I put their entrée order in). They insist on the appetizer being removed from their bill. To do this I have to go find a manager (who is busy doing other things and is incredibly hard to find). I walk around the entire restaurant five times before I finally find him and explain.

12:20 p.m. - My second table has now gotten their food and one guest has determined that his dish “doesn’t taste good,” even though he has already eaten half of it. He also asks for the dish to be removed from his bill, yet he is conveniently not hungry for anything else.

12:30 p.m. - Surprisingly, with all the questions that they asked, my first table is happy with their food, and savors it for the next 3 hours, talking more than eating.

12:35 p.m. - In all my running around, I have lost track of time and forgotten to prep ketchup and salad dressing to my fourth table, who already have their meals. I grab a ketchup bottle and drop it off, saying “I’m so sorry” and “I’ll be right back with the dressing.” I go to the back and look for a small dish to put the dressing in. I search everywhere and cannot find one, so I head back to the dish room and ask the dishwasher to quickly clean some for me.

12:38 p.m. - When I finally get a clean dish I go to the salad station and ask the salad lady to pour some dressing in it for me. She says she is busy and I will have to wait. I wait several minutes and then ask her again. This time she ignores me. I eventually start getting angry and she grabs the dish and sloppily pours some dressing in it (it took about 5 seconds, yet she didn’t have time to do it!). The guest is almost done with her salad by the time I get back with the dressing.

12:42 p.m. – Suddenly everyone wants me to box up food, get them extra of this sauce and more dressing, order desserts, and pay their bills at the same time. I’m only one person…I do it as fast as I can, but I can never satisfy everyone.

12:55- 3:00 p.m. - I get a couple more rounds of tables and go through the process again.

3:00 p.m. - Three hours after they arrived, my first table is finally ready to leave. I’ve gone by to check on them countless times, already dropped the bill off, and intensely stared them down, hoping they would leave sooner. I’m in the middle of carrying a huge stack of dirty dishes to the kitchen when they wave me over and say “Can you please take this now?”, offering (apparently to my invisible third hand that is empty) their bill.

4:40 p.m. (20 mins. before shift change) - My section fills up again, with just enough time for the tables to order and just be getting their food by the time the nighttime servers come on. Crap. Now I can’t transfer the tables to the new server, and have to wait at least another 30 minutes before they leave. In the meantime, I try to do my sidework (designated cleaning for the day), but my tables run me to death. Every time I refill a drink, I get back to the table and another one is empty. Some of them start asking for drinks when they have only drank ¼ of them. I let them wait.

5:04 p.m. – When one table’s food comes out, a guy who ordered a hamburger would like mayonnaise. I go retrieve it and come back.

5:05 p.m. - Another guy at the same table asks for A1 sauce. I again retrieve it and come back.

5:06 p.m. - This time a lady would like more salad dressing…and it goes on. Aren’t these people’s brains big enough that they can think of everything they want and tell me all at once, so I can only make one trip? I promise my brain is big enough to remember it all at once.

6:00 p.m. (an hour after shift change) - My tables have finally left, and I start doing my sidework. [The night server is upset because I have been taking up his section and he hasn’t had any tables for the last hour.]

6:45 p.m. – I leave work, only to sit in rush hour for another 45 minutes.

7:30 p.m. – I finally get home. I’m starving because I haven’t eaten anything all day, so I run out to McDonald’s to grab a burger. I realize as I’m pulling my cash out to pay that I only made $60 at work that day. And now I’m spending five of those precious dollars on an old, greasy hamburger.

—

The restaurant industry is an extremely fast-paced environment. Not only do you have to walk fast, but you have to be on top of your game in every aspect: intellectually, creatively, cooperatively, and patienceiously (ok, so now I’m just making up words—but you get the point). You have to anticipate the guests’ needs before they ask you, and sometimes you have to figure out what they want because they won’t tell you. You have to carry out multiple tasks at once. You have to be a people pleaser and schmooz guests into thinking that you deserve a good tip. You have to be sympathetic when they say their Spicy Cashew Chicken is too spicy (even though the word “spicy” is printed in the name of the item in the menu and you warned them when they ordered it). Most of all, you have to smile—even when it’s a sucky, rainy day outside, your dog just got hit by a car, and you’re on your period.

Although I think everyone should work in the restaurant industry at some point in their life (mainly so they know how to tip well), it is definitely not for everyone. It takes a lot of patience, and there are always people ready to spoil your good attitude. Below are some of my top pet peeves that will always put me in a bad mood.

Rants from a server:

1.     This is the age of credit cards. Why are there still people who don’t know how they work?  YOU HAVE TO SIGN THE CREDIT CARD SLIP, WRITE IN THE TIP AND TOTAL, AND LEAVE THE SLIP. If you don’t do this, then the server ends up with no tip.

2.     I hate it when a guest asks for water, extra lemons and lots of sugar, and then proceeds to make cheapo lemonade. If you want to drink lemonade, you should pay for it.

3.     If you don’t know how to tip, you should not go out to eat. Period. Give the server the tip he/she deserves. (That measly wage of $2.13/hr just barely covers our taxes.) For those of you who don’t know, 20% or more is a good tip—not 5% or 10%.

4.     Don’t get mad at the server when something is wrong with your food (unless of course it’s the wrong dish, in which case most often the server rang in the wrong thing). We don’t cook your food ourselves, so we shouldn’t be tipped less because your hamburger is not the perfect temperature.

5.     Nothing is more annoying than when a customer continues to wave frantically to get our attention when we have already motioned to them that we will be there in a second and we are talking to another table. You are not the only table that we have, and you are not the most important person in the world. Wait for just a minute, and we’ll be right with you.

6.     Servers are very busy, so if you are not ready to order, tell us so and we will gladly come back in a few minutes. Don’t make us wait at the table while you are still deciding what you want to eat.

7.     If one of the first comments a guest makes when he/she looks at the menu is “wow, everything is so expensive here,” we know we aren’t going to get a good tip. Thus, the service is going to be bad. If you can’t afford the place that you are eating at (and a good tip), then you should stick to McDonald’s.

8.     Don’t be a “camper.” Enjoy yourself during your meal and then leave in a timely manner. If you sit and talk at our table all day, that means we can’t make money off of it from other guests. If you insist on staying for an extended period, the least you could do is tip extra.

9.     Don’t ask us if a certain dish is good. We are obliged to tell you that every dish is good. Also, we don’t know what type of food you like—something I find tasty you might find revolting.

10.  If the restaurant closes at 10 p.m., don’t come in to eat ten minutes before 10 and expect to get good service (or good food, for that matter). By then everyone is cleaning up and trying to get out of there, so your server and the cooks will be really annoyed with you. You know that you can’t sit down, order, have the food cooked, eat and leave in ten minutes, so why would you be rude and keep us there after closing?

Are you or have you ever been a server? Feel free to share some of your pet peeves below!

Stephanie is an English graduate student at George Mason University who loves her family, friends, and dogs. When she’s not going to class or bartending, she enjoys reading, watching movies, and snowboarding.

Special on-location photography @ multiple locations around Fairfax generously provided for this article by Matt Hildebrandt