Hello. My name is Gary. I just signed up and this is my first post, but I have been following this board for about a year and a half. I have been working in the foodservice industry here in Louisville for almost 20 years. I came up through the kitchen but have been working in the FOH for about the last half of that. I have held every imaginable position in a restaurant, from prep cook to GM, but am currently serving. This post is going to be a little long, but I promise to keep it short in the future.
Not to ruffle feathers right off the bat, but I would be remiss if I didn't say that the reason I didn't sign up before now is because I find a lot of the non-industry people on this board elitist and off putting. I've also had some issues with the way objecting opinions are suppressed, especially when the topic relates to chains vs. locals.
Be that as it may, I finally got motivated to get involved on this board after the explosion of anti-server sentiment evident in recent threads. Threads like "$$How Much is a Server Worth$$" and annemarie's one about how servers don't listen anymore.
The truth is, you get what you pay for. Obviously, you're going to get better service at Jack Fry's than at Tumbleweed. What is not obvious is that this has nothing to do with the food, the ambience, the management or the ownership. It is directly related to the menu pricing and PPA. Good, professional servers go where the money is. Low dollar, casual dining concepts hire people with no experience and marginal skills. This seems like a no-brainer, but when I hear complaints about things like not being able to get a Coke with no ice, I'm betting that didn't happen at Seviche or Varanese.
*** I have to clarify the above statement by saying that I am aware that the food, ambience, etc, are all important in maintaining a successful restaurant. If those things don't happen, no one will eat there anyway and the service point is moot.
Now, to the point of how much a server is worth, and how much they should make per hour. Honestly, it's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. So a server made $75 an hour. She waited on a 12 top of pharmaceutical reps. They drank a lot of expensive wine and ate filets. They ran up a $1400 bill and were gone less than 3 hours after they arrived. Should she apologize that the automatic gratuity yielded her $280, or $230 after tipping out the bar and the bussers? No, because that doesn't happen every night. There are plenty of nights when the water-drinking/entree-splitting campers are tying up her section, and she walks with $60. It's the nature of the business.
But to hear some of you draw the comparison of what servers make to what teachers make or what civil servants make is just ridiculous. It's comparable to me complaining that I don't make what Tom Brady makes, and he only works 5 months out of the year. Apples and oranges. The argument is ridiculous.-
And then we have the lists. You know... the list of 100 things a server should never do, and the one about 100 things a guest should never do. Throw them both away. They're both useless. They don't address the real issues. Things like how you thought I was inattentive, but rudely kept your cellphone to your ear for 30 minutes. Or why I left your table in disarray after you left 10 used Kleenex and some dental floss on it. These things go both ways. Just make sure you, as a guest, are deserving of the service you think you're entitled to.
Whew. I think I'm done. I hope that didn't come off as too antagonistic or as too much of a rant. Hopefully this is well received, and if not, I welcome a decent debate.
