Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Waiter Rant by Steve Dublanica


From the back: According to The Waiter, 80 percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining 20 percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths.

This book, to put it mildly is absolutely hilarious and painfully true. Waiting tables for a living is hard work, that is extremely rewarding monetarily; if and only if you can put up with all of the nonsense. I wish every customer would read this book, if only to see themselves how we see them.

The waiter(writer) chronicles how he "fell into" waiting tables as a way to put food on the table at 31, temporarily; of course. Seven years later he's still waiting tables, but is also blogging to relieve the stress of dealing with needy customers day in and day out. He gives you an insight into how the restaurant industry works, from the front of the house perspective. It is actually very funny to read that other people think the same way I do. I remember the good tippers at our restaurant, but the bad tippers are emblazoned on my mind. There are actually people that I have told the hostess she would have to wait on. Hostesses make more than waitresses, they can deal with no tip, for a waitress a bad tipper is just a time and energy suck. I have other tables I could be bilking for a nice tip.

I don't now and never will understand the concept of leaving a bad tip. I just don't get a 10% tip, when you rave about how wonderful everything was. Every waiter would tell you, save the verbal tips and put the money where your mouth is. I actually had someone say that they couldn't give a waitress more than they tithe to the Lord. Excuse me!?! Please take your sanctimonious butt to a fast food chain, where the servers aren't depending on that tip to pay their bills. Waitress really do make less than minimum wage, they depend on tips to make a paycheck. The industry standard is between 15%-20%, before any discounts are taken or any coupons you might have, not after!!! If you can't afford the tip, then you can't afford the restaurant. Believe me I understand, I have four kids. When we go out we rarely go anywhere where we would have to leave a tip, but on the rare occasion that we do go to a sit-down restaurant, I tip especially well.

OK, I'll stop my waiter rant now and just let you know that Waiter Rant by Steve Dublanica was a hilarious book, a very fun and engaging book. If you have ever waited tables or thought 'wouldn't that be an easy way to make some cash?' you can't miss this book. I read this as part of my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. Head on over to see what others are reading this week.

2 comments:

junglemama said...

Sounds like a light and funny book. Thanks for the review.

Anonymous said...

No matter what others say, I think it is still interesting and useful maybe necessary to improve some minor things