waiting tables - how to blag my way in

[tangerinedream]

Please, don't look at waitering as an easy option to make large tips, it's not going to happen.

I agree entirely - it's not an easy option in the slightest but one thing I would say is the culture of tipping is different in America (the basic wage is often atrocious or non existent) and I know from experience that some times you can make fantastic tips, but the flip side is you can go for weeks with hardly anything at all.

you can make decent tips if you carry every bag and smile at every child, flirt with and compliment customers who like that, treat every serious drinker as an expert in whisky or beer or wine, offer things you should really be 'upselling' as little extras if you can get away with it, take every coat, order every taxi - distinguish between which guests want to chat and which don't, laugh at truly awful jokes and so on and so on.......

I once earnt £80 for half an hours bar work, but got tipped £2 for an hours hard labour carrying the bags of a coach party of 40 who were on a 2 week break. It all depends on the customer and you can never ever rely on tips.

You also have to get the rudiments of the job right, learn a complex menu, be aware of what wine goes with what food, perhaps learn prices, carry very heavy, very hot things, learn to remember table layouts that shift and change depending on the covers booked or function in. Remember what cutlery go's with what, put the orders on in a way the chefs understand, that tallys with what the customer wants, be able to absorb complaints and criticsm that often has nothing at all to do with you with a suitable manner and so on

and you can't hide if you feel rough or hungover....

Waiting on staff of the world unite!
I'm missing it!

It is a job you have to learn on your feet, I'm sure D could learn to do it and enjoy it, but your right to say don't expect enourmous tips.

I think, to go off topic it is one of the most undervalued proffesions in this country, if you go to France and look at the age of font of house staff and compare it to England it is evedant that on the continent it is career with some status. All to often in this country it is a job for college kids to earn a bit of pocket money, certainly outside of the major cities it is.

 

[jacobs steel]

It is a job you have to learn on your feet, I'm sure D could learn to do it and enjoy it, but your right to say don't expect enourmous tips.

Tips = To Insure Prompt Service = commitment

 

[fractionMan]

As long as you can carry three plates at once you'll be fine. Any less and they'll know your a newbie, not that they'll care tbh.

 

[D]

re jacobs steel's comments:

I fully understand your point that waiting tables is a highly skilled job and I have no expectations that I'll be able intuitively to perform it without trial and error, exhaustion, and all kinds of other challenges.

Virtually everyone I know who presently works or has worked waiting tables in the US has said to me:

1) you'd be excellent at it;
2) there's a training period (during which time one generally works without receiving tips);
and
3) you make great money through tips

so, in fact, I don't expect to make bucketloads right off the bat nor do I expect to be a table waiting wizard from day one; but the reason that waiting tables is an "easy" way to make tips is that it's one of a handful of service jobs in the US where tipping is more or less compulsory. 15% is the standard and, of course, you're not going to receive that every time and you're even less likely to receive it if you work in, say, a diner frequented by young people; but you still have a decent chance of making something beyond a sad minimum wage. And I have no desire to be a taxi driver. I have considered pedicab, however, and I do have a friend who's just started doing that; but I think I'd prefer something less weather-sensitive.

Another asset is that it's a profession where you don't have to spend ages training or laboring for no pay or, worse, at your own expense. There's relatively little financial cost to becoming a waiter, whereas becoming, say, a hair stylist or massage therapist (two other things I've considered) requires a significant investment of time and money before you can even begin your practice.

I may start out as a host or bus, which doesn't involve tips, but it may be the way to start this thing.

I have to be confident about my ability to get what I need from it otherwise there's no reason to pursue it at all.

***

The motivation for this career addition is entirely financial. I have generally been in relatively enjoyable but financially poor dayjobs except for the occasional superb, well funded teaching gig or corporate/walkaround thing (corporate entertainment gigs can pay really well; but they are few and far between and they often conflict schedule-wise with other artistic/professional priorities). This way of living is no longer viable for me and I need to get a second, totally separate and financially rewarding career off the ground and it needs to be one that doesn't require that I return to studying or begin as an unpaid intern. It also needs to be a reasonably flexible or, at least, maneuverable as far as hours go (in other words, no 9-5 jobs).

***

Thanks for all the advice, folks.

 

[D]

after much consideration...

I've decided not to lie - I stand to gain nothing but potential embarrassment and awkwardness from it.

I may have a lead, as a friend of a friend is chef-ing at a restaurant that's hiring right now. The pavement-pounding officially begins next week.

In the meantime, I had an interview/audition today for a teaching residency today...fingers crossed!

 

[D]

my first training shift is scheduled...

for this Thursday lunch. It's a funky, Californian-Mediterranean cuisine place, organic food, mid-range prices.

Does anyone have any tips for me? The owner is a friend of a friend and has not asked me anything about experience. He said, "you're the thezzzzbian? I love artists!" and then told me to wear a nice pair of jeans and a black shirt.

I am a little nervous.

Do you have any words of wisdom about, oh, I dunno taking orders or carrying things or anything else?

 

[tangerinedream]

Never carry more than you are comfortable with. It will take a lot longer to make the dish again if you drop it than it will to make an extra trip to the table and back.

Check you have got the order right when you've finished taking it. (just read it through to them.)

Don't check everything is ok too much. - it get's annoying!

Keep a subtle eye on your guests, it's your job to be watching them if they want anything - drinks, extra sauce or veg. Don't just deliver the food and vanish into the back room

and enjoy it.

Good luck. (fingers crossed for loads of tips!)

 

[D]

Never carry more than you are comfortable with. It will take a lot longer to make the dish again if you drop it than it will to make an extra trip to the table and back.

Thanks, that one, in particular, is an excellent reminder! It's fairly obvious, but I could easily see myself trying to pile all these plates on my limbs without thinking about it.

This restaurant is fairly new, so I don't know how much business they're doing at lunch time yet. It has gotten excellent reviews, though!

 

[D]

oh, and tips...

Well, I don't think I'll get to keep any tips this week...From what I gather, you don't get to keep tips when you're a trainee in most places so it's minimum wage for me this Thursday.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The time has come for me to realize my full potential as a cliche and get a job waiting tables to supplement my currently almost non-existent revenue from my acting work.

Here's the thing: I don't have any experience waiting tables.

I'm not above fudging things on the resume here and there for this kind of job. I've lived in enough places to conjure up a few establishments that they'd never in a million years bother to verify.

What should I be prepared to talk about in the interview? How, approaching this enterprise as a thespian , should I prepare to embody an experienced waiter?

I've got loads of customer service experience, I'm outgoing, I know how to flirt, I'm good in high pressure environments, and I can carry a lot of stuff at one time. In all ways I'm well equipped for the job, save for the fact that I have no practical experience.

I'm trying to land myself in a gig where I'll get good tips straight off the bat (foregoing the host position, crappy cafes, or diners where I'll make squat) - a lunch shift at a financial district restaurant, ideally.

Any tips?

Say what?

What about them resume jobs at the university etc?

 

[tangerinedream]

Well, I don't think I'll get to keep any tips this week...From what I gather, you don't get to keep tips when you're a trainee in most places so it's minimum wage for me this Thursday.

hmmm....., not the case where I've worked. - In general the tips are either pooled and shared, kept by anyone who recieves them, or just stolen by the boss.
Obviously that may be different in the states.

 

[D]

Say what?

What about them resume jobs at the university etc?

Gotta cover all the bases. If it turns out that I'll make more money waiting tables, then that's what I'll do.

Truthfully, it's likely that waiting tables will accommodate my schedule better than the university gigs.

And let's face it: no one gives a shit about education.

 

[jacobs steel]

for this Thursday lunch. It's a funky, Californian-Mediterranean cuisine place, organic food, mid-range prices.

Does anyone have any tips for me? The owner is a friend of a friend and has not asked me anything about experience. He said, "you're the thezzzzbian? I love artists!" and then told me to wear a nice pair of jeans and a black shirt.

I am a little nervous.

Do you have any words of wisdom about, oh, I dunno taking orders or carrying things or anything else?

You sound like you'll serve youself better than any meal that place has to offer

 

[D]

You sound like you'll serve youself better than any meal that place has to offer

Actually, I think the food sounds lovely. We shall see...

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Gotta cover all the bases. If it turns out that I'll make more money waiting tables, then that's what I'll do.

Truthfully, it's likely that waiting tables will accommodate my schedule better than the university gigs.

And let's face it: no one gives a shit about education.

Plus: no tips at the uni jobs.

 

[D]

Plus: no tips at the uni jobs.

Exactly.

 

[D]

a little update...

I'm lovin' it!

My feet ache at the end of my shifts, but other than that, it's all going very well.

 

[sovietpop]

I've never done silver service but my friend told me a story about how it was her second night and she dropped a potato into someone's jacket pocket. Oddly enough, she's never done silver service again since.

I was a silver service waitress once, I got the job by lying about my experiences, hadn't a clue. I dropped many many spuds. and set the table all wrong. and knew nothing about wine. I've a terrible memory so I could never member who ordered what. All in all I was pretty woeful.

The thing is, get your first job, learn on the job, you might get sacked, but then by the time you go for second job, you'll know what to do.