Waitstaff
posted in Frenzied Daddy |One weblog I enjoy is Waiter Rant. His writing voice sounds understated and dry. It’s fun because he scathingly characterizes some of the more colorful people he waits on. His characterizations are really good.
I was a waiter, once. Well, twice. I worked at Red Robin, which is a chain of family-and-college-dining, where their main foodtype is hamburger. I remember starting work there as a busser; one of the waitstaff took me aside and told me a few secrets. Basically, they explained that bussers get tips from the waitstaff and the more tips the waitstaff made, the more the bussers would make. Some of the bussers didn’t work very hard and focussed only on clearing tables that the customers had left from, but whatever I could do to improve the amount of tips the waitstaff were getting would be appreciated. After all, the waitstaff could clean off tables too.
I like to think I was a damn good busboy. Because I focussed on helping the waitstaff- running food, refilling drinks, whatever. Of course, the best help I could do was to clean tables, because a section with no clean tables didn’t get sat and they didn’t get any more customers. And who likes eating around dirty tables? So, if all the tables were clean, I would help with other things.
After a while, I was “promoted” from busboy to waitstaff. It was really the same thing, just with a different focus; my job was to help the customer have the best meal that week. Ok, so Red Robin’s not cafe zinfandel or the bijou; it’s a family restaurant, it’s not high class; some would say I wasn’t a “real waiter.”
It was interesting reading today about how he’s seeing the change in tips. On one hand, the entrees at his place have gone up. So a 20% tip on a $30 meal was once $6, but the meal’s gone to $40 and the tip is $8. Unfortunately, with the economy having changed for the worse, he’s seeing fewer 20% tips because people are saving their money. Most of the non-regulars are tipping at 15% or so, instead of the 20 he was getting last year.
My opinions on tipping aren’t hidden. I firmly believe in tipping well. The difference between a poor tip and a great tip is only a few dollars ( in the price range i usually spend ). My family goes out for a meal and it’s $40? If I bump it from $48 to $50, that’s two bucks out of my pocket but it’s an extra 5 percent on the tip. And the feeling a waiter gets when they get tipped that much extra is more than worth it.
What I hate about tipping is “15% of the total will be added as a gratuity for parties of 6 or more.” If it’s a gratuity, it’s not required. Gratuitous violence? Ring a bell? Hello?
And his reflection on how much his tips dropping affects his groceries sucks. If everyone is tipping less, he can’t buy the food he wants. It’s like swapping rice and beans for tri-tip and potatoes. And I feel his pain.
