Restaurant/Cafe Sep 27, 2017 at 4:00 am

Debunking—and Rebunking—Restaurant Myths

Chad Walsh
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Comments

1
Having worked every position one can work in a restaurant, I have also been a customer. And I gotta tell you; in Portland, there's a significant chance of ending up with a server who thinks that the service industry is below them. This leads to otherwise good meals falling the fuck over into shitshow.
I'll throw in the disclaimer: Yes of course many restaurant patrons are shitty human beings who will be straight the hell up cruel to servers for no reason more than the novelty of Being Served. However, if you're shitting on your customers for the sheer joy of doing so, you're awful.
The only person I can say for a fact that fucked with a patron's food was a someone I worked with over ten years ago. We had a daily regular who was consistently abusive, though for some reason continued to show up Every Damn Day. He eventually got some Visine in his Dr. Pepper (not from me), and subsequently never showed up again.
on September 27, 2017 at 11:40 AM Report this
2
I've been in the service industry for a long time. I've liked 90% of my customers, and as a customer, I'm liked 99% of the service I've received. The only people losing their shit over not being served exactly-perfectly and with sufficient debasing servility are wealthy people and, yah, usually white men ages 19-100.
Ovidius on September 27, 2017 at 6:45 PM Report this
3
“You’re a Number” or a drink or an entree (and at the hospital you’re “the foot” or “the concussion” or... you get the idea.) It’s not personal. It’s all just too much to remember.

When I bartended, I knew all my regulars by face and what they drank and I could pick up conversation from where we had last left off no matter how long they’d been away, but I couldn’t recall names for shit. And heaven forbid that I see one of them on the street. “Yeah... um... Bud Light, how you doing?” (strained smile) I’m just going to go now, because I’m off the clock and frankly I get paid to be nice to you. (My customers loved me. I’m still not sure why.)

(Ditto on the f-ing up the food idea. This ain’t Fight Club.)
Nicki H on September 28, 2017 at 7:54 AM Report this
4
Ovidius - " The only people losing their shit over not being served exactly-perfectly and with sufficient debasing servility are wealthy people and, yah, usually white men ages 19-100 "

I've been in the service industry 14 years. The people I've found to be the rude impatient bad tippers were white men of all ages. Also black men, Asian men, even Latino men. Don't even get me started on the the different races of women that were hard to wait on and bad tippers. Rich/Poor, male/female, all races, people are rude. It takes about 3 days as a server or bartender to learn that lesson. Or maybe that's only an oppression male servers endure
ticklesnitch on September 28, 2017 at 2:13 PM Report this
5
ticklesnitch, maybe the fact that you think all customers are terrible and that you get bad tips from all of your customers are related...
Ovidius on September 28, 2017 at 4:36 PM Report this
6
Clearly I didn't say all guests are terrible and tip poorly. I implied some people are just bad tippers and rude to service staff regardless of sex, age, race or economic status. Not just rich people and white people.
ticklesnitch on September 29, 2017 at 2:18 PM Report this
7
I'm a big manly man who also happens to have a weight problem. I'm constantly yoyo dieting, or I mean I have been yoyo dieting. Anyway, I'm the one who orders a salad, a roll, and a piece of baked chicken. Meanwhile my ex, a lady who I live with, has no self control and orders the most manly of dishes and multiple stiff drinks. Every single time the waiters bring out the manly dishes to me. It's ridiculous. It makes me wonder if they are looking at the numbers or not. How is this error being made?
Steve Urkel on October 7, 2017 at 8:32 PM Report this
8
I'll field that last one. When its a 2 top most servers will not bother with paying attention to seat numbers, especially if it's a man and a woman it's much easier for the servers brain to say "man and woman". If the server is very busy, or if someone else delivers the food, it's very easy for the server to assume that the man has the 4-story cheeseburger with fries and the woman has the fish and salad, because ninety-nine times out of a hundred that is exactly the case. in 30 years of service I have often speculated that this is because men are generally more impulsive and guided by instant gratification whereas women are more likely to be thinking ahead with regards to their health or even their weight. Maybe this is why women live longer on average? That said, a good server should avoid any stereotypes (no matter how true) and always confirm that they are giving the right meal to the right person.
Aurelius141 on October 25, 2017 at 5:11 PM Report this

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