Out of the box idea for waiters with extensive wine lists

If you work in a restaurant that has an extensive wine list, you might consider starting an in-house “wine club”. Waiters can chip in X-amount each “meeting” to purchase several wines off of the list for comparison tasting. You might be able to buy the bottles directly from your own stock at cost, but this could also [...]

End of the month post

Well cats and kittens, it’s time to remind you that at the end of the month, the smart waiter takes a really close look at the uniform. Are the shoes on their last legs and are your pants cuffs starting to fray? How about those shirt collars – piling and stained from the sweat of your [...]

Gifts for waiters – pt. 4

Get access to your favorite waiter’s wine list where he or she works. Establish a dollar amount that you want to spend for a gift. Let’s say that you want to give them a $100 gift. Either buy multiple bottles whose retail prices total that amount, or buy one bottle that equals that amount. The [...]

Gifts for Waiters, Pt. 3

These fall under the “nice to have” category. These days, few waiters are called upon to light cigarettes and cigars. In the old days, a lighter was an indispensible tool that every waiter carried. Even today, it’s considered a mandatory tool if only to light a candle on a birthday or anniversary dessert. Most waiters simply buy a [...]

Two books on waiting tables

These aren’t formal reviews because I never review a book that I don’t already own. This shouldn’t even be considered a recommendation per se because, once again, I haven’t had the pleasure to personally check them out. Paul Paz runs a site called “WaitersWorld.com”, a clearinghouse for waiter resources, including a news area and a [...]

Gifts for waiters – pt. 2

Books. Yes, I said books. But not just any books. You have to calibrate the type of book with your favorite waiter. If your waiter friend works at Applebees, they might not need a huge wine book. If you are only a casual friend who’s giving a small gift, you might not want to spend [...]

Gifts for waiters – pt 1

After just having talked about commercialization and hoping to wait until midnight tonight to start confronting it, I break my own rule. I do this because I recognize that today will be a day where fewer people than usual will be accessing this blog, and for good reason. There’s turkey to carve, canned cranberry substance [...]

Thanksgiving 2009

311 years ago next month, Pilgrims, escaping persecution in their home country, landed in a new world after attempting to establish themselves elsewhere in the Old World. Within the year, they were celebrating what we moderns consider the first Thanksgiving feast, a meal shared with the people with which they had signed a peace treaty and who had [...]

Thanksgiving

With more and more restaurants staying open for Thanksgiving, I hope the guests show a little extra thanks for those waiters who are pressed into service. By a little extra thanks, I mean an especially generous tip along with a heartfelt thank you. Thank you.

New link posted – A Tip From the Bartender

Long time readers might have noticed that I don’t write much about life behind the bar or discuss the issues that bar personnel face. That’s because I’ve never been, nor have I ever desired, to be a bartender. Being a successful bartender requires a skill set that I just don’t possess. Of course, I occasionally post [...]