Great new restaurant concept

I’ve created a new restaurant concept that I think will sweep the nation. It’s called The Olde Fogey. It targets a growing demographic, one that will only explode as we baby boomers age. My only problem? Getting waiters to work there. I’m thinking of paying them $20 an hour. Anyway, here’s the initial menu that [...]

Book of the day – The Essential Wine Book by Oz Clarke

Oz Clarke’s New Essential Wine Book: An Indispensable Guide to Wines of the World by Oz Clarke Publisher: Fireside; 3 Rev Upd edition (December 20, 2005) ISBN 10: 0743286685 ISBN 13: 978-0743286688 Note: all comments forthwith are based on the 1996 edition of this book. Robert Parker says it best on the cover of the edition that [...]

Uniform check

It occurs to me that I’ve missed my monthly reminder for checking your uniform for the past couple of months. Apparently, life happens and it got swept by the wayside. Well, isn’t that the way it happens? You get busy or otherwise occupied and one day, a manager points out that your shirt collar is [...]

Oldie but goodie

In the first month of writing this blog, I wrote a post entitled “12 tips on making your dining experience better”. Realizing that I have a lot of more recent readers who might not want to comb the archives for all of my pearls of wisdom, I thought it would be good draw some attention to [...]

“How to drive your waiter crazy” – from CNN

How to drive your waiter crazy By Stephanie Goldberg, Special to CNN //   Most waiters would rather have a customer complain than leave unhappy. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Not getting a tip is just one of many things that angers a waiter Also: Demanding customers who don’t make reservations but claim to know owner Asking for [...]

The Roethlisburger effect

Dude is in some trouble. How do I know? Because suddenly, my normal 300 – 500 page views has soared in the past couple of days to over 1000. My previous high day was around 660. My one little article about Big Ben garnered almost 800 hits yesterday. This was a post from months ago about how [...]

Menu loyalty

What does this mean and what does it mean to a waiter? Basically it means using your menu knowledge in order to build guest loyalty. It’s loyalty to the menu from the waiter which in turn builds guest loyalty to the menu and, by extention, to the restaurant. while service is generally considered to trump the [...]

Culinary term of the day – cooking terms pt. 2

In part one, we covered roasting, sautéing,  and grilling. I can hear you asking, “Why cover such basic stuff”? Well, for many of us, this is kindergarten stuff. But I suspect that many waiters, especially beginning ones, have never given cooking methods much though. for those of us who are also foodies, it’s pretty elemental. [...]

Culinary term of the day – various cooking methods pt. 1

I see some waiters’ eyes glaze over when they are given daily specials in pre-shift. Sometimes they simply parrot the words that have been told to them – “We have roasted ossobucco with chanterelle mashed potatoes with a balsamic/basil/cherry reduction”. Or “Tonight we have sous vide salmon with braised leeks and stir-fried root vegetables topped with candied [...]

The second in a three part series on tipping from Fredric Koeppel

From The Memphis Daily News: Waiters: Will Hustle for Tips, Not Minimum Wage By FREDRIC KOEPPEL | Special to The Memphis News shutterstock.com Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series about tipping in local restaurants. Chefs may be celebrities, restaurant owners may be renowned, but waiters are the most visible component of the [...]