We ended up going with 6.00 even. Had to grab my coworker and she saw the 8 hidden in the total line. Thanks man

I can't help it. If there's a ramekin at a place and I'm taking leftovers home, that thing is going in the box and taken home with me to join the others. Only at big chain restaurants, though. Never stealing from a mom and pop joint.

But, I had a thought. I don't want to continue this if it negatively impacts the server. So you guys even care if someone does this? Or is it just kind of an assumed loss that people are going to take these, breakage, etc?

Probably the most illegible slip I've ever received. Genuinely laughed out loud when I saw it LOL. Any guesses? 😂

We make so much money as servers, just roll the damn silverware before you leave for the love of Godddd.

That is all

First time this has ever happened to me.

And i literally didn’t care, i was genuinely thinking of asking my section partner to take them anyways cause she’s way better with difficult people anyways.

But story time. I get a two top of a couple of regulars, a mother and a daughter. I work at a Mexican restaurant, a shitty one lol, and we put out our corn chips, beans, and salsa when we greet the tables. The daughter apparently can only have flour chips, so they special requested flour chips, something I charged them for (at discretion of my boss, which they also had an issue with despite being served these for years according to them so, either a server was paying for it themselves, or somehow convinced our hard ass cook to make them, or made them themselves?) anyways, I get them their chips, and check 3 times over the span of 20 minutes to see if they are ready to order. Each time they act like I’m an ass for doing so. When they are finally ready, they say they have questions about the menu. I happily answer them, tho I am confused why a couple of regulars would be questioning the menu, especially our most popular and basic items, so much. I try my best to answer the question but the mom just acts more and more confused, and more and more bitchy tbh. (Side note again, my coworkers who recognized her described her as “cunty” sooo) I finally got fed up and just kept repeating the descriptions of the items because i literally had nothing more I could say about them to make it make sense to her, i even got to the point where i was dumbing it down for her like she was a child. She finally tells her daughter to order, which then turns into a big conversation, argument between them where they lowkey said some wild shit, and argument with me about prices to which i said “i do not control the price i just serve the food, if you want to go with (item a) or (item b) it’s completely up to you, i don’t mind either way” then finally both order. I send the food back as they ordered it. They then ask my section partner for a bunch of shit as im bringing them their food, shit they refuse to relay to me when i bring the food. Then when my section partner brings them the random shit they asked for they spend two minutes complaining to her about me, straight up lying about how the interaction went between us, which she didn’t entertain because like I said, these are known problem regulars. Anyways they asked her to take over for me, which I was literally already leaning towards so like whatever. I felt bad watching my section partner run back and forth between the kitchen and their table and the manager but she was legit the best person I could have in the situation cause she deals with difficult people much better than me like I said.

Anyways this was just a rant/vent. I hate how people can be so difficult to deal with sometimes, like genuinely impossible. And seriously if you don’t like the food on the menu or the prices why come back? I will make any effort to help with prices when mistakes are actually made, but when you’re just sitting with menus upset, just please don’t come back. This place is not for you.

I work in the fine-ish dining scene in Charlotte—lists and recommendations and all that good stuff. And I know that only people like us who work in the industry really know the best places in our cities to have the best hospitality experiences. I’m going to DC for my 30th birthday next year and I want the food-lovers, solo-dining, high stakes server experience.

Taking the Amtrak up there and getting a hotel near the station, but I’m totally open to traveling a bit for a good spot. I’ll be in the city in mid January for about a week. TIA! Cheers 🥂

Edit: some of the restaurants I’m looking at for one to three really nice dinners, but tell me about the best dives and cheap bites too!
•Causa
•Dauphine’s
•Unconventional Diner
•minibar by Jose Andres (only one I’m like SUPER married to bc I’m obsessed with his substack)
•St. James
•Moon Rabbit
•L’Ardente

So I switched over to a new place a girl told me to work with her and she is able to make enough to support herself and her daughter and go on trips .
So I thought hell yeah , it was a big sports bar you get to wear cute little outfits and tons of makeup what better way to make money than to bank off that. Plus I started not too long ago.

Well it was terrible, managers were awful they had serious lack of emotional control sometimes would throw things and slam items on the expo line and server station. Would Call us all sorts of curse words under the sun. The one woman manager would treat their non favorite soooo poorly and never do her job , due to being too busy talking crap about the other servers and would tell people out loud who they didn’t like. The OG servers would shoulder check you and basically bully you as a new girl until you “proved” yourself.

So after about a month of terrible management, over and under staffing, being unfair about sections allowing some servers to fill their sections while skipping some girls in rotation for over an hour (also me), and BTW I came from a restaurant where I was handling big parties alone they refused to give me any. And just the way they spoke to us. So I got a new part time job and I quite literally make the same that I was with less hours working full time at that restraunt. I then texted the manager I quit, with a 1 week notice and to take me off the schedule.

I've worked here like under a year and I'm so fed up. I only started here because I left my internship for my career after I had a really terrible series of events happen that made me drop out of college and the internship right away. I only did it so I kept my head above water, essentially, and that's why I stayed.

Anyway, there's so much wrong here. I'm just gonna do a list of reasons I hate this place. It's a restaurant inside a hotel, by the way, important context.

- We don't have managers on night shifts. Which is the only time i work, after like 5/6pm they all leave.

- Kitchen manager cusses everyone out for having to leave his room to do his job. He lives at the hotel. He has no bills. Grown ass 35 year old man. Cussing us, who are all like 16-21 out because he has to cook sometimes. Lies constantly about everything. Doordashed five grand worth of food on a company card. Never fired. Threw something at me and another server the other night and we immediately called the food/beverage manager of the hotel, who is temporarily working as the general manager because our general manager is in the hospital for a while (he injured himself pretty bad with a nail gun) and she said "I'll talk to him about it." Not fired. We were like 90% it was a knife he threw at us, too.

- The line cook that has been here since opening lives here too. Always cussing us out for doing our job. Severe alcoholic and steals liquor which gets me and the other bartender blamed. Btw I have to be both bartender and server most days, and am the only one who restocks liquor and knows how to make drinks besides her because everyone else is underage.

- To add on to the underage thing I recently found out our food/beverage manager makes people lie to everyone about their age. Someone I thought was like, 19, because she said 19, is actually 17. She lied the entire time I knew her.

- Not allowed to sit down. We only have like 2-10 tables A DAY in the restaurant. Rarely ever do we have more. We're doing nothing for $10/hr, which isn't bad, honestly, but I'm used to more money.

- No one besides me cleans. Why? Oh, they have curfews and have to leave early.

- Basically everyone who works here is from a small european country. They work here illegally, which I'm not pissed about, I'm more pissed that they make more hourly than us and are not taxed. Because our food/beverage manager does payroll and shit. We brought this up to the one guy (the general manager) once and he lied and said we didn't. By the way the employees TELL US this.

- The europeans essentially only talk to the other ones, and if I have ever tried to be nice or speak to them which I swear I am always nice because my father is also a european immigrant from a different small country, i get language barriers and such, they are so rude and often ignore me or don't help. They really like, think they're better than everyone else, and are so genuinely hateful and rude. I'm not saying it's because they're from that country or anything, the people here just cloister together and other everyone else. My other coworkers who aren't from that country even say so. I work mainly with immigrants and they all say yes, those guys suck and everyone else is treated unfairly because they're the white immigrants. Essentially workplace racism because everyone who isn't from that country (besides me who is white) is a poc. Soooo many demeaning comments said.

- So much illegal stuff. Drinking on the job, two workers have offered to sell me cocaine (I do not do cocaine) i think management is laundering money through the people who work here legally and I don't want to get caught in a crime I had no idea about. It's primarily a business hotel and I asked a regular who has to stay here a lot for work about it and he said "Oh for sure they're doing something with your money" because I showed him my paystub and where our money comes from. It's not from the hotel chain, restaurant, or a payroll company. It's from some small llc the owner presumably owns in florida.

- I've had to deal with death threats and shit from customers and then had to bend over backwards to serve them.

- They want us to care about reviews and stuff and I get blamed for bad ones that aren't even about me. A lot of the staff are rude and shit to customers and management refuses to fire them or reprimand them. But I get reprimanded for not caring about reviews, or because I'm sitting and not cleaning.

- I got accused of stealing money multiple times because of computer issues. Our system is really old and sucks ass. Not my fault and the managers had to apologize to me about it.

- All the servers and bartenders have to serve our corporate manager regularly. He lives here I'm pretty sure. Meaning we can't close if he's in the restaurant and he often stays really late past closing drinking multiple bottles of wine or whiskey. If he doesn't get it immediately, even if we're in a rush, he gets pissed at us. He has no awareness of how to run a restaurant at all and yet believes he should be in charge of everything, including prices, which he shouldn't be. No one should be paying $30 for a shitty old fashioned made by a 17 year old. But he insists on price changes, even if he has to argue with everyone about being wrong. He also has stolen liquor and stuff (from our LOCKED liquor room, i'm talking cases of bottles) and has blamed it on us. As in, there is proof of this. Also the VP of the company and the owner of the hotel are buddy buddy and all of them are complete assholes to serve which we have to regularly. Also he never tips me, or the other bartender or servers, only the other people from his country. They get tipped, we don't. Okay, cool. Love that. I make no money MAKING YOU 7 OLD FASHIONEDS in the middle of a rush, but they can, even if they don't serve you. Okay. Cool.

Idk if that's all. Maybe I'll add more. I'm trying to find another job. I just needed to get it out.

Edit: I’ve cooled down today, but damn, just don’t give me a half full martini glass and argue that that’s fine.

Just got hired last week as a back waiter and loving my job except for the foot pain it kills me every shift. Is foot pain normal while my feet get conditioned or does my footwear just suck?

Hey guys, I just got hired as a server and I start training later this week. I’m incredibly nervous and excited about it. I’m used to actually making things, like desserts and coffee. This is very different for me. I’ve never waited a table a day in my life. I was wondering if I could get some advice to ease my mind

I don’t need advice or anything and I’m not in any real trouble. And this is mostly a post about how good my management team is.

A table of 4 was having a great time until one of the guests thought his well-done burger was burned. The guest’s grandmother was the one to call me over and ask to have it re-made. I said, “oh of course we will!” and grabbed a share plate. I set the plate to the left of the young man’s entree plate and started suggesting he move his fries to it, which he had started doing immediately, anyway. Before I could finish my sentence (“why don’t you put the fries on this plate so you’ll have something to eat while you’re waiting for your new burger,”) the grandma interrupted me and said, “What?! They’re not going to give him new fries? They should definitely be giving him fresh fries with the new burger!”

For some reason, this simply was the last straw for me today.

I looked at her and said, “oh yes, they sure will. However, I thought it would be nice for him to have something to eat while he’s waiting for his burger to be re-made, while the rest of you are eating your entrees,” and I stormed off with the “burned” burger.

This may not sound too dramatic but there was vitriol in my tone and I was staring at this woman like we were lifelong enemies when I said it. I immediately regretted it and told my manager right after taking the burger back to the line. I was like, I just screwed up and got really sassy with a guest, I’m so sorry, and I explained what happened. Manager delivered the burger and turned the situation around, got them happy and laughing again. When he went back to make sure the new burger was correct, they complained about me. “I wish they hadn’t. I thought we were gonna get away with it!” is what he said to me. He told me his inkling was to comp their whole meal but he needed to check with the more senior manager first.

Management did end up taking care of the whole bill, and the senior manager asked me what happened. I relayed the story to her, and she was like, you know that wasn’t the right way to handle that, right? I was like, yeah! I can’t believe I did that! Obviously I’m in the wrong and I’m sorry! She was like, do I need to keep talking to you about what you did wrong? And I said no, but I understand if you feel the need to. Then she asked me what SHE could do for ME. I told her nothing, that these Sunday customers have just done me in. She gave me a little pat on the back and told me not to go back to the table.

We were finishing up service by then anyway, so I was cut, and I left with my tail between my legs. Thank god I have the next two days off.

I normally say I’ll be right back for ya and they will either say nothing or tell me I’m good. I wish this was fool proof but sometimes people who say nothing don’t want the change. Not a huge deal but like if I’m busy out the ass I’m gonna ask because the 2-3 mins I save by not having to go and immediately close your ticket that moment and go and come back with change really can be helpful when again it’s busy out the ass.

I promise I’m not tryna rob you I just would like to go immediately do the 20 other things I have to do if you end up not wanting change.

ok so if you looked, you’d see that i’m currently balancing a tray with 7 other glasses on it on one hand! and if you looked even harder, you would also see that my apron is practically overflowing with straws! and if you paid just a little more attention, you might be able to notice that i don’t actually have any free hands to give you a straw with right now, because i’m still passing out drinks to other people in your party!! i hate you!!!

Curious about something I've been watching from the line for a couple years now.

We've had three servers quit in the last eight months. Formally quit, gave notice, said they were done with the industry. Two of them are back. One picked up weekend shifts within six weeks, the other lasted about four months before coming back full time. The third one I genuinely don't know about yet but I give it until fall.

Not saying that as a knock on anyone. I drove a truck for twenty years and I understand what it's like to have a job that gets into your bones in a way that's hard to explain to people outside it. The money is erratic but the ceiling on a good night is real, and a lot of industries just don't offer that kind of immediate feedback on your effort.

What I keep wondering is whether people come back because they genuinely want to or because the alternatives turned out to be worse than expected. Office job with a set salary sounds good until it doesn't, I imagine.

For the ones who left and came back, was there a specific thing that brought you back or did it just kind of happen.

EDIT: I work the line so I'm watching this secondhand, just to be clear about where I'm coming from.

Should the hostess just stand there and wait for who knows how long until the conversation finishes? How long do you wait for Bob to finish? What do you do if they yak a little too long?

hi all, i need some advice or encouragement right now. i recently quit my job at Applebees and although i feel like i made the right choice for me, i tend to second guess myself. i started serving there about five months ago when i desperately needed a job. i had debated going to bartending school to i interviewed for a server position and was told i would also be trained as a bartender eventually (never happened). there were a few bumps in the road when i started but like i said, i needed the job. my coworkers seemed to all share a similar taste humor which i could not relate to. this included shit like the bartender making many sexual jokes to my coworkers and me. no matter how many times i set a boundary, he would cross it. my supervisors were practically useless as most of the time they are either on the phone with a partner, or being live on tiktok. they were relatively unapproachable bc any time i would even APPROACH with an issue, i was met with some rude snark remark as a “joke”. the longer i stayed, the more i realized how many new employees were trained and straight up left without a word. i did get along with some coworkers, which kinda helped with the stress, but i recently realized it just wasn’t enough. we were constantly understaffed in the kitchen and on the floor which resulted in my tables tipping extremely low often.

i have a habit of quitting jobs on a whim and i tried really hard not to let that happen again. i eventually was able to move into an apartment with my partner which is why i think i felt like i needed to stay. recently ive been interviewing with other wfh positions and i have a great feeling that i’ll be hired. im not 100% sure but im confident. anyways, last Friday the restaurant was busier than usual and ofc my manager (who went on vacation) didn’t schedule enough coverage. everyone was stressed that night. the cooks, servers, bartenders, and our to go worker. the entire 7 hours i was there it was like you could not escape negativity. i was constantly bitched at by my tables and supervisor. towards the end of the night our to go person (who was only there for a month maybe) legitimately quit and just walked out bc she was overwhelmed. my supervisors honestly just blamed her for not being a “team player”. this fucked everything up and ofc made everything more difficult but i couldn’t blame her at all.

a little later into the night one of my coworkers had mentioned to me that he overheard my managers talking about me and the day i had called out of work. apparently they had believed i was lying about my back pain and just ridiculed me for that. i have had scoliosis since i was a kid, and sometimes my back will pull something and i have to take pain meds to relieve pain when i have to walk. also, i had only called out ONE other time in June when i had to put down my dog i had since childhood. when i learned this information from my coworker, it honestly fucked with me for the rest of the night. when i realize at the end of the night how much money i made, i honestly started to cry. a 7 hour closing shift and i had received $15 in card tips and about $30 in cash. that broke me. when saturday came around i just physically couldn’t make myself go. i started thinking and considering i have enough savings to cover my rent for two months, i just thought to myself that i wouldn’t go back. when i didn’t show up for my shift, i expected a call or something from my manager like i’m used to, but no one said anything. when i missed my sunday shift, still no message. idk. i guess it would be rough receiving a phone call or not, but part of me just feels like “damn they really don’t give a fuck about me” maybe that’s too needy. i just felt like i had developed SOME type of relationship with my coworkers but i guess not.

anyways, sorry for the rant. like i said deep down i feel like i made the right decision but a part of me feels like i’m falling back into bad habits and its making me second guess myself. i’d love some words of encouragement. thanks.

i can count maybe 3 times this has happened to me. first time was someone i used to serve before and i guess i was rude to them :/? (i honestly dont rmbr) and they said they want a new server (my manager said maybe they just dont like poc) another time was i literally just did my spiel and they said they wanted to move because my vibe felt wrong? and then the third time, why i am typing this today was because i have worked 50 hours this weekthey called me in. our brunch goes from 10-3 and they didnt cut me till right at 3. (i wasnt closing) and i guess i was too tired or something but the table needed shared plates. i got the plates the cleaner one was on top of two dirty ones and as i am passing them out the women screams. i say “i am so sorry” and grab them clean ones. then i pass her as shes talking to my manager asking to request a diff server. idk just didnt make me feel good. i also have anxiety so i think im just a bad server and should prob just quit.

I recently migrated to a new English speaking country and here I managed to get a FOH job from an agency. So the agency will provide me the placement and there’s no such thing as a fixed restaurant or bar. If its a wedding ceremony event today maybe it will be in a restaurant tomorrow.

Back in my country I worked as a FOH in a small restaurant for few days. There I used to greet the guests, made them feel comfortable, bring and serve them the food from the kitchen. Side by side I had to follow them up with the updates and if they need anything. After completing their meal, I used to clean them up with others.

But here I’m not really sure about the process. How will things work here. What to expect and things like that. What are the things that I need to focus on. I’m a bit confused as well.

If anyone can help me with valuable information, thats would be appreciated.

Today I confronted the owner of the restaurant about not getting paid on time and asking him if he saw my text about helping me get my hourly pay.

He was super fuckin annoyed and kept telling me it’s a system issue because my title was changed in the system. I told him I never asked to be changed from server to trainer and trainer to server. He didn’t like that response and kept telling me well idk what else to tell you it’s all up to the system. I told him I just want to be promised that this isn’t going to continue to happen, I have an issue with my pay every single pay day, I didn’t even get my check 2 weeks ago for 5 fucking days later than my pay date. Ugh!!!

There were 2 new servers today, 1st day. My manager asked if I could help them and of course I do my best. There was a bunch of food coming out and I was touching the tickets to fold them because they were curling in a way that I couldn’t see food items on them. The owner yelled at me “STOP TOUCHING THE FUCKING TICKETS AND LET THE EXPO DO HIS JOB” excuse me? I’m fucking flabbergasted. I told him “Pete told me to help these girls”. He said “I DON’T GIVE A FUCK WHAT PETE SAID, GO DO YOUR FUCKING JOB”. When I tell you the look that the staff all had when he did that was just shook. Those poor girls got to see what they’re in for if they stay. So sad. They watched me go from helpful and nice to now crying and leaving within minutes.

The thing is, I WAS doing my job and helping these girls identify food plates and telling them which tables to take them to. I was also running food. It was a lot! I only had 2 tables so I had time to help them. So I just gave up, someone else can run the food then.

I left crying in front of everyone. I couldn’t work. I just want to do the best job every day and get paid on time and not get yelled at for helping. I’m exhausted. I’m looking for another job but this is so hard. I am now dreading seeing him. He’s a fucking asshole. Pray for me 😭

Also I filed a complaint with L&I about missing wages… he’s gonna get that letter soon and not be able to retaliate. I’m scared of what he will say. He’s not going to like that I got them involved. Especially because I’m not even getting paid minimum wage by ¢.15 so who else is he shorting and how much will he owe?

I am kind of concerned about my safety at this place.

End of night putting in everything all your cash out info. You can’t find a slip on a $100 bill. You don’t know if they tipped in cash or not but paid w credit. What do you and/or management do? What have you done? What do you know others have done? Just curious, thx! 

Can we discuss benefits?

I truly love being a server and the person that it has shaped me into.

But when I think of this industry I often wonder who has the benefits.
My company is soon to lay us off. I pay $300 a month for benefits. I know it’s a bit high but I’m with blue cross blue shield.

I was planning on collecting unemployment or try to get transferred so I could keep my benefits.

Benefits you get perksforwork, discounts on hotels, flights, rentals, 👟 s-h-o-e, medical, dental, vision, long term, short term disability. I pay around $300 a month for. Was able to get my Invisalign fully paid for by my dental insurance.

What does benefit packages look like out there?

And any recommendations for transfers dm me please. I’m open to travel with my minivan.

Heyy guys!!

So, I’ve been in my place as a server for over 2 years and honestly, I love it.

We have a difficult coworker who would shout across the floor as I’m talking to the customers “ I’ve got it!” or as I’m taking the order in MY section, he yells behind the customer to me.. “ I got it, I got it” then proceeded to drop the water at the table and not even pour it into glass…

He’s also been giving me a “stink eye” for smallest things. For example… if I put napkins bins away to clear out the server station area during the peak hours.. just very rude and unprofessional….

I’ve made the work with him manageable for myself, but recently been told that he’ll be working helping the kitchen staff now with the to go orders and I guess tickets ie just telling the chef what to plate and just expo stuff.. and when I asked to clarify exactly what he’ll be doing bc I though it was interesting to see a server just shift to boh all of a sudden. I was told he’ll do what the owner does… while in the kitchen.. help out with expo and keeping things “organized” in the kitchen.

Now… I’m just not sure where this is headed because he’s the least organized person and very much selfish and not a team player. Him and the kitchen staff speak the same language so that leaves me on the outskirts so to speak.

My questioning is.. was this his initiative to ask the boss to move him to the boh or was this most likely boss’s initiative to laterally move him because of his “public outbursts?” I just kind want to know what I’m in for based on your experiences in similar situations?

Ps Also, I’ll be the one to close out the register.. something that he used to do.

Thanks!!!