Former mainstream journalist Bud Buck has been searching for his niche the past few years, trying desperately to re-launch his fading career. With reluctance I have agreed to let him write an occasional column about events in the news – a column that “will say awkward things that ‘no one else will say’”.
He calls it “A Voice In the Wilderness”.
The Republican’s endorsed Gubernatorial candidate has been ridiculed for something he said in a restaurant this week, but I commend Tom Emmer. He is the only politician on the scene with the courage to confront one of Minnesota’s major problems – obscenely overpaid waiters and waitresses.
In a state that expects to struggle with budget shortfalls and crumbling infrastructure every single year for the foreseeable future, our political leaders have been more than happy to overlook the growing tycoon server situation. But Emmer has boldly stepped up to the plate (a royal blue plate special in this case) and called out wealthy wait staff for their crazy, out-of-control compensation.
I don’t have to tell you how bad it is.
Anybody who has gone out to lunch in Minnesota can see the imbalance the moment they sit down at an establishment where the fabulously rich come breezing in to don their money aprons so they can continue to rake astonishing piles of dough.
Waitress apologists will throw numbers at you and claim that the hundred grand a year server is some kind of myth, like bigfoot. But I have been to the places where these gluttons grab their gold, and believe me, trying to explain it with ‘math’ and ‘facts’ will only confuse you.
Here are the details that haunt me:
That haughty look the waitress gives you when she approaches the table to announce that she ‘will be your server.’ The way she looms over you like some petty tyrant as she dictates a few items that will be the ‘specials’ of your day. Her terse translation of your hopes into a single line on a flimsy sheet of paper. The incessant demand – fries or coleslaw? Fries or coleslaw? As if this is the only choice available to you – the little people. The seated people. And then, having summed you up, she walks with impunity from your table back into the kitchen, a place of power and influence where you are forbidden access, a place where, I assure you, they have fries AND coleslaw.
How bad is it? In recent years when I’ve gone into some of the more successful restaurants, the waitress has had other people – “her” people – bring the actual food to me. Who are these confused minions who don’t know where the tilapia is supposed to go? They are the waitresses’ waiters. She said at the outset she would be my server, but when the real serving happens, she sends an underling! Where is she while my BLT is being placed on the other side of the table? In her Cadillac, I suppose, receiving a pedicure from a poor stockbroker who is just trying to make ends meet! And then later she breezes by the table to blithely ask if everything ‘is OK’?
I’m sure everything looks more than OK to a person who gets to walk around all day long collecting both minimum wage AND tips!
Thank you Tom Emmer, for saying the thing no one else would say!
This is Bud Buck!
How do you compute an appropriate tip?
Trail Baboon 
Such sweet sarcasm. Hee hee. My wife calculates it at 15% if they were good and more if they were better than good and if they were really bad–at better than 15%–maybe they were having a bad day and need perking up.
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Where’s Blackhoof Barb the last two days? Barb–you OK?
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oh, i’m here on occasion – i check once or twice/day – sometimes more. i am regressing into lurkitude, i think. so don’t worry; i’ll let you know if i show up in the obits.
just so much wit and learned-ness – such fun to read but some days my mind …..
my recipe yesterday, for example, for cajeta. 4 cups of sugar in the electric skillet. add 2 Tbls of cornstarch – one. two. – OH GEEZ!! that was baking soda i put in! try to scrape out all but 1/2 tsp. soda (not successful). now add the REAL cornstarch. stir in a gallon of goat milk. gently boil for about 4 hours, during which time you cook the entire mass over – onto the counter and the floor – at least twice (one thing soda does is make it fizzy). stop cooking when gets too brown to continue (the other thing soday does is help it “brown”) and spill quite a bit when pouring into half pint jars. refrigerate. do this recipe while you are printing soap labels and wrapping soap so that your hands get sticky and mar at least a dozen labels in the clean up effort. but at least the floor got scrubbed.
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It is just a scandal, and it is good that we have Tom Emmer to point out the ugly truth. Go to any greasy spoon on Lake Street a few minutes before opening time and just watch them come in, the rich waitresses. Many of them arrive in chauffeur-driven limousines. The younger ones might still be driving their own Lexuses. They strip off all their gold jewelry and the more gaudy diamonds, leaving them with the driver. Pulling on a wig of unstylish thatchy hair, they adopt an expression of martyrdom and start another day of pretending to work. It is one of the dark secrets of the waitress trade that those delays between when you order your food and you get it are mostly due to them sitting in a room off the kitchen with their laptops, calculating their earnings from hedge funds.
So this is what is wrong with Minnesota? Not a stressed education system? Not chronically underfunded colleges? Not environmental degradation? Not gridlocked traffic? Not economic policies that do everything possible to ensure that those who had a huge head start in the race of life get to the finish line first.
Tom Emmer takes it all in, and with stunning courage he tells us what is wrong with today’s Minnesota: overpaid waitresses.
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Clearly Steve, you are quite stuck on extraneous issues of little importance. The greatness of the this state is rooted in the service industry. Adjust the attitude, Sir.
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Yas’m Miz Jacque. Yas’m!
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Funny, Steve. Hoping Ann Reed will sumbit some of her clever insights here, but maybe she needs to hold it for songs. Speaking of fair pay: I would like to pay you for the book, and I also suggested it as a book for the reading group. I pay $15-22 for books such as this, of which I have quite a few. Not sure what they charge for books on their reader (Kindle, Nook??). I have a book about a woman growing up about 1/2 a genration ahead of us very near Manchester. I will dig out the title and let you know.
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That’s sweet of you Clyde, but you owe me nothing. I just zipped some electrons your way and did not spend anything to share my book with you. It is enough to hear you enjoyed it. Thanks!
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Rise and Shine Babooners!
Bud — so nice to see your transition to print journalism, or on-line journalism–has occurred. You are truly a man of your time. However, I do miss your baritone, nasal tones that were always your signature characteristic, along with your “creative” views on so many issues! Truly a unique perspective that a newshound can find nowhere else. And of course this includes your coverage of Tom Emmer, this creative POL.
My husband figures tips on the “Iowa just out of the Depression model.” Meaning, he is a tightwad tipper when left to his own math, so other family members figure the tip, then instruct him to use a crowbar on his wallet and tip a respectable amount. I’m a pretty good tipper especially if the service is good. Recently at a good restaurant near my office, the kitchen did not cook my order correctly, so the waitress gave me a free meal! She got a big tip. But, of course Bud, you are correct. These wait staff are rolling in money, perqs and benefits–all that free food– and they really don’t need the tip. What’s a girl to do! If you don’t tip well the next time you come in, LOUSY service.
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My dad has the same attitude, and we always go behind him after he gets up from the table to supplement his meager leavings. He is from Iowa, but doesn’t like to admit it.
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They chronically live in hard times there in the tiny little towns where there is no economy, then pass it on to the next generations. It’s that “family farm” mentality.
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My dad does the same thing, masters degree notwithstanding (also a big Republican). But hey Jacque, a lot of us here Baboons are born Iowans too, and like Renee, I will sneak more onto the table if I get the opportunity (nice to know I am not the only one who does that)-which I usually don’t.
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oh, Bud Buck. you make me smile
anyone who has waited on tables knows that, in addition to the fabulous wages and astronomical tips, one gets treated to all manner of wonderful behaviors on the part of the seated people.
my favorite waitperson at Sara’s Table in Duluth (where i meet my friend for breakfast every other week) gets 20 per cent and some goats’ milk soap thrown in every once in awhile…
we eat out about once in a blue moon. Steve’s been doing 20 per cent forever because he doesn’t like the math involved in 15% (“you have to carry the one!”). we always wonder what/if we should tip at Gordy’s.
thanks, Dale – really wonderful
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Gordys!! Curse you for mentioning Gordys.
But, yes, places like Gordy’s I always wonder about too.
Monday we took the grandkids to lunch at the nearest McD. Lily was confused how half of the employees greeted their g-mom by name (because she does a 3-hour lunch there, for $2, once a week with a friend). Her explanation that she just gets to know people did not was with a 7-year-old. Then at Target the whole pharmacy staff and the check-out young woman greeted her by name. Then Lily was really confused.
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it seems to me that waiting tables is a really really hard job; it is hard on your back and your feet and you have to deal too often with rude people ; i don’t eat out much but when i do it’s 20%
if Emmer was in Congress right now he probably would have voted against extending unemployment benefits too
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Have two longer stories about this I will try to share later. Waiting for grand-kids to awake.
We were at a park last night and a 4-year old did not want our grandson going down the slide too. So he bit him hard on the arm and scratched his face, three deep scratches across his forehead and down his cheek. Right over the eye, which he did not scratch.
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When I was a little girl I went to the top of the slide. I was scared to go down – it seemed like such a long way. Suddenly a bigger boy came charging up the ladder to the top where I sat. It scared me so much I jumped off from the top. Kids bounce…
Hope they’re okay, Clyde!
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you were afraid to slide down because it was too high so you jumped?
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Having worked as a waitress in a tourist trap in the Black Hills a good while back, to finance some college expenses, I have the largesse to whip out that 20% without a qualm. I am even so reckless as to tip for a whole meal, when all we got was dessert and coffee, but sat chatting for a couple of hours (as long as the coffee keeps coming).
Steve, if everyone spent enough time waiting tables, they would get a FREE education (on top of the fabulous perks and all that money).
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Good advice; and tipping on the meal you didn’t pay for when you get two for one is another nice idea, when you’re financially able to do so.
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We always tip according to what was served us, not what we paid. So maybe we are not quite as cheap as we appear.
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i just got back from one of those places this week and it is what you make it. we went into some spot in hill city that was out of pommegranite juice for the shirley temples when we sat down. the head waitress couldn’t find the key to open the cupboard to the pomegranite juice was busy with her customers and coulndn’t be bothered with the distraction. we had been up on a trial for the morning and what started out as a bluebird beautiful morning turned to grey turned to rain to pouring rain and cold and the trail turned to mud with water streaming down the middle of the paths.we got to the top of the trial where there was a lookout station overseeing the area in such a way that you could see 4 states. that lasted 10 minutes then hte clouds closed in the rain turned to a beating rain ( someone claimed snow but there was a lot of over complaining) by the time we finished we were very cold. i couldn’t feel my fingers and had to keep shaking my arms to encourage blood circulation. looking down at the toes of my birkys in the mud in the rain kept my head down and my shoulders tense enough to cut off the arm circulation i suspect. all i wanted was an irish coffee with 2 shots of whiskey in it. the spot with the pomegranite jusice had whiskey but it was scotch or canadian and any good irishman knows the taste is not the same. i decided to order a beer and have lunch and make the best of it. ordered fat tire (a fav) they were ou so we had a choice of miller lite bud lite michelob golden lite bud and grain belt. took grain belt the guys i was with commented on how this tasted unlike the grain belt they remembered and was flat so we ordered a second one and they ran out out after pouring the first glass. the gal who was in charge was obviously sensitive to the fact that she kept giving us bad news and when i commented we should go across the street she commented they didn’t have whiskey only beer. i said then we could go down the block and she said she was the only place in town with whiskey (i had some the night before in a place 4 doors down) so we left and went 4 doors down and the atmosphere was transformed by a beautiful gal with a space between her teeth bigger than min , a string of stories and one liners that kept us laughing and cajoling into the afternoon and whne we ordered deep fried pickles ( i thought it sounded interesting and my partner knew of them from famous daves and ordered a second baskert) she brought out the guy from the back room to confirm and colaborate on the wonder of deep fried pickles dipped in peanut butter. we paid for lunch and decided to order one more round thanks to the good vibes and the tip on that last round was one of those thanks for making it a wonderful afternoon tips ( 105 percent i believe) . life is what you make it everywhere you go. tom emmer will have bar owners thinking he is crazy . big business applauding him for looking out for the samll busineess man and the working stiff very clear on which side of the fence to sit on. thank you tom for solidifying the vision. you and john mc cain the stars of the week.
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I’m reminded of the visit Canadian folksinger Connie Caldor made to the Morning Show one year. She asked what is the difference between canoes and Canadians.
Canoes tip.
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Perfect. Do you know the little sign in Al’s Breakfast that says “Tipping is not a city in [Russia? China? I’ve forgotten which].”
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I’m guessing China, as in Taiping
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The Maine news media are not covering the issues that matter. I’m going to have to get busy googling to see what our friend Mr. Emmer said! In the meantime, I echo others who have said thanks to Bud for being willing to do the tough work to transition into another media outlet as we say in these present times right now in which we are living. At. Now, Bud, if you can figure out a way to WRITE your old signoff line (“THISSSSSSSS is Bud Buck! [rising inflection]” your transition will be successful.
I’m a 20 percenter, unless it’s a really inexpensive restaurant, in which case I am known to hover between 35 and 50. It’s one tiny form of income redistribution I can do on a regular basis, and I do it pretty much irrespective of the quality of service, which, frankly, is always better than I give myself at home anyway.
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I subscribe to this same theory of income redistribution…generally about 20%, more if the economics of the restaurant/area warrant it. (I’m also like Barb’s husband – 20% is easier to figure…otherwise I have to do 10% and divide by half, add the two back together…better to go with 20% and call it my personal bit of wealth re-distribution.)
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Good Morning Tippers or Not.
My daughter worked in a coffee shop and was happy if people would put tips in the tip container by the cash register. I have started doing that now that I realize it is some what expected by the people working in such places. Periously I only gave tips for services at places where they wait on you at your table.
At a restaurant with high priced offerings, the tip can be fairly large for a full meal. I supose that at these classy restaurants the wait staff might make a fairly good salary.
Please don’t give wait staff the kind of tip given by a former boss of mine. He picked up a waitress and tipped her to the side and said that was her tip.
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I have argued tha the whole concept of tipping is wrong. The meal price should include what pays for a fair salary for all employees. Not sure how it ended up this way. One of the reasons I argue that is, becuase I lived on the NS, I am aware that many restaurant owners pay less then the minimum wage and then tale much of the tips.
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Ditto.
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Forgot to mention that in 1969 I was a carhop at Tony’s Drive-In. The biggest tip I ever received was $5 to supplement my $.65 hourly wage. The carloads of drunk boys who pulled in at midnight did not tip at all–we were lucky to get them to pay for the meal then retrieve the root beer mugs. The perqs, the perqs.
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Is your tip in any way dependent upon the quality of the service?
I had a cab driver in Farmington, NM pick me up at the airport at 10:30 at night on her way home finishing her shift. She drove me straight to the motel and the bill was under $12.oo Farmington is not very large. I tiped her $5. Going home three days later she picked me up at the motel to drive me back to the airport. She did not recognize me, but it had been dark on the first ride. She asked me why I was in town. When I said I had been working on reservation schools, she went into a mildly racist monologue. The trip was much longer going back. Now the bill was $22. Would you tip?
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Very interesting dilemma Clyde. I have a hard time not becoming judgmental in those sorts of situations (and then worrying later about the consequences). Part of me would want to not tip and say why. I want to be someone who wants to have compassion and engage with someone about world views vs. a more passive-aggressive approach. You pose a fascinating question about why we tip, or don’t. Service, the quality of the interaction, values? Hmmmm.
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nope and i’d let her know why. and call her boss
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I have always tipped at least 20%, even when in college. My friends and I used to go to Perkins on Wednesday nights, staying for HOURS. While they only got coffee, I would get a slice of pie or french fries and a pop, then tip well (usually about 50%). I understood that we were preventing better paying customers from sitting at this large table, thus taking away better tips from the waiter/waitress. I didn’t have much money, but I helped out where I could. My grandparents are stingy, but they’re that way with everything 🙂
There have only been a few times that I haven’t tipped, and that was because the server never came back to the table, were really rude, or completely messed up the order and refused to fix it. I’m not picky, but when I get a reuben (which I hate, because I don’t like sauerkraut) instead of a club, I would like it fixed. Ah well, that’s only happened once.
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ill bet there are some saurkraut recipes that would make your mouth water with this bunch of germans.
cmon gang whatdaya got?
good for you for understanding the premsie on tiping also. we have all humanoids here on the blog.
the guy who taught me the tipping technique i live with says 15% is for awful service (must be a bad day) 25% for good service and 35% if it is exceptional or a regular place where you need to keep the love coming day after day.
he is the guy who taught me how to wine and dine the big wigs and it really is appreciated by the maitre d when you arrange it all in advance and pretip 35% the service you get is what you would hope for all the time.
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There is a great recipe for Reuban Soup in the New Prague Hotel cookbook. It has saurkraut in it and even my children liked it.
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i used to order a veggie ruben because it was so wonderful with the rich black bread sauerkraut and a heavy infusion of thousand island dressing. the dressing countered the tang of the sauerkraut
and it was wonderful. might be worth a try (think i will its been twenty years and i can still remember the taste)
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I think Moosewood cookbook (the old white one with color-enhanced photos) has a good recipe for Tempeh Reubens, Tim.
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A related ehtical question for all of you who have worked as servers: did you report all of the tips as income on your taxes?
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I am not chidding here. I am curious what people do. Think I would be tempted to not report it all. I have a friend, a CPA, who does taxes for a few couples with a server in the pair. Some interesting wrinkles in taxes for servers.
A short version of a very interesting discussion along these lines. I heard on clear channel talk radio one night driving acorss KS 1995 ca. Many servers called in: 1) their almost unanimous consensus was that you should reduce the tip according to the quality of the service, a few very vehement about it. 2) in the right places and doing the job right, tips could mount up. A man worked 6 hours a day at a Denny’s near several business parks. He said he made more than $30 an hour (this is 1995 remember) because he got to serve so many cusotmers, becuase he made a point of getting to know all the regulars, moving fast, and doing it all right.
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no i wouldn’t
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I think I reported about 80% of it.
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I think I can honestly tell you that I don’t remember if I did or not. I suspect not because it did not occur to me that I needed to. I was a relatively new tax payer at that point.
The system where I worked was that at the end of the night, you counted up and gave the busboy his cut. I don’t think we pooled tips, and I don’t have a memory of keeping recond of the total (if I had, I would probably been even more appalled at how much of it I drank-see, paid waaaaayyyyyy too much).
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Those wait staff…those evil wait staff… Bud didn’t mention their diabolical secret society, “86’ers.” Why didn’t the CIA’s various food-driven attempts to kill Castro in the 1960’s work? The 86’ers. Why does a leader of the free world choke on a pretzel? The 86’ers were sending a message. How do wait staff always ask you, with perfect timing, if everything’s ok just as you’ve taken a bite of food? The 86’ers teach them that technique. Think you’re drinking diet? Think again. The 86’ers. Those specials that they list off? A form of mind control to get you dancing to their strings. Especially if you’re eating at a snazzy place with all the dazzling terminology. They talk about subliminals in advertising…well, you’re being programmed by The 86’ers every time you listen to their siren songs. The success of fast food? That was The 86’ers’ mass public control campaign. Too much food? Too little food? Too healthy? Too unhealthy? The 86’ers. Where has that spoon you’re using ~really~ been…?
Take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhFaBO1t6NQ&feature=related
And check out other Tales From the Pub on You Tube. (No, I’m not being paid to say that.)
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Oh, Mr. Emmer, he really knows what’s at the heart of our problems. I tip 20% and sometimes more.
Here is a great summer recipe:
Smoked Salmon and Melon Salad
1/3 cup mint leaves, coarsely chopped
1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
1/4 tsp. cracked black pepper
1/2 cantaloupe, peeled and cut in thin wedges
2 cups thinly sliced fennel
2 cups blueberries or seedless red grapes
8 oz. smoked salmon, skin and bones removed, coarsely broken
1/2 honeydew melon, cut in cubes and/or balls
Yogurt-Cardamon Dressing
In small bowl combine one 6 oz. carton plain lowfat yogurt
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
1 clove minced garlic
1/ tsp ground cardamon or ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1. Prepare Yogurt dressing and set aside
2. In small bowl combine mint, lemon peel and pepper
In a trifle or straight sided glass bowl (this is for the pretty affect of the layering)
Layer cantaloupe, fennel, blueberries, salmon and honeydew.
Sprinkle with mint mixture and serve with Yogurt dressing
All can be prepared the day before if kept in separate containers and refrigerated. Assemble when ready.
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Ooohh, that looks good!
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ditto!!! ditto!!!
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Just printed the recipe…perfect for my bookclub next week…we are reading “The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain” and the recipe looks like perfect brain food. (lots of omega 3s and antioxidants, yes?) Thanks, Barb in Starbuck.
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Yum – this looks great.
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Although it has been a few decades since I was a waitress that summer, I believe the tips are shared with other serving staff–bus boys come to mind. Restaurant workers certainly earn their wages/tips and more: physical labor while dealing pleasantly with a sometimes not pleasant public.
I wonder if Bud could have termed ‘the little people’, ‘the small people’ ala BP?
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Waiting tables is the one job I have not had.
Yet.
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I blew off the name. Thanks for pointing it out Steve. Indeed an honor.
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Welcome! I have to agree, it is an honor 🙂
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Ann Reed, I had the honor last evening of giving a friend a copy of your Minnesota songs cd…she is visiting from Norway after having moved from Minnesota a couple years ago. Perfect gift. Thank you!
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Wow, Ann Reed, really? Not just Jessie Gugig pretending to be Ann Reed?
Nice to hear your blogging voice, welcome to the trail.
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Hi Ann – welcome!
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hey ann welcome. did you get the invite to join he group at the fair?
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Hi Ann!
Welcome!
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Wow! We’ve just been visited by royalty! New York city had a visit yesterday from Queen Elizabeth, but we have been graced with an Ann Reed visit. Welcome!
You say “waiting tables is the one job I have not had.” I have to think of that song by the Roches on their first album, “Mr. Sellack,” as they confess that the life of star singers is not always glamorous and they wouldn’t mind coming back to the restaurant for a regular check. They are even willing to get down and scrub behind the steam table!
Again, welcome Ann. You have many fans here.
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I worked several years in a restaurant and I have seen this situation a few times. Usually when the server is gone for a while they are on break or out back smoking. They usually have someone “cover” their tables while they are on break. If I dine at a restaurant where someone says they will be my server and someone else does all the work, I usually track down the person who did all the work and hand them the tip in person. I normally calculate a 15% tip or 20% if the service was exceptional. In the past I know that servers do not make minimum wage plus tips, they make a “server minimum wage” plus tips or tip sharing. “Server minimum wage” in the past has been quite low, probably no more than $3 or $4 an hour…?
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I was a waitress long ago at many different types of restaurants–from a posh French place in Boston to a Perkins in St. Cloud. I worked for generous bosses and stingy bosses (if you own a restaurant and won’t feed your staff for free or at least a generous discout, then I counted that as stingy). And I got tipped (or not) from quite a variety of customers. Once I was tipped $1 for a 75-cent cup of coffee. That’s one I’ll never forget! Sometimes the nicest and most friendly customers were the most tight with their money. Whenever someone asks me how much to tip, I always say “20%; no-one is getting rich waiting tables.” I didn’t realize I’d been wrong all these years. Thank heavens for people like Mr. Emmer who come along and wake the rest of us up to the real world!
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Your mention of free food reminded me of something else-when a mistake was made, the maker of the mistake could not benefit, so if the cook messed up the order, the waitress got to eat it and vice versa (yum, cold prime rib!)
The thing that made me crazy was the illogic surrounding beer and wine service. The legal drinking age in Iowa was 19, 21 in South Dakota for wine, 18 for 3.2 beer (again-yum). I was 20, from Iowa and working in South Dakota, therefore, I could tote beer, but had to get the manager, or failing that, one of the 21-year-olds from the gift shop to bring out a wine cooler. Neither I nore the 16-year-old bus boy could clear the wine glass from the table, but the 16-year-old dishwasher could wash it.
Then came the afternoon when there was no 21-year-old to be had and there were only a couple of tables filled. My table ordered wine coolers—what dear friends, would you do?
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no one legal to pour them either? i would have them open the cooler and grab their own with an explaination if it was a shirt sleeve joint like it sounds. i want to get you your wine coolers but i dont want the boss to loose his lisence
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hey welcome new catherine. you can never have too many catherines in you blog. and someone who can do posh boston establishments and college drunks. you will be an excellent additon to the forum. please stop back often.
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Having been a cocktail waitress in college, I tip 15 – 20% unless the service is horrendous, very rare. Husband is like Jacque’s, of the crowbar ilk, (says the rate was once 10%, then rose to 15% and then 20%, and he can’t see why since it’s a percentage, so the tips rise with inflation anyway), so I do the figuring. I have relatives who are currently waitressing and I WISH they were getting rich doing this.
We have another new word this morning, “lurkitude” from Barb in B…
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Still giggling about “lurkitude”…and wondering if “lurkitude” comes with a lot of black clothing, heavy eye-liner and emo music…or if it involves flannel and Tom Waits.
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Greetings! Despite meager income, we have always been very generous tippers, especially the pizza delivery guy as we don’t go out to eat much. I only worked as a waitress twice — in a restaurant and in a disco — and I was terrible. In restaurant, I would get flustered, add up tickets wrong (no computers), shake while pouring coffee, forget what a customer just asked me for, etc. Luckily, the owner liked me so he changed my job to being hostess which suited me much better. On busy mornings, the waitresses would share their tips with me because I helped take care of their customers.
I was a bit better as a cocktail waitress, though. Being tall, I was assigned the section furthest from bar. On busy nights I had to lift a heavy tray of drinks over my head and elbow my way through crowd. Always a treat … When guys bombed after hitting on clientele, they would hit on me (not often). I learned to despise drunk people after that phase — you aren’t nearly as funny or interesting as you think you are. I will never have more than 2 drinks because I clearly remember what I did each time I was drunk — and that’s not pretty.
But having all that tax-free cash around — woo hoo — that was livin’ large!
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Afternoon–
I’m a pretty generous tipper… especially if they’re friendly and make the experience enjoyable. Sometimes when we go out to a fairly nice place I’ll tell the host / hostess ‘We want your most fun server’.
…never worked in a restaurant either… but I have washed dishes in the church basement. Grew up Lutheran you know…
And we go back after my mother-in-law and add to her tip.
One day we got her to actually do 10%– it was like $1.37… and then just before we left she picked up the loose change!
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Like Ann, I’ve never been a server but am in awe of them/you. In high school, one of the few jobs in Granite Falls was at the Valley Supper Club. In 10th grade (the year Elvis died) I applied for the dishwasher job (all by hand, no less) and the owner looked at me quizzically and said, “Wouldn’t you rather apply for the waitress job and get the tips?” I couldn’t admit to him that I was too afraid of giving change at the tables for fear I couldn’t do the math in my head. That sealed it – my next h.s. job was at the hospital working in the kitchen. I did learn how to cut a pie into nine pieces, however, which has come in handy.
My father is a notoriously bad tipper. Like Lisa and others, I try to rebalance the universe by tipping at least 20 percent, unless there’s rudeness involved.
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Curious about the procedure for cutting pie in 9…
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ditto!
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Make a peace sign and then each part of the sign in 3. I am oddly proud of retaining that insight from the kitchen ladies back in 1978.
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I worked as a waitress many years ago (1975) and I’ll admit I wasn’t much good at it. But no one deserves to be treated badly. Once a truck driver came in and I went out with a menu and a glass of water. I asked if he wanted coffee. “No.” So I named the specials and said I’d give him some time to decide. I didn’t get back to the counter before he was yelling at me and calling me back… “Where’s my coffee?” So, Okay, I’ll get you some coffee. “You didn’t bring me the dessert list! I want some pie!” Okay, okay, the pies are… “This water glass is dirty! Bring me another one!” Then, “I wanted cream with my coffee!” and “Where’s my glass of milk?” He was the only customer in the place at the time and he continued this way until I went into the kitchen crying. The head waitress had to take over and he tipped her well. (She was quite pretty; I was skinny and gawky with big pink glasses. I suspect this was his plan all along.)
The biggest night of tips I ever had was $3.65. And yes, I declared it on my taxes. I also broke plates and peeled 10 lbs of potatoes for each plate I broke. I haven’t returned to that apparently lucrative profession.
I don’t eat out much but when I do, I tip generously – at least 20 percent. You know, just when we thought we’d seen the most heartless politician ever! I really appreciate those of you who are thinking in terms of redistribution of wealth!
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I made Joanne’s Southwest Salad and Donna’s Texas Caviar this weekend. They were gone in a flash and were absolutely delicious. I waitressd at a now demolished Mr. Steak in Moorhead, MN when I was in college, and slid three servings of ribs on to the floor in quick succession one Mother’s Day. The cook threatened to glue them to the plates for me. I was so mad I let out with a string of cusswords right there in front of all those mothers, and I got sent to the cooler to calm down.
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Word of the day: lurkitude. Thanks Barb in B!
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clyde will add it to the list
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