Jlogged

While at the movies this week I was amused to see a trailer for No Reservations.

If only the industry were really that sexy It’s really more like this and this.

I have always worked in upscale restaurants. Most were family owned and operated, popular, and very successful. Behind closed doors the real restaurant industry is, as my friend put it, “dirty, and does a lot of drugs.”

It’s true too. I have worked with more pill-ed out chefs, and coked up waitstaff than I care to count. Your server may put on a pleasant face for you at the table, but as soon as they walk into the kitchen they are making fun of your husband’s toupee, talking about what a brat your kid is, and laughing that you ordered a diet coke with your 100 piece fried seafood platter and extra tarter sauce.

The underbelly of the restaurant world is none to pretty, so you ask why would someone work in such a nasty, stressful, business? Well, money… As a college student I could make three times the pay working half the hours I would if I had a 6.00 an hour job, plus I got the perk of free gourmet food. To a struggling student that kind of draw is nice. I have also worked along side fellow servers who were at one time, teachers, social workers, art majors (sorry, but you had to see that one coming art major peeps,) and small business owners. Several who had a PhD. Waiting tables paid the bills, and made ends meet for many of my college educated co-workers.

Sometimes I miss always having cash in hand, being able to snag deep discounts on amazing food, and I miss the wonderful people I used to serve. The really annoying jerks were actually few and far between, and the fantastic contacts I met over the years were far more plentiful.

Would I ever do it again? No. Not for a million free caramel late’s, or gazillion fire roasted veggie sandwiches, with herb crusted local goat cheese on artisan focaccia bread.

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