The Bitter Bistro

As much as I love to hate working in the service industry, I am drawn to it's idiosyncrasies, much like the Millennium Falcon to the Death Star.  My blogging friend, Bitchy Waiter , has again opened my eyes to someone trying to pull one over on us servers, and make it seem like it's okay.  This time, it's Woman's Day magazine.  That's right... Woman's Day .  First off, why just one woman , Woman's Day ? So one of their illustrious writers, Sabah Karimi, wrote an article recently about, Money Saving Ideas for Dining Out , in order to show her readers how they can save a buck when going out to restaurants.  The article could have been a lot shorter if Sabah had any brains and wrote, If you are struggling with money right now, don't go out to eat!   But alas, Sabah's quest for literary recognition blinded her to these facts and had her write her 7 ways to save at restaurants. I won't go through all 7, but to sum it up, Sabah claims you can

Nowadays, the checks presented to you in restaurants are pretty self-explanatory.  You see what you ate, drank, what each item costs, and a count of how many of them you had.  Some checks even break down taxes for you, both food tax and beverage tax.  The tax thing is not so necessary in my opinion; I find it adds more confusion to the table than necessary.  But technology has provided this for you, the customer. I had a customer recently, he was hosting a dinner for five of his co-horts.  It's important to mention that this guy, Kenneth, is a doctor.  They had multiple courses, wine, and after dinner libations.  In short, a successful table for me, and everybody had a great time.  Then I present the bill, and Dr. Kenneth says right away that me and him are going to "go over" the bill.  I comply. "Why are there two tax charges on the bill?" he asks. "It's broken down into food tax and beverage tax," I answer. "This check is pretty

I have recently come across a lot of backlash concerning the custom of tipping and whether or not working in the service industry is a "real job" or not.  After dealing with all the various customers throughout my years in this service industry vortex, I can assure everyone that this job is VERY real. I posted an article written by Matt Walsh for "The Huffington Post" where he addresses a server's plea about bad tippers on my Facebook Page  to show how some people's attitudes about tipping (or not tipping) coincide with the remark, "Get a real job!"  Read the comments after the article. Enough already!  Who the hell is to say one job is "realer" than another?  One girl ( Jade L .) was dumb enough to say that waiting tables is not a "life" job, it's a "student" job.  Granted, I am tired of working in this industry and would rather be running my own TV show, and doing stand-up in the off-season--a la Louis C.K

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This past new year's eve was one of the busiest that I have ever worked in my service industry life.  I was behind the bar and it was insanity.  At the end, I was exhaustedly-happy, but for most of the night I was elbows deep in the ice and wait times for drinks was reaching 30 minutes. To let everybody know, I don't have a rhyme or reason how I go from customer to customer while bartending.  It's really about who gets my attention first, and me remembering whom I think is next.  To all of the people who thought I was rude and was making you wait on purpose, well, I did.  Some of you were jerks and have serious drug and alcohol problems.  To the few who were actually nice and actually wished me a happy new year, (only four people did,) I'm sorry you waited.  When it's that busy none of Jon Taffer's rules apply.  But I did think of them. Speaking of Taffer, when it finally slowed down, there was one guy at my bar who wanted me to do the "generous tip&q