My time as a waiter trainee

Tractors are not even mentioned in this? post so caveat lector.

I moved to Denver in 1980.
The guys I stayed with? liked fine dining and once I got to go with them to this fancy steak resturaunt.
While there I had this bright idea that a better occupation than the machinest/welder/maintenance worker I was turning into at that stage of life was being a waiter in a high buck steakhouse.
So on Monday I applied for a job -
and got it - as a waiter trainee.
I had to wear black trousers, crisp white shirt and either a bow or bolo tie.
It was really just a job as a bus boy and
I could see it would take a year, maybe longer to make full waiter and longer yet to get the best tables in the place.
Meanwhile I got minimum wage and something from my waiters at the end of the night. It was supposed to be 10% from each of them but I doubt that ever happened.
I spent most of my time standing in the bus boy's station and would swoop out occasionally to refill water glasses, take plates off tables, call for the real waiter and clear and reset the tables for new people.
The bus boy station stank and none of the resturaunt was as clean as the Navy made us keep our dining - food prep areas.
The one guy that I liked there was the head cook. He usually had an insulting but fun way of? calling you out and teaching you the ropes of the business.
And he always saw to it that I got a great meal sometime during my shift.
So one day at lunchtime a couple came in. One could tell they weren't happy with one another.
She orders a huge $45 (1980 dollars) lobster tail and then eats a little salad, picks a little at the lobster and picks a lot at the guy she's with.
At last the meal is over and I'm there to clear the table and I ask if they wish to take any of it home.
She waves her arm to take it all so I proceed to haul off this huge lobster that's 80% uneaten.
I get to the kitchen with it and have to go by the cook and he asks if there's a problem with the lobster. I told him no,
the man and woman seemed to be arguing and she said she was done.
He snatched the plate from me and started tearing huge chunks of lobster out of the shell with his hands and? wolfing it down.
The butter was all over his chin and running down his arm as he stuffed it in his face.
So again, I'm a new guy and didn't know the ropes and he has it half eaten before I too tear into it with my bare hands and start choking it down.
I'm sure we managed to eat a whole pound of lobster in 30 seconds.
Then I had to go wash my face and hands before I could walk back out like nothing had happened.
I learned to do it with nice steaks, prime rib, good fish and big shrimp too.
But of course a man cannot live by meat alone and with minimum wage and stingy waiters i knew I wouldn't last a year to become a full waiter. So I left after a month and got a job as a maintenance man at a place that packaged tea into tea bags which paid a lot more. You could drink all the tea you wanted during the day there.
But they didnt serve lobster...

Lol. That's some funny stuff!

So did you like Morning Thunder, Or Sleepytime better. Seasons Greetings. Jim

UD- Great story....post one more time to make 22,000 posts. lol

When I was a kid my dad knew the owner of a BBQ/steak house restaurant.

It wasn't high end, but a great place to eat, stayed busy especially in the evenings.

Sometimes my dad would go back in the kitchen to visit with the owner. I would go back and watch how things were done, which was somewhat of a treat for a kid to see.

For some reason I ended up watching the lady that loaded the dish washer. Her job was also to dump the plates as the bus boys brought in the tubs.

It didn't bother her at all to pick food off the plates! Some of it was pretty gross, as they allowed smoking and it wasn't unusual for there to be ashes and butts on the plate. She didn't care, just dig in and shake it off! Guess she ate pretty well for free! LOL

Steve@Advance- When you are hungry, it's pretty amazing what you are willing to eat. I've eaten Bobcat and Coyote before.

When I was in college a friend who was Greek worked at a very Fancy Greek restaurant in VA Beach part time,I used to work there some as a bus boy it wasn't bad and I'll have to say
the waitresses that got very good tips were good to us that would help them out.Just really wasn't what I wanted to do though got a job working part time at a foreign car parts store close to my apartment in Norfolk more my line of work.We'd put up stock after the store closed and the manager had a deal with the owner of the Italian restaurant next door and we'd go eat whatever they had left over that day,that was some very good food.Great time in my life.

Great story!!!

I'm sitting here, this morning, drinking my daily cup of Morning Thunder! I can't seem to find it very easily. One store in Chelsea, MI has it. I H A T E coffee!

Mom worked as a waitress she did very well at it at any give time her purse weighed 10 pounds loaded with quarters. Every morning (7 of us kids) we would grab a pocket full of quarters and out the door we went off to school. She always worked at the high end restaurants she said rich folks and local community groups were the worst tippers if they tipped at all Truck drivers were the best tippers so she went to work at a truck stop. Those quarters added up

This is why there is a mandatory tip for groups... (my guess)

There is always someone that don't want to be there they fudge up the hole show for everyone its there time to shine in life... I have a uncle and his wife no one wants to go out and eat with them they beach about everything even the tip/tax/temp of food/drink its like they want everyone to be as miserable as they are... Once out the door nice folks to be around it just don't figure other than when they are around a group they shine there colors.

Waiter. Best paying part time job I ever had, if you're willing to work.
IMO, everyone should work as a waiter/waitress for six months, preferably when young.
You learn about people.

Thanks UltraDog

Thank the Lord, I've never been that hungry!

Where I work they have convention dinners. If you plan a dinner with two choices they figgure roughly 25% over on everything. Surf & turf, chicken, and some even go for a fish dinner with crab cakes. You also wouldn't beleave how many over stock they make deserts. That means there are more than enough dinners for for a WHOLE bunch more guests. Now and then I stop up to see what is going on. Sometimes it is an absolute open buffet for the help. Yummy.

Good one! Ron MN