As a diligent supporter of restaurants and real cooking, I pursued my goal of earning a restaurant management degree while also having real experience in the front and back of the house, as well as being able to throw down real cooking with the best of them and not just learning from a text book.
While my husband finishes his duty of service to this great country, we are working our way towards opening our own smokehouse/brew house here amid the beautiful Smokey Mountains. Of course, sooner will come before later if we win lotto but until then, we walk, trot and run towards that goal.
One of my biggest beefs in operating a restaurant or even being a customer at a restaurant, are servers who feel that just because they are employed as servers, they are entitled to a fixed percentage of a tip.
In the restaurants Ive worked at, with chefs Ive been blessed to be in the company of, one thing ran true for all. No one ever succeeded with a feeling of entitlement and restaurants that wanted to keep good wait staff that makes or breaks a restaurant, never ever put a requirement on their customers nor a one pot meal ticket for all the servers to share at the end of the day.
I could go on and on with experiences and learning of what works in a restaurant and what doesnt but weve all been there and had the best of waiters and the worst of the world waiters.
During my husbands last trip to Afghanistan, he came home on leave only to be greeted as a surprise by his parents. Nothing says fun like having your husband one day out of combat and having the in-laws stay with you. I love them to pieces but one day out of combat is sometimes one day too early.
They decided to treat us to dinner so with the four of us and two older kids, we went to a national franchise place my mother in law chose. We had eaten there before and always had a great experience with both the food and wait staff.
That changed that night. Not once did our waitress fill a drink whether it was the initial first glass of water, a soda or a beer without having to be asked at least three times. Sometimes that wasnt enough and we had to ask another server.
When we ordered appetizers and they didnt arrive at the table after a half hour, we asked about them. Oh did you want them before the meal? Everyone looked around at each other at the table and said Sure, lets go with that. Oh ok Ill go ahead and put them in now. WHAT?? Ok so appetizers arrived a little later - cold.
I guess it was a blessing in disguise that the food arrived right after the appetizers did since those were cold and congealed. As the waitress put the plates down, you would think as she checked the table, she would notice one person didnt have a meal at all - and that was my mother in law. J
I said Excuse me - is hers coming? In her best Barbie voice she said Ummmmm did she order something? So she started rifling through the order sheet she had written down. Then she found it.
As she looked at our table, she asked Did I put that in for the kitchen? I said Well it would be hard for us to know but Im going to go out on a limb here and guess no? DING DING DING! I won the prize.
Twenty minutes later, my mother in laws meal arrived and ours were all cold by that time. Then of course we had to start again with more beverages, tabasco, ketchup, more napkins, etc. Then Kimmy disappeared the rest of the night or so we thought.
When another server brought over the tab, my father in law looked at me and pointed to the 25% tip filled in already. I proceeded to cross it off of our tab and dug through my purse for the shiniest penny I could find. Low and behold, Kimmy was found! She came right over to the table to explain the restaurant's policy on parties of six or more being required to leave a 25% tip. I proceeded to explain to Kimmy our policy on what earns a 25% tip and that she would need to get her manager involved in this one.
After explaining our experience and Kimmy explaining that she hadn't served appetizers as appetizers and hadn't placed my mother in law's meal, we were given all sorts of apologies and "if there's anything I can do" statements from the manager.
I understand possibly better than some that waiting on a table of six or more is a daunting task not to be taken lightly. However I also understand that if you are not meeting the requirements of service for a party of one, two or twelve, you will not be rewarded with a tip and should find another way to earn income.
Tips are a sign of respect. Tips are not an entitlement, they are not given or demanded.
They are earned.
