When I was a bartender, customers would often rack up huge tabs over several hours, ordering martinis at the busiest moments and shots for everyone at the bar minutes before closing. The most ostentatious customers were usually the ones who would ditch the bar without closing their tabs, and 90% of the time, those cards would decline. It's a risky scam, but people who work in the service industry know better than most that customers can be shockingly audacious. As much as we wish we could expos…

Taking things literally

The struggle continues

They ate what now?

Letting regular people write restaurant reviews was largely a mistake. And I say this as a recovering Yelper. Before I started working in the restaurant industry, Yelp was an outlet for me. It allowed me to share my Very Important opinion with other citizens. I'd write paragraphs about a breakfast burrito, cringey raps about the best pizzeria near my office. And while I mostly wrote favorable reviews of establishments, occasionally I would go in on a spot that was disappointing in both the food…

I've never quit a job . Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I can endure a situation far longer than is healthy for me. Lord knows I've spent years in relationships that didn't serve me. I slogged through the toxicity because change is scary. I once stayed at a job for seven years even though they only gave me a single raise, and forced me to work in a non-heated, building with no electricity in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. I want to be more like the people who throw in the t…

So many bosses want excessive access to their employees in manners that cross some boundaries. On the first day of my first restaurant job, I asked one of the assistant managers if I could leave at 9 PM since, on the schedule, my shift ended at 9 PM. He laughed at me, said, “it's good you didn't ask that when the manager was around,” and we continued working. At the time, I felt like such an idiot because I had never had a job before, so I assumed all jobs were like that. Now I just realize thi…

Whoops

I find nothing more baffling than customers who insist on staying at a restaurant after it has closed. I have been mopping the floors of an eating establishment around families sitting at the table just talking and carrying on. It's people like these who make me grateful that I at least have the decency and social skills not to behave the way they do. One TikToker has dedicated his page to documenting frustrating situations like this. Dean Redmond posts videos divulging the juicy and frustratin…

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HOT BEHIND

Working at a restauran t isn't for the faint of heart. For some reason, before I got my job at a Mediterranean restaurant on the Upper East Side, I thought I was a natural-born server. Describing food to people is basically my hobby, and if I could get paid for it? Dream gig. I was so, so wrong. Before reaching server status at this restaurant, I had to do some time as a backwaiter. Backwaiters are glorified busboys. They're integral to the operation, gracefully pouring water and pulling empty…

She deserved it

Under the table she went

Just dumb

Servers are going to another dimension when they walk from your table to the kitchen…