holiday

I work in an iconic family restaurant in Austin, TX. During the holidays, a lot of tourists visit the city, especially at Christmas time. This past Saturday, just before Christmas, the restaurant got slammed at lunch time. The hostess sat a family of 13 people at one table, followed by another table with 4 people […]

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Several years ago my now husband and I moved from our relatively large home city to a small town in the Upper Midwest when he was offered an excellent job opportunity after college graduation. I had just finished an undergrad degree as well, but the town was based entirely around agriculture and petroleum and there […]

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Let’s start with this: Mother’s Day is THE busiest day at any restaurant. Everyone wants to treat their lady to a nice dinner out, which is great. As a server, the more tables the more money, right? This particular table stands out in my mind. 

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Ah, Mother’s Day brunch. A paradox to all servers. While we have to deal with not seeing our families and instead cater to loads of little fully awake children, we also have a great opportunity to make tons of money.

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Ah, the holidays… Simultaneously the bane and windfall of every restaurant calendar year. Primarily populated by enthusiastic amateurs whose dining habits make pigs in a trough appear cultured, as well as employees who would rather be anywhere other than serving them, holidays are viewed by most restaurant workers as a time to hunker down for […]

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My husband and I spent our honeymoon over Christmas in London a few years ago. We had heard Christmas tea at the Ritz was (while of course a bit touristy) a special thing to do in London around the holidays. So I booked a champagne tea for two months in advance and swallowed our sticker […]

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Last Valentines Day, my boyfriend and I went to a fancy steak house in Charleston, South Carolina. I am a native of the city and I personally knew the chef for a long time. We entered the restaurant and were immediately seated in the Bar area. This is probably one of the busiest nights of […]

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Calamari Confusion

October 25, 2007

in Server Stories

Not long ago I went to a restaurant to celebrate Oktoberfest with my boyfriend and a friend. We ordered few beers and some appetizers. Fifteen long minutes later we received our drinks, and it took an additional half hour for the food. Apparently there are two calamari dishes, the appetizer and a sandwich. We thought […]

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This is a combo: dinner AND holiday from hell story. When I was 11 years old we went to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. This was in New Jersey and we went to a famous inn with roots back to the revolutionary war. My parents, grandmother, and three siblings were seated in the “ballroom” at […]

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It was my 36th birthday which lands right before Xmas. My family and I decided to have dinner in San Francisco, which would be all decked out and gorgeous for the holidays. I love old fashioned 50s diners and there was a very popular one by the water that I had been dying to try […]

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My wife and I were long looking forward to a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant in Tampa. We were promptly seated at a candlelit table that had been reserved for us. As we reviewed the menus, a tuxedo-clad waiter came to our table and asked if we were ready to order. […]

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