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I have to admit I don't quite understand what this Slate
piece is trying to say. The writer is trying to explain why great restaurants often hire rude,
I-don't-give-a-shit waiters. It starts out intriguing, and I think I'm going to find out, but then it turns into a
discussion of certain products that Adobe and Intel have. Huh? I mean, I sort of get the point - the comparison
between waiters that work the dining room and ones that work the bar - but I don't think his examples translate
into answering the question, "why do restaurants hire rude waiters?"
I was a waiter myself for several years, and I think I've mentioned my #1 life tip to you before: whatever you do, don't ever tick off a waiter, waitress, or anyone who serves you food or drink. If you've ever been really rude to a server, I can almost guarantee you you've eaten something that you probably didn't want to eat.
I never did it myself, but, oh, I could tell you stories.
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3-30-2006 @2:48AM mel said... Tip percentage is 20%!!! i am so sick of people coming out to eat, spending 70.00 on dinner then tipping me 3$, yet telling me the service was impeccable, and what the hell is the problem with ridiculous woman, and their cell phones attached to their ear and asking for a diet coke then waving you off as if your intruding. bitch you came into my restaurant to eat. Stay outside until your off the phone. people have bcome more rude and nuts as the years go by.
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3-30-2006 @2:49AM mel said... Tip percentage is 20%!!! i am so sick of people coming out to eat, spending 70.00 on dinner then tipping me 3$, yet telling me the service was impeccable, and what the hell is the problem with ridiculous woman, and their cell phones attached to their ear and asking for a diet coke then waving you off as if your intruding. bitch you came into my restaurant to eat. Stay outside until your off the phone. people have bcome more rude and nuts as the years go by.
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10-04-2007 @10:29PM lucy said... Oh please...you're not entitled to a tip. Why sould you get 20 percent of $100 meal (or $20) for simply taking an order and clearing plates. Is your "skill" really worth that? Please. Realize your worth. Your are unskilled, disposable labor.
Yes, waiters play all sorts of games -- if you don't tip enough or if they don't like you, they take revenge or try to drive you out of the restaruant. They gossip and are generally emotionally unhealthy people. I absolutely hate waiters. They are worthless. What idiots.
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1-24-2006 @2:37PM lil said... My husband and I worked as servers at the same restaurant. He was rude, I was sweet. Guess who made the big bucks? Him!. He was always efficient, didn't stand around chatting with the rest of us, or his customers, and was mean as heck. Maybe that's why he got better tips. He was asked for a refill once, and he said "I'll get to it when I feel like it." then he didn't fill their drink for 10 minutes, and when he did it was not nice, and the people left him 10$. Maybe rude waiters appeal to some humans' needs to have everyone like them. "That waiter doesn't like me... maybe if I left him some more money he will like me next time?" Maybe that's the secret.
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1-24-2006 @3:24PM Dmnkly said... As a diner who has never worked as a waiter, I don't think it's as simple as reducing it down to "nice" or "rude". I've had friendly, talkative servers who I enjoyed a lot, and friendly, talkative servers who I simply found irritating and distracting. I've had dispassionate, minimal servers who struck me as efficient, and dispassionate, minimal servers who struck me as neglectful.
Mostly, I think it has to do with the restaurant in question. If I'm at a cozy corner cafe, I like service to be warm and friendly. That said, I think it's important for said server to have a sense of when I'm happy to chat and when I'd rather be left alone. If I'm at a fancy upscale place, I expect service to be polite, minimal and efficient. That said, I expect them to be there when I need them and to not be there when I don't. I certainly don't mean to suggest that it's that simple. Quite the contrary, it seems to me that the truly excellent servers must somehow be clairvoyant. But the fact remains that there are servers who know when to pop up and when to stay away, and to know when to chat and when to keep quiet, and it's a true talent.
That said, I tip everybody 20% unless they're really horrible, so practically, I suppose it doesn't make a different from the waiter's point of view :-)
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1-24-2006 @3:38PM Dmnkly said... Having read the article now (should've done that the first time... sorry :-), I think the point is simple. The theory is that a restaurant wants to be able to cater to customers of different financial means. They want to offer an expensive experience for the people who can afford it, and a cheaper experience for the people who can't. But there has to be some disincentive to go along with the cheaper option, or else everybody choose the cheaper option. That disincentive is Igor. Because of him, if you CAN pay more, you will to avoid him. While I think the author is reaching to suggest that said restaurant intentionally hired a surly bartender to drive people into the pricier dining room, I'm sure you can think of similar tactics being used in plenty of eating establishments, whether it be the ambiance or level of service or what have you. You don't want to turn away potential customers, but you have to protect your high-end product at the same time.
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