"waiters" news and stories

The always-funny Waiter Rant recently posted an extensive list of tips entitled "How To Order Wine Without Looking Like An Asshole." Just what it sounds like, this is a collection of common sense advice with gems such as "don't ask 'what's cheap?'" and "don't smell the plastic cork." There are suggestions about tipping on wine and not trying your hardest to stump your waiter about the soil in which a particular grape is grown. Also, there's plenty of practical advice, such as knowing that some states, such as New York and Florida, allow patrons to take the rest of their bottle of wine home as long as it's in a special bag. The more than 100 comments that accompany Waiter's post are pretty informative as well.

My husband and my sister-in-law are both currently working in food service, he a part-time caterer while he returns to school, she a table-waiting lifer. Both have recently been involved in that dreaded of all most crooked food service behavior: the manager who wants in on the tips.

For J., who usually tends bar and has a knack for earning a boatload of tips, one manager in particular has been tipping herself out of the bartender's pool at the end of the night. She's the only manager in the company who does it and he won't report her (though I've suggested it) because, he tells me, she's so miserable. Life is not treating her right - who is he to make it worse?

I say, though, it's a matter of principle. Food service workers may not share a very large body of common ethics, but there are two that are universal: (1) always tip generously when being waited upon by others and (2) managers may be paid less than they deserve but they never, no never, get tipped out.