“Subtlety is the art of saying what you think and getting out of the way before it is understood.” –Anonymous We as a society have really lost the power of subtlety. It could be because we have lost the patience to unravel it. We receive far more information on a daily basis than our ancestors […]
Tag Archives | Waiting
Making a Difference
The weekend is upon us. Friday and Saturday nights get busy and take a lot out of us. The pace is faster, the side stations are more crowded, and all of the saucers in the restaurant seem to hide. The guests do not seem to understand any of this and have far less patience. This […]
Aspirational Dining Defined
I am a Mac guy. This means only the occasional interruption for updates from Microsoft. These are most often for Word for Macs. Yet in none of these updates have they added to my spell check dictionary words like “Barack Obama, Al Qaeda, or Facebook.” If they do implement this change they can use this […]
The Greatest Customer Complaint Response Ever
I had lunch today with my friends Emma and Senor Esparza. They ate at Justus Drugstore last night. Justus is on the outermost outskirts of what could be considered Kansas City. In the few years that it has been open it has developed a reputation of being well worth the drive. I personally have never […]
Set Schedules As A Manager
One of the most time consuming tasks a manager faces during the week is writing the server schedule. Hours can be spent digging up scraps of paper and consulting server availability just to get coverage for a particular shift. This is followed by the inevitable complaints from people who work too little or too much. […]
The Advantages of Set Schedules
Yesterday I discussed the disadvantages of having a set schedule. While I think I managed to make some valid points, it was sort of hollow. The primary reason I am still at my current job is because of my schedule. It took about two and a half years, but I managed to get my ideal […]
A Food Critic Intervention
There have been several instances while writing posts for this blog where I have felt the need to place blame for the things that drive me crazy about the restaurant business. I have always managed to stop short of that because I do not want this to be a blog that complains about the problems […]
Supply, Demand, and Chicken Wings
Yesterday’s post on extra charges for the various items a guest requests caused me to ponder on a larger scale. It is remarkably common to hear guests say, “I could buy that steak/wine/etc at the store for half that much.” This is the same principle as walking into a car dealership and demanding a price […]
Extras and Upcharges
I received a message the other day from a friend and reader of the blog who is not in the business. She recounted going out to eat and asking for a few extras. When the bill came it was filled with minor charges for each of the items she requested. Her concern was not that […]
Management Mentality Mistakes
Motivating servers is a tricky business. Without question servers crave autonomy and tend to resist being told what to do. At the same time, managers in general are given very little guidance on what is perhaps the most important part of their jobs. Two similar restaurants in the same company with the same menu and […]
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About The Author
David Hayden was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He took his first serving job in 1996. Since that time, he has worked for over a dozen different restaurant companies. He has held both hourly and salaried positions at independent and corporate restaurants. He has waited on over 100,000 guests and trained hundreds of servers. He has been named "Best Server in Kansas City" the last three years by the local weekly paper.