tips, tricks, and thoughts from the hospitality industry
Bussers and backwaiters are both dining room– “front of house”– staff in a restaurant. They perform service that does not include taking orders, pouring wine, or delivering drinks from the bar. They clear tables, refill water, perform bread service, and reset tables between guests. Sometimes they will ‘mark’ tables, i.e. […]
Q: I have been to this “fine dining” restaurant a bunch of times. The owner knows me and my usual dinner-date. We almost always have a bottle of wine, two entrees and either an app or a dessert. We tip well. We went last week, and my date ordered the […]
> Three years ago, just after I moved to Los Angeles, a girlfriend invited me out to dinner in Silverlake. The space was gorgeous, with lots of character, and the menu hit all the right local-sustainable-farm-to-table notes. It was early, because we had 8:00 plans, and so the dining room […]
As I was wolfing down my coffee and Nutella Toast a couple of mornings ago, I happened upon a clip from the Today show in which a health inspector checked out a local Bake Sale Diva’s kitchen. The curmudgeonly, mustachio-ed inspecter hurrumphed at her open lightbulb above the stove, advised […]
I'm a former restaurant manager who now writes about food and hospitality. I love to cook, read, write, and eat.