I believe everyone should work a service job at some point in their life. It gives a perspective you won't find anywhere else.
Your story brought back my memories of being a server in fine dining restaurants before landing my first programming gig. It was (mostly) controlled chaos with everyone on edge dealing with some of the most unreasonable people you could ever imagine. Did I also mention that I worked every single holiday?
It wasn't a restaurant attempting to be as regimented as The Bear, but similar story lines played out. Chefs yelling at each other, yelling at me, wanting to go out and yell at customers for ordering lamb well done, etc...
I wouldn't say I miss working in restaurants, but I do miss the finality of each service. When the last table left, that day was done. There was nothing to take home and stress about.
I waited tables for a few different places, none of it fine dining, but I did try to choose places with good food.
Two of the best were a homestyle italian place; I learned that smoked gouda is the best cheese for BBQ chicken pizza, and not too much sauce!
The other (my first restaurant work) was at a Turkish restaurant with homemade light brown whole wheat bread, cooked on a real stone oven. The owner, Kazim, was a bit of a wino whose stunningly beautiful wife was a PhD at the CDC in Atlanta. Opposites attact. Lamb and feta pizza is amazing.
The kitchen guy was a young-20s illegal from Mexico who hadn't seen his family in
18 months, and sent the money back. Juan was such an impressive human being. He taught me the Mexican version of the N-word, and said, "Do not ever say this." And I won't, but I remember it to this day.
And, that mezze plate was the best shift food ever, besides maybe that BBQ pizza.
Thanks for the nostalgia. Yes, I don't miss that kindof hard work, but the experience was invaluable, and I always tip well. It's an easy bit of good karma to put an extra smile on someone's face because we shared our hard-earned cash with them in appreciation for their difficult and oft-underappreciated work.
There's a lot of talk around here lately about 'vibe coding' but I'm far more into 'vibe living' where we consciously create good vibrations in the people around us. There are so many people in this world spreading their negativity who should instead take us service-oriented folks' understanding of service to humanity as a societal baseline. Not all of us who graduated out of low-level jobs retain our humility and humanity, but it makes those of us who do better, more caring and considerate citizens.
Your story brought back my memories of being a server in fine dining restaurants before landing my first programming gig. It was (mostly) controlled chaos with everyone on edge dealing with some of the most unreasonable people you could ever imagine. Did I also mention that I worked every single holiday?
It wasn't a restaurant attempting to be as regimented as The Bear, but similar story lines played out. Chefs yelling at each other, yelling at me, wanting to go out and yell at customers for ordering lamb well done, etc...
I wouldn't say I miss working in restaurants, but I do miss the finality of each service. When the last table left, that day was done. There was nothing to take home and stress about.