TIPPEDOFF

Pittsburgh's ever-burgeoning restaurant scene offers no shortage of employment in the hospitality field. However, service professionals are finding it more difficult to make a living. The increase in establishments, concurrent with stagnant population growth, has led to a thinning of the diner pool, leaving many restaurants struggling to fill seats on weekdays. With most restaurants still operating under a tip-based structure, every night standing around an empty bar or dinin

Sir Jables: I’ve been looking for a second job that would allow some flexibility of schedule. I applied for a server position with a local restaurant, and was hired. I start next Monday. The only thing is, I’m a little nervous because I’ve never really worked in a restaurant before. I’m not really sure how to talk to customers. Any advice? —Casey Dear Casey: I don’t know why folks overcomplicate this part of the job. These guests are simply people that walk in from off the st

Sir Jables: I cut into a $23.00 filet mignon at this restaurant my wife and I were eating at, and immediately realized it one of those pieced-together things they sell at the grocery store for a fraction of what real filets go for. When I sent it back, they didn't ask any questions, but, when the bill came it was still on there. I refused to pay and the owner stormed out and started yelling at me in broken Italian right there in the middle of the restaurant. My old lady and I

Restaurant Heartbreak Can Break the Bank Working in a restaurant can be a complex relationship. It may be a healthy and nurturing experience for two parties to grow, or it may be a routine trip to the lower levels of Hell all for the sake of a paycheck. Thankfully, most experiences are squarely in the middle, and it's usually an easy feat to leave work at the office. The death of a restaurant can still hit hard, even if it was just a place you were punching clock at while foc

[Ed. Note: Since the time of publishing,Tipped Off has severed professional ties with contributor Bobby Fry; as such, the series as previously planned will not be published.] I think we’ve all had just about enough of the restaurant owner who can’t stop telling us how much is beyond his or her control. If you're looking for your goals to be easily managed and controlled, perhaps you should just sell your restaurant and set pins at a bowling alley. More importantly, the doors

Sir Jables: Do you ever have that dream where you’re “in the weeds” at work? — DJ Dear DJ, Ahhh yes. That pesky little subconscious of ours, using our real-life stresses against us while we’re incapacitated by sleep, mutating them into mighty customer-krakens, impossible to defeat. I know that dream well. Even now, on the other side of my service-industry days, does it rear its ugly head and bring my present reality crashing down around me, as if I was a plate-spinner plagued

[Ed. note: Sir Jables' column is a day late this week because I dropped the fucking ball. Won't happen again.] Sir Jables: I wait tables at a casual-dining restaurant. A woman and her husband came in yesterday and she ordered a burger with a side salad (which is served on the same plate in our restaurant). She complained that the salad was on the same plate as the burger, so I had the items re-plated separately, which took all of 1 minute to do. When I returned she complained

Working in restaurants is a lot of things to a lot of people. It's a large degree of freedom to craft your own schedule, it's quick and sometimes easy money, and it's a wonderful way to make friends (and occasionally enemies) with great speed. It's also an incredibly taxing prospect, and it's no surprise that many people's experience with restaurant work is relegated to that summer or two during college, maybe a year after, while trying to catch the elusive prize of a steady

​​ Sir Jables: I’m a server at a very busy restaurant where there is limited space for servers to walk. This wouldn’t be such a problem if the parents who come in to eat with their children would keep their kids from running free around the restaurant, but some do not. It seems to be a growing issue. How should this be handled? Dear _______, Napalm. See, but that’s a one-word answer. And one-word answers to do not, a column, make. So I guess we have to delve deeper into th

Welcome to Ask Sir Jables: He Who Hath Waited Upon Life’s Tables. If you need to stumble a few steps back to take that title in, no one will fault you for it. In fact, it serves merely to prepare you for the column’s intrinsic glory, for which you will certainly stumble back from eternally. (Related side-note: ASJHWHWULT is best read while walking backwards on a treadmill. Your doctor says you need more cardio anyway because your best friend slept with your partner and you