What Every Server Should Know!

Most of the public many think a server is just someone that takes drink orders, informs on the meal of the day, takes the orders, and checks up on the customers for refills or whatever else the customer many need. Most of the time, people have no idea what difficulties and hard work a server faces while at work. They only see the person doing their job, but really they doing whatever they can to make the customer’s dining experience a great one. What is not seen by the customer is what every server should know.

Application to become a server: Many people trying to become a server at a high end or low end restaurant must take a test in order to determine if they can handle the psychological stresses of serving. Most avid servers at some point in their career either started out as food runner or got their experience in a slower restaurant. If someone is lucky enough, they can apply at a newly opening high end restaurant as an assistant server or expeditor and work their way up to server.

This is my experience in Francis Ford Coppola Winery’s Rustic Restaurant. I started out as an assistant server, then became am expeditor and now in am a server/event captain. After I was a pro expeditor, I became a restaurant server and pool-side server.

Server Training: Once hired, the server has two to three weeks to learn server protocol, do the food-runner’s job, the assistant server’s job, and learn whatever else the lead server requires. After a week or two the server then takes a light some of tables to start. The manager decides, based on performance, whether or not the server will continue as a server. If the server cannot perform, he or she is honorably released from employment. Something to keep in mind about any serving position is if you can’t be a good team player, you shouldn’t be a server. Like a crab fishing boat, Navy Seal team, or restaurant team, overall  accomplishing the mission is the common goal and failure is some an option.