• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

People that work/worked in restaurants...

TyCooN

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
Messages
4,083
Reaction score
12
Would you recommend it for a recent high school grad?
eh.gif
I've done fast food, and retail before. I'm not too crazy about going back to those environments.
 

Connemara

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Mar 9, 2006
Messages
38,384
Reaction score
1,827
It sucks, but the money can be pretty good. There were nights where I said to myself, "Well, it wasn't even worth coming in" because I got tipped out practically nothing. But then there are nights where you make bank and are happy.

I would not want to be doing it for years.
 

cchen

Distinguished Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2006
Messages
3,468
Reaction score
1,391
What's your goal in life? You can make good money in the FOH of fine dining restaurants.
 

Alter

Distinguished Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
Messages
4,321
Reaction score
144
Originally Posted by cchen
What's your goal in life? You can make good money in the FOH of fine dining restaurants.

+1. I worked in the kitchen for a couple of years before I realized that I was only a haircut away from making real tips and not having to deal with the threat of slicing off my finger or burning myself repeatedly.
 

randallr

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
Messages
3,962
Reaction score
5
yeah sucks, unless you are in a rather large city where good restaurant jobs are plentiful
 

milosz

Distinguished Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
3,883
Reaction score
11
In the right environment, it's a damn good job for someone in college or about to be. Get to know some people who work at a prospective place and find out how the money is - I would never have worked at a El Chico's or Chili's/Friday's, but I had no interest in fine-dining either. Wound up doing time at a steak place, a restaurant on a local lake and a cajun seafood joint. Generally 'upscale casual' places - $25-30 per-person per-meal averages.

Stressful, physically and mentally demanding (there's a reason people still have 'waitmares' years after getting out), but the pay is good and the hours are nice for a young person (again, if you work at a place that closes at 11pm rather than 2am).

Always liked 90% of my co-workers, too. You really bond over a shared hatred of humanity and the desire to sleep with jailbait hostesses.
 

TyCooN

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
Messages
4,083
Reaction score
12
Originally Posted by milosz
In the right environment, it's a damn good job for someone in college or about to be. Get to know some people who work at a prospective place and find out how the money is - I would never have worked at a El Chico's or Chili's/Friday's, but I had no interest in fine-dining either. Wound up doing time at a steak place, a restaurant on a local lake and a cajun seafood joint. Generally 'upscale casual' places - $25-30 per-person per-meal averages.

Stressful, physically and mentally demanding (there's a reason people still have 'waitmares' years after getting out), but the pay is good and the hours are nice for a young person (again, if you work at a place that closes at 11pm rather than 2am).

Always liked 90% of my co-workers, too. You really bond over a shared hatred of humanity and the desire to sleep with jailbait hostesses.

A weaker version of the military?
eh.gif
inlove.gif
 

Nouveau Pauvre

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
7,413
Reaction score
304
The bulk of my budding career as an entertainer is in restaurants and bars (mostly the aformentioned upscale-casual places). Obviously my perspective is a little different then the waitstaff's, but I highly, highly recommend it.

You learn so much about dealing with and relating to people, sometimes under rather contentious circum-tances. Very valuable lifeskills IMHO.
 

TyCooN

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
Messages
4,083
Reaction score
12
Originally Posted by Magician
The bulk of my budding career as an entertainer is in restaurants and bars (mostly the aformentioned upscale-casual places). Obviously my perspective is a little different then the waitstaff's, but I highly, highly recommend it.

You learn so much about dealing with and relating to people, sometimes under rather contentious circum-tances. Very valuable lifeskills IMHO.

Did you do magic in the restaurants?
eh.gif
 

Nouveau Pauvre

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
7,413
Reaction score
304
Originally Posted by TyCooN
Did you do magic in the restaurants?
eh.gif


Yes, that's actually the only capacity in which I've ever worked in restaurants. I've been doing it for about 3 years in probably about ten different bars and restaurants now.
 

ryoneo

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2008
Messages
2,072
Reaction score
57
I worked in my parents restaurant and did everything. It really sucked at times and the customers will really give you bad days, but the pay is good. It really depends what area you are in and if the place gets business. You can do relatively well and earn a good amount of tips a night. My friend worked in an Olive Garden not too recently and came home with around $100 a night.
 

breakfasteatre

Distinguished Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2006
Messages
1,373
Reaction score
4
Im in university and work the bar closing on the weekend. I own a house with my girlfriend as well, so i can afford the mortage, utilities, tuition, and frivolous spending on clothing working only 3 days a week. This winter break (well, my break has been longer than the typical christmas holiday because of a school strike), i worked more hours and was rolling in the cash. My paychecks were 700 bucks and i was making on average 150 a night.

as well, i started seriously saving in the summer and have about 8 grand in the bank. Might not seem like much, but i also bought a 10k passat in the summer as well
 

globetrotter

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
20,341
Reaction score
422
I supported myself through highschool as a dishwasher and fry cook in a resterount, and then for 6 months in a bread bakery. for some reason, I am not in a rush back to the food service world.
 

Johnny_5

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 14, 2007
Messages
4,192
Reaction score
5
If you find the right place you can make some killer cash. I have been working in restaurants my entire student life and have been making substantially more money than all of my friends who were working other jobs. You will also gain great experience dealing with people, and high stress environments. The only downsides are that most of the time, your best money will be made on weekends, so if your a young social student your gonna miss out on some fun.

If this is going to be you first restaurant job you will not get a good position in any decent restaurant unless you have prior experience.
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 55 35.5%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 60 38.7%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 17 11.0%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 27 17.4%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 28 18.1%

Forum statistics

Threads
505,160
Messages
10,578,945
Members
223,882
Latest member
anykadaimeni
Top