Do You Have Any Vegetarian Dishes and This Year Compared to Last

Sir , this is a steakhouse but we do have mushroom fajitas. Okay he will take one for the table and two garlic cheese toast but one without the garlic. That might have been acceptable but this was a table of 6! For dessert they had two brownie sundaes and a french frie. With the soft drinks the total came to $59.89. They got up to leave and thanked me very much and wished me Happy New Year promptly leaving a $50.00 gift card and $10 bill. THANK YOU SIR for the 11 cent tip!

But wait. This waitress who switched with someone else to make some extra money got roasted on her last sitting. She got a couple who had a gift card who asked how much their bill was. She said $143 to which they replied oh great , we have $7 left to spend. Once they got their bill they gave her the $150 gift card and gave her the exact change necessary to cover the bill. No tip.

That was a couple of nights ago but tonight was sweet as I walked out with $181. But the only way to make that was to do 38 covers and really flip those tables. My average check was real low. I couldn't sell a dessert tonight if my life depended on it. I think it is because of all the gift cards.

Next week will probably be on the slow side as I have just 4 shifts. The week after the holiday and everything is back to normal. Adults back to work and the kids school.

Calculating how we did this past year and it appears the wife and I made $5,000 more than the year before. What with the babysitting , teaching bartending , and both of us waiting on tables it was a good year. However I notice I earned more in the first half of the year than the last half probably due to the recession finally kicking in.

My hope is the economy makes a speedy recovery.

In any case how did you all fare income wise in 2009? Was it better for you or worse? Does this year look better?