Waiting on Tables Is What I Do

At the beginning of the month I was wondering if all the restaurant goers decided to go on holiday at the same time. The first two weeks were brutal.

Now heading into the last few days of the month it looks like we are on track to beat our earnings from last June which is real good. Last night I even chalked up more sales than I did Saturday night which is rare.

I am not sure what was going on last night but everyone was ordering the nice bottles of wine and ordering the full meal , from appetizers and the entree , to the dessert.

Had an interesting table of five which were heading back to England. When I mentioned have a nice flight back she says oh no we are heading to the States first then taking the Queen Mary back home. That would sure be nice , wouldn't it! Then another table was trying to prospect me into a network marketing business. Quite the weekend!

Over the last 3 days in particular my tip percentages have been quite high at least for these parts. Last night my sales were $1380 and my tip out was a whopping $46 but I still walked out of there with a $185 for a 16.7% average tip.

To add onto that my wife came home with $100 in the morning. It doesn't always work out so well but with holidays coming fast , beginning on Saturday when we head out for a week , we will take it.

The one thing I have to say that I really like about waiting on tables is the immediate gratification you get when someone leaves you a nice tip for your service. There is no better feeling than driving home thinking that you helped someone have a great night out with their family and friends.

For as long as I can I will wait on tables whether it be full time or part time although the hours I am working now it may as well be part time. Not only does it give me a bit of exercise throughout the day but it gives me a sense that I am serving the public good by serving others.

Also the money is not half bad either!

Hamburgers on the Fly - Late 1983

So to continue on with my job history that is featured every Monday I now am back in Montreal staying with Mom after my summer out West at a spot called the Saskatchewan River Crossing on the Banff - Jasper Highway in the beautiful Alberta Rockies where I was a head waiter.

Being back in Montreal was great but my lack of French was as it did 3 years back was really hurting my chances of finding work. French was now the main language and really the only spot you could get away with speaking English was on the West Island in places like Pointe Claire and Beaconsfield. Anywhere else you had to be fully bilingual. I am 24 years old now and after a fun frolicky past 3 years with lessons learned along the way maybe I should start thinking of planting my feet permanently somewhere and for me Montreal seemed to be the logical place since that is where I liked it the most. I still had friends there but then again a lot moved too. Some moved that I lost contact with which is unfortunate just due to the political instability there at the time.

Since 1980 my jobs included that of

Hilton Hotel
Willows Inn
Holiday Inn
Credit Valley Golf Club
Bristol Place Hotel
Ramada Inn ( 2 times )
Badminton and Racquet Club ( 2 times )
Dunfield Club
Opening a restaurant that I forget the name of.
Another restaurant that I also forgot the name of.
Some shot at some sales jobs during the day.
Saskatchewan River Crossing.

And now I am looking on the West Island for a job as a bartender - waiter. Picking up the newspaper I notice that there is a job at this place called Marilyn's Hamburgers. Hey when you need a job you will look at anything so I went and checked this place out.

This restaurant was all English which was a good thing and it had rave reviews for making the best hamburgers anywhere. Now it made other meals like a steak but hamburger was it's specialty. People would come from all over to try them.

The hamburger was not with a bun but with toasted bread and it must have been a half pounder served with all sorts of toppings. The grease just use to ooze down the side of your mouth when you took a bite of it. The owner was or use to be a member of a motorcycle gang and he had the appearance of having ate a bit more of these burgers than he should have. He wasn't much of a people person and dressed up in leather everyday and his longish hair he scared the bejesus out of me every moment I worked there.

Usually on my own working the floor as it wasn't a big restaurant I was the main guy. How he wanted you to take an order though was go to the table and there might be 6 people and they would all want their burgers done differently. Then you had to memorize it and go back to the kitchen and write it all out. Lord heavens if you forgot something.

For example ,

I will have a burger with no cheese , fried onions , mustard , and fries.
Next one , a burger with cheese , relish , ketchup and my fries with gravy.
A burger fully loaded with salad instead of fries.
Etc..Etc..

Then you run get the drinks and when it came to bill time and they were usually separate you would have to remember who was having what as it was one of the those old registers that all you did was manually put everything in and a bill about the size of your thumb would print out with the total. Then you would hand it out and hope for the best that people would not give you a hundred dollar bill as the float was minimal.

To me it was just nerve racking and I kept my eyes and ears to the pavement looking for something else to come up while I tortured myself working at this place. I needed a spot to make me stay in Montreal better than this and I was about set to move on when an ad appeared in Montreal newspaper that I felt like I had a real shot at. I called and got an interview. Would this be a success or not........

Stay tuned. Things get a lot better.