Andrew Zimmern: 5 Ways Restaurant Workers Wish You’d Be A Better Customer
Even if you think you’re a great patron, the people who serve you say there might be room for improvement.
Your favorite restaurant isn’t what it used to be. Staff shortages are an ongoing issue, food costs are soaring and customer behavior can be off the rails. With so many food service professionals under more stress than ever, those of us on the other side of the serving tray could use a little brush-up on the basic manners and common sense that make their lives just a little bit easier.
As much as we need restaurants, our behavior is making it harder and harder for people to find fulfilling careers in food service. “This is one of the hardest businesses to work in, filled with thankless days and hard bone-crushing hours, but vitally important for neighborhoods, community and joy,” said Chef Rossi, an author, executive chef and owner of New York’s The Raging Skillet. “Folks forgot how lonely and depressed they were when restaurants shut down during the pandemic. Be grateful and be nice, for crying out loud, and treat others as you want to be treated.”
We spoke with chefs, bartenders, caterers, servers and restaurant owners to discover the ways they wish you’d consider behaving better this year.
Don’t use a raised voice or snap your fingers to get your server’s attention.
“Aside from lousy tippers, there is nothing worse in the world than folks who think it’s OK to bully and abuse restaurant staff,” Rossi said. “Why on earth do these people think they are better than their waiter?”
And if you want better service, here’s a news flash — that kind of attitude isn’t the way to get it. “Before I became a chef, I was a bartender,” Rossi recalled. “The moment a customer raised their voice or snapped their fingers at me, I ‘went deaf.’ I no longer would hear anything they had to say or ask for.”
Andrew Zimmern, host of Outdoor Channel’s “Wild Game Kitchen,” has done every possible food service job, from dishwasher to executive chef to restaurant owner. He despairs at the breakdown in civility that customer service workers are experiencing: “Anyone behind a counter, from airline employees to deli workers, hotel staff to restaurant employees, is getting abused in greater numbers today than ever before,” he said. “Who do these entitled people think they are? Buying a sandwich or a $500 bottle of wine doesn’t give you the right to be discourteous and offensive, to behave poorly or raise your voice to someone.”
Read More Here