Leave the Judging to Judy

I’m not a Bad Ass. I don’t think I’m better than other people, nor do I find certain types of people inferior to others. But as a server, I judge.

If I have to be the first to admit it (even though I find that hard to believe), that’s fine. Say a couple walks in, where the man is wearing nice denim jeans and maybe a Polo or Lacoste shirt, while the wife is in a bright spring dress with maybe a Gucci bag. (That’s designer by the way). Then immediately after them another couple walks in wearing sweats, or just simple regular clothes. Your eye’s (with dollar signs) instantly look to the “well-to-do” couple and slightly hope their being sat in your section over the other couple. It’s this uncontrollable want to make money and you instantly think somehow you’re going to make more money off that table. We as servers judge, we judge to see how much we think you’re going to buy, how you’re going to act, how needy you’re going to be, and how much you’re going to tip; and surprisingly enough we (or maybe just me) do it all within the first five or so minutes of talking/looking at the table.

Given that we want to make money, and given that we would love an entire day of parties of four of straight millionaires it’s impossible. We live in Tampa, and for every “rich” person there is here there are maybe three or four more people who are not even close to that well off. As much as customers can bother me, co-workers can do the exact same. It’s an interesting environment to work in, seeing as whatever mistake you make it is more than likely displayed for all of the employees to see because it can normally affect two or three of them. If you don’t run your food someone else will, if you don’t refill drinks your table will stop another server and ask them to do it, and if you don’t believe me you’re crazy. Most tables don’t care who their server is, and they want what they want and they want it now. Even if that means stopping another server not assigned to them and asking them for what they want. As a server you have to ask the right questions, and somewhat anticipate what a table needs normally before they even think about it; this ensures that when they get their food they will need nothing, therefore making them feel like their being taken good care of. Its simple server logic, but some servers only take the time to do these things if they have “judged” that they’re going to make good money of a certain table.

I recall a day when I was working some time ago with this snobby girl that used to work at my restaurant. We were basically standing their waiting to be sat, and a table of five black people walked in our store. As the hostess lead them towards her section I caught her rolling her eyes while she was grabbing beverage napkins to throw on the table during her little intro. I didn’t pay attention to what she was doing but as time progressed it was clear. I noticed some time later that as I was running food and helping out other people while doing my job, I ended up running the majority of that female server’s food to that exact group of black people while she was standing at every other table but that one. With that, every time I walked up to the table with something new they needed something else, a new drink, a side of this, whatever. I began to realize that she wasn’t giving them great service, at all. Not that she was completely neglecting them, it was small things. Like a side of red sauce for the cheese bread, or dressing for a salad, but regardless those things could have been handled before the food even got there. As the night went on she walked up to me later looking absolutely livid. She threw a bill down and when I looked at the table number it was the table of black people she had clearly neglected all night. The bill was about sixty five dollars and they left her four.
Her night was ruined, she sulked and pouted all night over this one table until I finally put her in her place. Obviously it was much too profane to write here for my professor and class mates to read but I can definitely give you the jest of it minus the colorful wording. I basically told her that she judged them, and much like other servers because they were black they were instantly not worth her time. In the food industry I hear all the time servers complaining about getting a table of black people, or Latin people, or people from a foreign country, and how they already know they’re going to get a bad tip, before they even walked to the table! It’s sad, and to be honest I find it to be racist. If you didn’t judge them by their skin color or origin, and looked at EVERY table as money in the bank then it would give you the energy to treat them as you would any other table. Up sell on food, get them to buy drinks; even if you think they won’t buy anything try, sometimes people surprise you. I had a smelly construction worker sit with me before with a few of his friends. You could smell them halfway before you got to the table. But because I treated them like normal humans, I found out his name was Jameson, he loved Irish Carbombs, and with a tab of $150 he left me $50. It can happen. It’s inevitable I know, but if you really try to give EVERYONE great service, you might be surprised with how much your sales start going up.