Ten questions you've always wanted to ask your waitress
'27.03.2021'
Source: VICE
“Once a client poured champagne on her food and threw sushi rolls at a restaurant. When I asked her what the problem was, she replied: "I have so much money that I could buy your life."
Most people, when they are hungry, do not behave in the best way. The roots go back to infancy, when we primitively show anger, if we are hungry, but when we get older, we learn to turn children's cries into purely passive aggression directed at others, writes VICE.
Sahra (not his real name) knows all about hungry people, as the 27-year-old has worked as a waitress for ten years and says that due to particularly difficult clients, she and her colleagues often drink to survive until the end of their shift.
She started out as a waitress when she was still a student and worked part-time in a pub before moving on to work in bars, cafes and several restaurants. Sahra is now the assistant manager of a gourmet restaurant in Berlin, where she serves rich and famous clients and earns about € 3000 ($ 3400) a month.
I interviewed Sahra in a cafe in a rich neighborhood of Charlottenburg to find out about the worst customer she ever served, if she had ever spit in a customer’s food and what strategies she used to get good tips.
Do you spend more time serving customers you don’t like?
- No. On the contrary, I work faster so that I have less reason to return to their table. If I go slow, they will get angry and keep calling me.
Why did you decide to become a waitress?
- At first, working as a waitress was just a way to earn a little extra money when I was preparing for my final exams. But as soon as I got into this area, I began to quickly earn easy money, and it became difficult to leave this job. Over time, I became addicted to my work: I love to eat, be among delicious food and am proud of what I do. I do not consider this a low-skilled job. Almost every week, someone tells me that I am “too smart for a waitress,” and this is very annoying. Whenever possible, I try to refute the stereotype that waitresses are too stupid to do anything else.
Worst customer ever served?
“The worst clients are rich celebrities who think they're allowed to treat us like shit. For example, there is one well-known guy who comes and loves to humiliate the waitresses in our restaurant. He calls us fat and says, "Your breasts are so small, I have to give you boobs for Christmas." You need to have enough experience to have the endurance to cope with this, but some of my colleagues cannot and spend a lot of time in tears in our wine cellar. Once it was so bad that I refused to serve him.
Once, wealthy Russians were sitting at our table, celebrating their birthday. As night approached, they became more and more unpleasant, until one of them literally bit my colleague. The situation only escalated when the client started pouring champagne on her food and throwing sushi rolls around the room. When I asked her what the problem was, she replied, "I have so much money that I could buy your life." In the end, I called the manager and these Russians left. But they left nasty comments about us all over Facebook - I couldn't sleep for two days.
Have you ever spat at someone's meal?
- No, but I worked in restaurants, where I saw something like that. Personally, I would never do that. But if the client is really crap, I ask the bartender to "forget" to pour alcohol into their cocktails.
What other ways do you use to get revenge on customers who annoy you?
“If customers are too drunk and out of control, I just add two or three extra bottles of wine to their bill. But I only did this when they were acting really shitty and when I was sure that they were very rich and would not be upset about it. Some clients really know how to make them feel like nothing. An Emirati prince came to visit us last week. When he found out that I could speak Arabic, he gave me € 100 (roughly $ 113) just like that. I thought it was very cute until he asked if he could buy me. I had to give the table to a colleague.
Are you eating the leftovers from the plates?
- Yes, if the client is not too nasty. And if at the end of the night there is something left in the kitchen, we also take everything home. The food here is too good to be thrown in the trash. Plus, when you work around food all day, you become less picky about what you eat.
What tricks do you use to get a good tip?
–I am doing what I learned from a book on business psychology. It says that if you paint a little sunny smile on the check and say that “tips don't count,” it will seem less intrusive. Apparently, a smile is a more positive message than, say, a heart. This little trick works with all of my clients.
What is the most disgusting thing you saw in the kitchen?
- In the Mexican restaurant where I worked, the leftover sauce in small plates from the tables of clients in the kitchen always returned to the large bowl. I also saw the chef pull his hands out of his pants and then prepare the salad without washing them. But my current restaurant has an open kitchen, so disgusting things like these can't happen because the customers would have noticed right away.
Have you ever lied to customers who asked if they had vegan food?
We used to have one miso soup and we weren't sure if it was vegan or not, but we still sold it as vegan. In the end, they learned that there was fish in the soup.
What have you managed to happen about dating by watching your visitors?
“Here in Charlottenburg, the best bait is money. Many women are attracted to wealthy men. I developed a talent for immediately identifying couples who have a special date: a certain energy hovers in the air. Sometimes I notice couples disappearing together in the closet for 20 minutes. It's always great to know that people are going through a special period in our restaurant.
