Author: Restaurant Gal
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Gotta Play to Win
The shrill chirp of the second alarm clock was the sound that finally roused my Miami friend and former coworker at 4:15 a.m.–the time she wakes up every weekend morning to make the hour-and-a-half drive to work a double 6 a.m. breakfast-lunch shift, followed by a dinner shift. On this particular morning, she told me,…
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Please, enough of the “How to be a Perfect Server” commentary
Suddenly, everyday, I read or hear about yet another “What Servers Should Do” article, blog post, etc. Frankly, I am surprised that so many feel the topic important enough to speak about it in such inglorious, minute detail. (I did enjoy Waiter’s recent rebuttal, to one such article, however.) Why isn’t anyone writing about “100…
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Pillow Talk
Her hair is stringy and tangled and wild about her shoulders. His pallor is ashen and unshaven. Their faces are blurred: eyes have morphed into slits, mouths are drooping just slightly. Or are they smiling? “Baby, I love you. You have no idea.” “I love you, too. You know that.” “But you don’t understand. I…
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Apples to Oranges or Raspberries to Plums
I have been driving to and fro quite frequently these past few weeks: to my new Key to find a place to live, sign a lease, and generally try to get the feel for my new “home;” fro my old and soon-to-be former Key, where I still work a thousand hours a week, haven’t packed,…
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Act 24, Scene 6
On the night when the bar fight broke out, on the same day when an older regular customer had gotten popped for a DUI, and when, before that, a co-worker had quite suddenly walked out, leaving me to either face another 7,000 doubles or try yet again to plug the holes in the dam with…
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Backing Up Bob
A friend who is the GM of a high-end, perennially busy and very popular restaurant, once confided to me how he secretly worries that one day he will open for dinner service and not one guest will walk through the door. “You’re joking, right?” I teased him at the time. Please. “Not really,” he said.…
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My Brown-Eyed Girl
I don’t like having kids in my bar. Ever. My bar is not a family place, not by any stretch. On the rare evening when a child is in tow, I frown a little. Why would anyone bring a kid to a bar that doesn’t pretend to be anything but a bar? But on those…
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Giving Back
I am happy to report that I contributed quite generously to the local Las Vegas economy–a kind of personal RG stimulus package, if you will. Now it’s back to work a double today. I figure the images of spinning slot screens and whirling roulette wheels will soon fade, and that I will be able to…
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Betting on a New Pair of Flip Flops
I am off to meet my best sister friend in Vegas for a long weekend. I am hoping our time together in crazyville will energize and cheer her and allow her a brief respite from her sad days. If we happen to win a little $$, so much the better. I am also looking forward…
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Birthday Pause
Birthdays call for a time out for brief reflection, for a momentary pause to assess growth and count blessings. What a year this has been. * I left one restaurant job, accepted an offer for another at a hotel–which led to the need to buy an actual suit at Banana Republic–only to have the economy…