For those who have worked in restaurants...

[Anonymous]

Random question but I am just wondering.

Is it usual for restaurant staff to eat a "staff" or "family" meal before the start of their (dinner) shift?

If so, does staff include the servers/bartender and host/ess? Or just the kitchen workers?

(This would be for a family owned restaurant, not a chain.)

[Anonymous]

Totally depends. I worked at one bar and restaurant where you could order anything under a certain price point, like sandwich but not prime rib or crab cakes. Another one where we cooked family meal for lunch and dinner. Generally the back of house (cooks, dishwashers) ate whatever they wanted. Front of house sometimes got anything for 50% off at a third restaurant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Random question but I am just wondering.

Is it usual for restaurant staff to eat a "staff" or "family" meal before the start of their (dinner) shift?

If so, does staff include the servers/bartender and host/ess? Or just the kitchen workers?

(This would be for a family owned restaurant, not a chain.)

Never heard of that, but suppose it's possible if everyone starts at the same time, to be able to come in and eat a free meal before your shift.

Usually leftovers from prep or returned items that weren't cooked right are set aside to take home by the staff.

[Anonymous]

No staff dinner where my DD works. All employees get one half priced item per shift.

[Anonymous]

Nephew works at small Italian family owned place. They do family meals but almost everyone starts around the same time if they are working lunch or dinner. If you're working both, you get two family meals. If you happen to work at a time when the meal is over, they'll make you your own meals for free. But this is a small family owned place in a town where everyone knows everyone so it's probably a little different.

[Anonymous]

I worked at two different restaurants. At one (a casual bar and grill) there was no family meal, but you could get any one item at half price from the menu for each shift if you wanted. Didn’t see dishwashers or cooks take advantage that often, but about half of servers and bartenders did each shift. It was a pretty small place, a typical shift probably had a dishwasher, 3 cooks, a bartender, a manager and 8 servers. So 14 staff.

At the other, a large, formal restaurant, we did have a family meal before each shift. 80% of staff would eat it, it was pretty good generally. They took 50 cents out of our pay for it each shift, and you couldn’t opt out. But I’d say between chefs, dishwashers, hosts, servers, bartenders, managers, and valets they probably averaged 80-100 staff each shift.

[Anonymous]

A decent restaurant should feed their employees one meal per shift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked at two different restaurants. At one (a casual bar and grill) there was no family meal, but you could get any one item at half price from the menu for each shift if you wanted. Didn’t see dishwashers or cooks take advantage that often, but about half of servers and bartenders did each shift. It was a pretty small place, a typical shift probably had a dishwasher, 3 cooks, a bartender, a manager and 8 servers. So 14 staff.

At the other, a large, formal restaurant, we did have a family meal before each shift. 80% of staff would eat it, it was pretty good generally. They took 50 cents out of our pay for it each shift, and you couldn’t opt out. But I’d say between chefs, dishwashers, hosts, servers, bartenders, managers, and valets they probably averaged 80-100 staff each shift.

Oh, PP here to add - at the bar and grill, staff start times were staggered, while at the fancy place, everyone started at the same time for each shift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A decent restaurant should feed their employees one meal per shift.

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A decent restaurant should feed their employees one meal per shift.

Agreed.

Thanks, that's what I thought.

My college kid just took a job at a family-owned Italian restaurant (not a small one, and the family owns three in the general area) and they don't offer any kind of family meal at the start of the shift. I was just curious if it wasn't the practice any longer, because I remember this being one of the perks of being a waitress or kitchen staff way back when, at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked at two different restaurants. At one (a casual bar and grill) there was no family meal, but you could get any one item at half price from the menu for each shift if you wanted. Didn’t see dishwashers or cooks take advantage that often, but about half of servers and bartenders did each shift. It was a pretty small place, a typical shift probably had a dishwasher, 3 cooks, a bartender, a manager and 8 servers. So 14 staff.

At the other, a large, formal restaurant, we did have a family meal before each shift. 80% of staff would eat it, it was pretty good generally. They took 50 cents out of our pay for it each shift, and you couldn’t opt out. But I’d say between chefs, dishwashers, hosts, servers, bartenders, managers, and valets they probably averaged 80-100 staff each shift.

Oh, PP here to add - at the bar and grill, staff start times were staggered, while at the fancy place, everyone started at the same time for each shift.

That makes sense- Logistically, it would be hard to offer a meal for staggerd shifts.

[Anonymous]

At some Japanese and Chinese places I’ve gone to they feed the staff at one big table at the end of the night right before the restaurant closes

[Anonymous]

We never had a ‘family meal’ which I view as everyone eating at the same time. But you could get food before or after your shift. Like pp, anything below a certain price point.

[Anonymous]

I've worked in several restaurants as a server. In 2/4 of them we had a shift meal together before the dinner shift.

[Anonymous]

On Top Chef they talked a lot about family meals in their restaurants