Can a waiter take home $500 a night?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes definitely but a waiter or waitress probably wont have the education or sense to properly manage their money.

Stop embarrassing yourself, PP.

+2
Plenty of my cohort at a prestigious graduate program had waited tables to help with college tuition.

[Anonymous]

If a person has never worked in a restaurant or waited tables I see it as a handicap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here with a decade plus of restaurant work. IME the people who make the most work at *extremely* expensive restaurants, or are bartenders in high-volume bars (like nightclubs or student bars). I never walked out with more than $350-400 for a shift, and even that happened less than a dozen times. That said, I started working full-time in DC right after the real estate crash (had been working part-time previously), then worked in lower-rent communities in the south, so I'm not quite sure what it's like for tipped restaurant workers now.

So much of it is location. Of course you make the most in the extremely expensive restaurants. But when I lived in NYC, there was a bar across the street from my biglaw firm in midtown west -- in fact the 2 office buildings across the street housed 3 different biglaw firms. It was a fairly standard irish pub, nothing fancy though not a dive either. On many many occasions, I saw biglaw associates hand over $50+ tips to bar tenders who were working like a 3 pm shift on a Friday not necessarily expecting to make great money. In that case -- location helped and as the "regular" bar of so many young professionals with money, who'd go over there to drink away their sorrows about -- what has my life become; I have to work yet another weekend; another boy/girlfriend dumped me bc I'm not around -- the bartenders basically acted like therapists/friends to these associates and cashed in. From what I had heard those bartenders LOVED to get a Friday after Thanksgiving shift bc they'd surely get a dozen or more associates crying about how they couldn't go home to their families bc they have to work all weekend so eff it -- they'll drink it up before heading back to the office (and leave big tips).

[Anonymous]

Sure! Figure people tip 20%. You'd need to serve people $2500 of food. If the average check is $25 a person, you'd have to serve 100 people a night. But if the average check is $50, you'd only have to serve 50 people and that seems pretty easy to do over the course of an evening.

Note: I'm excluding tipping out other staff. But even then, it seems possible.

[Anonymous]

People have gotten cheaper and credit cards have a lot to do with it. When folks paid cash back in 1980s and even 1900s your date and girls at bar saw it. Now a little little line item.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes definitely but a waiter or waitress probably wont have the education or sense to properly manage their money.

Jerk.

[Anonymous]

I quit my job after the birth of my first daughter. I worked Th/F/Sa at a busy bar/restaurant as cocktail. I made about 300/400 a night. Since much was under the table, i was contributing a significant amout to our bottom line and was able to be home with my kids and entirely avoid daycare. Also it was very easy to trade shifts or picknup if needed.

[Anonymous]

My friend waited tables for 20 years. Then she got her masters degree and an office job. She says she made more money waiting tables. She also says her body "fell apart" once she got desk job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes definitely but a waiter or waitress probably wont have the education or sense to properly manage their money.

Stop embarrassing yourself, PP.

+2
Plenty of my cohort at a prestigious graduate program had waited tables to help with college tuition.

+3

My research scientist husband waited tables while he was getting his PhD.

[Anonymous]

The thing to realize is you're not going to walk in and get the best shifts since everyone wants them -- the senior people will get them. You'll end up on Saturday lunch and shifts like that. Not bad, but just not as much volume = lower tips.

It's all about total volume. For example, you work Morton's private dining rooms, and each room will run up bills of $2-3k = $400-600 tip, but you'll only have 1-2 of those a night, and not every night. At the same time, a casual-ish restaurant where the tables turn over quick can also be good if you can get diners through in 45-60 minutes. Especially if they order drinks.