Can a waiter take home $500 a night?

[Anonymous]

Weekend night in a fancy restaurant? An attractive waitress but in mid-30's?

[Anonymous]

Yup it's possible although more likely on a holiday weekend. Typically in a fancy restaurant you can at least make $300 in a 4-6 hour dinner shift though.

[Anonymous]

At a nice steakhouse or $200/plate restaurant? Of course.

At a chain or mid-price? Unlikely. Maybe some bartenders at VERY busy bars.

[Anonymous]

In DC? Sure. I took home 200-300/night on weekends at a burger and beer place in the late 90s. Food and labor costs have risen since then, so I assume tips have as well, since they are based on the bill.

But fine dining restaurants usually want someone with some experience. If you haven’t waited tables since college, you may want to start at a more casual restaurant.

[Anonymous]

At a really nice restaurant with a full bar? Yes.

[Anonymous]

When I was a waitress I sometimes walked out with $1000. Some waitresses I worked with made over $100k/year. This was at a regular sports bar, not a high end place.

The trick, though, is to work as much as possible. Typically in a restaurant, management "cuts" servers once the rush is over so there's only a couple working when it's slow. Most servers want to be cut, but if you want to make money, you have to work during those slow times.

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can either do this by working at a high end place OR by working at a high-volume place that turns over a lot of tables and sells a lot of alcohol/wine.

Attractive doesn't make a big difference, but being a good waiter/waitress does--taking care of special requests, being attentive, keeping water filled, and not forgetting things.

Most places where servers make decent money only hire experienced people from other restaurants, or you have to start out as a hostess/food runner/busboy etc.

[Anonymous]

Yes. My sister in law makes more (in NYC) and she's not even that conventionally attractive (more on the granola/hipster/Erykah Badu type.) She is going to grad school and pays for college plus living expenses with her waitressing salary alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. My sister in law makes more (in NYC) and she's not even that conventionally attractive (more on the granola/hipster/Erykah Badu type.) She is going to grad school and pays for college plus living expenses with her waitressing salary alone.

Where does she waitress?

[Anonymous]

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

Snob.

I worked in the restaurant business for years. One career bartender in dc sent all three of his kids to Georgetown and paid full freight. Another started into real estate. In her retirement, she owns 3apartment buildings in DuPont and Foggy Bottom. Quite a number go on to own successful night spots.

You’re an idiot too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Snob.

I worked in the restaurant business for years. One career bartender in dc sent all three of his kids to Georgetown and paid full freight. Another started into real estate. In her retirement, she owns 3apartment buildings in DuPont and Foggy Bottom. Quite a number go on to own successful night spots.

You’re an idiot too.

+2

In my decade plus of restaurant work, I worked with former lawyers, PhD candidates, a ton of students (undergrad and grad school), and a number of people who did it as a means of supplementing their low-paying professional gigs. The so-called "uneducated" career servers and bartenders I worked with were hard workers, cultured, good conversationalists, and interested in the world around them.

Previous PP: you suck. (And you have no idea what you're talking about.)

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

My sister worked as a cocktail waitress and she would rake in the money.