Service has privileges

Before the job became a step along the way to a career, being a waiter was a career. To be a professional waiter was to have a lifetime occupation that earned enough to put kids through college, pay the mortgage, have a life. Not every hash-slinging job was a lucrative endeavor. However, at a certain level of dining, it was a worthwhile and rewarding one.

Many restaurateurs, chefs and executives started out as waiters. The experience played a major role in shaping their later careers.

Bahjat Shariff, restaurateur and franchisee of the Howley Bread Group, who owns and operates the Panera Bread bakery cafes in Rhode Island, Connecticut and southeastern Massachusetts, started out in the kitchen when he was 18. He came up through the ranks of KFC. The systems in place for training at the large chains are valuable and many local operators have benefited from them.

The franchise is opening new cafes on a regular basis.

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Shariff says he instructs trainees about the importance of hospitality and making guests feel comfortable. He said, “I tell our team to be themselves, enjoy their relationship with their customers and associates. Both sides of the counter are just as important, the associates and the guests. Without them, you have nothing.”

Ted Karousos, second-generation restaurateur and longtime proprietor of the Blue Plate Diner (a sponsor of my radio show) in Middletown, seconded Shariff’s notion. “Service is asking the question, what is the guest looking for? The answer is always to give the guest what they want.” Karousos grew up in his family’s restaurant, the Seafare Inn in Portsmouth. “In the Seafare, our service was European, very formal and thorough. If a guest came and went in under two hours; that was a fast night.” The diner-style of service-friendly, familiar-yet-always efficient is now in vogue in fine dining. Karousos says it is a challenge as an owner and manager to educate his servers and share his lifelong training in a matter of weeks or months. “It is vital to communicate to employees how to put themselves in the guest’s position. How are we making the guest feel when they are with us?”

Chef and restaurateur Matthew MacCartney of Jamestown Fish says there is a huge advantage for a chef to have serving experience. He recalled, “When I wanted to complete my WSET [Wine and Spirit Education Trust – a globally recognized certification in wines and spirits], I decided to take a break from the kitchen and I was able to get a front-of-house position at the acclaimed Gramercy Tavern and be fully immersed in their wine program as well. It was invaluable.”

It can be a life lesson even after a server moves on. Rep.-elect Moira Walsh, D-Providence, is described as a former labor organizer who worked as a waitress in the decade leading up to her campaign. She said of her experience, “I literally went across the street, to the restaurant across the street from my high school, and I got a job there in what I thought was going to be a very transitory period of my life, and it has ended up being my main form of income.” She said, “I don’t consider myself a politician. I am just a waitress.” •

Bruce Newbury’s Dining Out radio show is heard on 1540 WADK-AM, wadk.com and the TuneIn mobile application. He can be reached at bruce@brucenewbury.com.

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