The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-07-20
THE MAKING OF \ WAITER.
To Learn the Trade Take,
Year of study and Practice.

New York Commercial Advertiser.
'Of the tens of thousands who frequent
banquets and big hotels and restaurants
in this city how many do you suppose have
observed closely enough TO appreciate the
work or a nrSt-claSS waiter! asked a man
ager OF one of the big fashionable hotels in
the Tenderloin. Not one in a score, / dare
say he continued, answering his W
question That in itself is a stimon
of the excellent work of the men. But the
trade of learning 10 wait properly on the
guests OF a irst-class resort takes years 10
learn.
lone of the greatest difficulties a man.
ager has to overcome when opening a new
hotel is TO obtain a competent staff of
walters. Take the fellow down at the other
end of the nall this minute. He's trying 10
attract the attention of a guest who has
forgotten something. Now, how many who
come here have noticed that there is an
ironclad rule about accosting a guest? To
begin with, the waiter must not forget,
even while he is trying to draw attention,
that he is-'supposed to be dead On no
conceivable occasion must he be In evidence
except at the moment when wanted.
Maybe you 90 not even know that the
waiter is a man with a trade exactly as is
a man skilled with the saw or the anvil.
We ave men here who have spent a lie
time waiting. Since boyhood they have
been at work in large eating places. They
have acquired modest fortunes. and TO see
them in their homes and to see them here
at work is like seeing two different men.
More than that, l have a man here, the
father of five boys who all have become
walters, and who, in turn, expect their sons
TO become walters, for in the long run there
are not many trades that pay a man as well
as that of serving the rich and the eX-
travagant while in the after-dinner good
humor. We have men here who have made
as high as $500 a month, including tips and
salaries.
How does a good waiter differ from an
Indifferent one? By observing the ironclad
rules laid down for him. To begin with, it
requires an Unborn knack and a peculiar
personality to become a good waiter. Among
other things, the man must be good to look
at-not handsome necessarily. but he must
suggest by his very appearance the idea OF
neatness; he must be appetiZing, as II were.
He must possess the faculty of working
unseen, of serving without being noticed,
and some of the rules laid down to that
end must seem to a layman absurd, es-
p~ecially in this democratic country.
For instance, on no account may a
waiter recognize a guest unless the latter
makes the advance The fact that a waiter
recognizes in his guest a man whom he has
served fifteen years ago, perhaps, in a Wa
tering place, does not excuse him from
speaking first. ever if he sees that the
guest recalls him. We have a man here
who for five years steadily has breakfasted
with US, invariably insisting upon being
served by the same waiter. Still. as the
guest comes in mornings, unless he is the
first to make the advance, the waiter would
never think of bidding him the time of the
day. Likewise, should the men meet on the
street. unless the guest is the first 10 make
an advance, the waiter must not recognize
him.
THE first thing an embryo waiter-the
young omnibus who takes away empty
dishes and does the heavy part of the SerV-
ing-dOes is TO cultivate his memory. The
examples of good memory shown by some
of the walters in their own line would sur
prise you. 1t is nothing extraordinary foT
a waiter to take orders from six different
tables for as many as ten persons and &c
bring each what was ordered without the
least hitch. In the Palace Hotel, out on the
Pacific slope, l once had a man who could
take seventeen orders, each Of four or five
dishes, and he could carry everything in his
head and deliver the goods as accurately as
if he had written down what was required,
L was told the fellow had some sort of a
system, but think it was nothing more than
an extraordinarily developed memory.
When it comes to the actual serving the
first thing every waiter has to observe is
that the guest is provided with what in the
slang of the profession is called the proper
tools On no account may a man be served,
thinking that he is going TO eat, when the
next moment he may find that he is not GO
ing to begin just yet after all, for the
waiter has not provided him with a neceS-
sary fork or spoon. The temper of the
guest must be saved at all hazards.
1T doesn't happen often, OF course, but
here and there you must have seen a waiter
take a demi-tasse TO a guest. and then, with
the cup still in his hands, TO see him hasten
off in search of something. Probably he
has forgotten a spoon. If he set the cup in
front of the guest and then went for the
spoon there might be just complaint of poor
service. BY running of with the cup, how
ever. no complaint as to that can be made
and the guests temper is saved"