Yes, I do have it on vinyl. Hipster Rating +1 Happy Thanksgiving. Long time readers might recall me mentioning long ago a particular affection for Woody Guthrie. What you don’t know, unless you have known me for twenty years, is that it began with his son Arlo. Today, I wanted to tell you the story. […]
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How To Make Hostile Guests Love You (Part One)
One of the most difficult situations any server faces is the hostile guest. I call them hostile, because they are angry with you long before you have even greeted them. Some people just bring all the hostility of their day in to a restaurant and dump it on their server. From the moment you greet […]

The Lost Art Of Suggestive Selling
This will be relevant by the end of the post. “Subtlety is the art of saying what you think and getting out of the way before it is understood.” –Anonymous We as a society have really lost the power of subtlety. It could be because we have lost the patience to unravel it. We receive […]

The Economics of Tipping
I still occasionally get the guest who will say, “I can buy this wine for half this price at the store.” Which is true, but it doesn’t come with a staff to serve it and a crew of chefs ready to cook you an incredible meal from a fully stocked kitchen. I wonder if the […]

Weird Restaurant Stories 11/6
This week I ran across an article of particular relevance to this series. Most of the regular readers know that each week I give an award to the restaurant hero of the week named after Chef Jonathan Justus. I guess the bad review he received on yelp did not hurt him too much. His restaurant […]
- The Greatest Customer Complaint Response Ever September 23, 2010
- Why Not To Date Co-Workers August 14, 2010
- Serving Sober October 14, 2010
- My Response: 25 Things Chefs Never Tell You September 16, 2010
- My New Blogroll February 4, 2011
- The IRS Did Not Ban Automatic Gratuities January 1, 2014
- Introducing Best Restaurant Blogs April 15, 2013
- JJ’s February 20, 2013
- Tips For Proposing At A Restaurant February 12, 2013
- Do I Have To Tip? January 21, 2013
- Abel Perez: I am a server and this helped me alot. Thank you...
- MikeQ: Great industry stories, David. You wear so many h...
- MikeQ: What a lucky day it was when I found your blogs, D...
- MikeQ: Damn, David ... your new design makes The Majestic...
- David: That is a good idea I hadn't thought of. I am no...
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About The Author
David Hayden was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He took his first serving job in 1996. Since that time, he has worked for over a dozen different restaurant companies. He has held both hourly and salaried positions at independent and corporate restaurants. He has waited on over 100,000 guests and trained hundreds of servers. He has been named "Best Server in Kansas City" the last three years by the local weekly paper.