The restaurant business is not for everyone. Actually, the restaurant business is not for most people.
Gunay Clay, owner of Cattleman’s Steak House in Clanton, estimates 90 out of 100 people that show interest in serving food can’t handle the rigors associated with the job: remembering the requests of several tables worth of customers, working with the kitchen staff to get orders out as quickly as possible, and handling complaints as they arise.
“Anybody can handle a table or two,” Clay said. “But you can’t make money or make a career waiting on two tables at a time. The stress level gets real high if you want to make money, and it takes handling 30-40 tables in a short time to make some money.”
As is common practice in the industry, rookie servers spend their first few days following around a seasoned co-worker. That’s enough for some to decide they should look elsewhere for employment; others at least make it long enough to begin working on their own.