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RE: Working In Restaurants — The Good, The Bad, and The Downright Ugly!
Great post man. I come from a long restaurant background myself and had to laugh to myself several times while reading your article. Several of your experiences mirror similar situations that I have been in, mine have usually involved the alcohol consumption factor as well.
I worked at an Italian restaurant in Atlanta during the early 2000's and the owner flipped out and went off the deep end. He ended up barricading himself into his high rise condo in Buckhead and got into a stand off with the SWAT team...lol No shit, those were some of the best years of my restaurant career
Oh man, one Italian restaurant I worked for the owner was an absolute mental case as well! One time he ordered me to take the customers plates away from their table 2 minutes after they started eating. When I tried to explain they weren't finished with their food, he continued to insist I take their Plates. The guy was such a buffoon, not to mention incredibly anti-social. There was no doubt he wasn't playing with a full deck of cards.
I later went to work for another Italian restaurant (Go figure I'm Italian myself) and found out my previous boss had been married like 9 times! I honestly wasn't surprised given how weird the guy was.
It was honestly great to reflect on the past and share some of my experiences with the world. Despite all the negatives, there were many great aspects about working in restaurants too, and writing this article brought back a lot of great memories of it.
I continued working in restaurants until the economy collapsed and the jobs went with it back in the mid 2000's. It was really sad too, because back in 90's you could make a good living in this line of work. Today, the operating costs are so high its almost impossible to make a profit, and the volume of sales is often a fraction of what it once was. I watched people invest millions into this line of business and lose it all. The restaurant business is tough one for sure!
Back in the mid 2000's the 2nd Italian restaurant I worked for failed, I lost my job, and was unable to find one again. I'm honestly kind of glad things went the way they did, as not being able to find work kind of inspired me to go back to school, get educated, and do something interesting with my life other than make pastas and serve food all day. While my college education didn't benefit me financially in the long run, it did benefit me in many other ways. I'm a lot more open-minded and a lot more capable of a person today.
Another thing that really inspired me to write this article was the long running resentment for the way I was mistreated by some of the restaurants I worked for, namely Denny's and Steak n Shake. I want the world to know just how horrible these employers are, and just how awful they treat their employees. These companies treat their employees like dirt, and its about time they got called out for it.