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dvs

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Everything posted by dvs

  1. everyone at french laundry & bouchon (from TK to the dishwasher to the bartender to the busser) calls eachother "chef". everyone works hard at the restaurant no matter what they do or what they wear.
  2. That's incredible. I am assuming they have to pay TN income tax on the tips, or do they have to pay some sort of employment tax? I don't understand the logic of that one - how did that get through the legislature? And I thought WV had some wacko taxes... All the more reason to tip in cash, directly to the waitstaff. ← in CA the house & the server are taxed on the tips. a SF restaurateur took the case all the way to the supreme court & lost.
  3. Why shouldn't owners and managers take tips? I've worked in fine dining restaurants where the servers are walking with more than the Executive Chef or the General Manager.... I've known servers pulling in 60 grand plus per year (per job) for 20 hours of work a week. ← and, i've known servers who make a whole lot more... but for the most part, the management (foh & boh) should be in it for the love of the job. yep, you've got to be pretty farking looped to leave a serving/bartending position for a mgmt one, but some of us indeed are and take on the extra responsibility in the hopes of gaining more knowledge about the biz to then take that information and go & open our own places. in all of my mgmt positions i've made well below what the servers & bt's made. and even when i received a side tip for something, i've handed it off to the bussers or hosts or whoever was the party more deserving of the tip. i hope to open my place next year. ← True. A server working 50 hours a week in a couple good restaurants can pull in 6 figures... The management should be in it for the love of the job... Is that a joke? Why not take it a step further and work for free? Why should a college student who doesn't give a @#$% be making more money than someone who's devoted their life to the business/art? And if you're not making money, how are you supposed to have the capital to open your own restaurant? I've cooked in some VERY good restaurants (ie. rated as the best in this region by local media as well as magazines and critics), and while it was fun serving up fresh white truffles, caspian sea caviar and goose foie gras, it gets old real quick when I'd go back home to the 'hood and could barely afford to put food on my own plate... I'd have a drink of a thousand dollar wine with my chef at work but when I was at home I was drinking malt liquor... The restaurant trade is probably the only business in the world where the most skilled workers get paid the least. (I actually felt bad when I was making more money than the sous-chef, and I was making garbage coin myself...) That's why I'll be opening my own place in the next couple years, and all I can say is I'll be damned if a server is going to be making more money than me... ← get ready to be dammed and i *do* hope you're not planning on making up the difference by taking tips from the staff
  4. No, but if you hum a few bars, maybe it'll come to me ... thank you, I'll be here all week ***** dvs, because you live in such a beautiful place full of people who have welcomed this right-coaster many times, here's the first turning leaves for you. My split-leaf maple sends you her regards. ← *sniff* beautiful!! you're the best! when you come back, you let me know where you want resos... i'll make it happen
  5. Chappaqua, huh... do you know the dammann's or the baltays? i guess its a bit too early for leaf peeping, so, could you install the smell-a-puter function so i can at least smell the beginnings of an east coast fall? tia dvs (transplanted right-coaster)(living on the left coast)
  6. wonderful, wonderful blog. (and the same to all others who have undertaken to blog)... you guys eat like i wish i had time to eat!! and unfortunately, i'm sure no one is interested in this is what i cooked for my toddler today blog. maybe all of the napa folks can get together & try to do a co-blog... but hats off to you two. i have such a hankering for seattle its making me antsy!!
  7. Why shouldn't owners and managers take tips? I've worked in fine dining restaurants where the servers are walking with more than the Executive Chef or the General Manager.... I've known servers pulling in 60 grand plus per year (per job) for 20 hours of work a week. ← and, i've known servers who make a whole lot more... but for the most part, the management (foh & boh) should be in it for the love of the job. yep, you've got to be pretty farking looped to leave a serving/bartending position for a mgmt one, but some of us indeed are and take on the extra responsibility in the hopes of gaining more knowledge about the biz to then take that information and go & open our own places. in all of my mgmt positions i've made well below what the servers & bt's made. and even when i received a side tip for something, i've handed it off to the bussers or hosts or whoever was the party more deserving of the tip. i hope to open my place next year.
  8. its so nice to have your *cough* undevided attention! thanks for doing this blog! my husband & i are also raising a "restaurant" baby. at six months, she flew to manhattan w/ me and a friend and dined at gramercy tavern, babbo & enoteca. her 1st b-day was at bouchon... i'm one of those people who make sure to have plenty to entertain the bebe while we're dining, but do you have any other tricks & techniques you use to make it through a dining experience pleasantly w/ PJ?
  9. in CA gratuities added to the check by the restaurant (for large parties and such) are considered income and therefore the property of the restaurant to distribute as they see fit. Tips freely given to a waiter by a guest are property of the waiter.
  10. owners & managers shouldn't take tips. thats against industry standard & bad juju...
  11. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../08/17/apop.DTL
  12. thats what i'm thinking... i'll report back after the 1st delivery!
  13. in napa!! has anyone heard of these folks or used them? i just signed up and am hoping for yummy & great things!! Organic Abundance site
  14. you might try to call bouchon (easier to get through to than TFL ) and see if their chef Jeff Cerciello can give you any insight. or ask a manager there to see if they can ferret out the answer for you.
  15. funny that cora had judged psilakas in the "best Chef of South Beach" contest shown earlier in FN and he came in second there too...
  16. beautiful pics! scott (who does the gardening) has the green thumb for sure!! and right around the corner i am still tomatoeless btw, they do have another farm off of yountville cross, so all will not be lost when the new inn is built.
  17. reposted from above... This from Eater.com .......... SPOILER ALERT Eater has learned that Keith Greene, the favorite to win Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen, will take a dive on the the show's two-hour finale next week (airs Monday). This, so that he can stay in New York and take over Non-Frenchman Ed Kleefield's UWS canteen, Jean Luc (previously announced as closed for summer renovations). Greene will turn the venue into a Cajun-themed restaurant, ostensibly in the style of Kleefield's Mumbo Gumbo, just opened in Sag Harbor. The opening of the new restaurant is slated for September.
  18. No. I think it'd really pale in comparison to Kitchen Confidential. ← Does the fact that it's written by someone with a front-of-house perspective make it any fresher? ← Yeah, it'd be a different perspective, and I think I read through a lot of stories on Waiter Rant a long time ago. But having been a busboy for a stint and having worked closely with the waitstaff, I think the kitchen is where most of the true fun and horror is had. ← they're BOTH incredibly fun & twisted. you just have to be at the right ones with the right group of psychos *cough* i mean staffs
  19. werd. there was a great fc thread about wearing capes... but thats WAY off topic
  20. dvs

    Pilar - Napa

    thanks for the heads up! i'll definately give them a try soon!
  21. Hog Island Oyster Farm in tomalas bay, CA has tours & they're wonderful!
  22. i love the show... but i keep thinking that the show would be even more enjoying (to me at least) if the show were more like the apprentice. where supposed "professionals" are chosen and have to compete at tasks. alternatively, it'd also be great to see gordon teaching these sorry sops some badly needed skillz along the way...
  23. so, after reading numerous threads on how many here couldn't live without their toasted oven, i packed away the aweful red toaster my mom bought me for a wedding present and bought a toaster oven. just a simple b&d one, but it does have temp & broil settings. so, i ask you... now what do i do?? what do you cook in your toaster oven that makes it so special? besides toast that is
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