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Title: Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter
Score:
Author: Steve Dublanica Aka The Waiter
Rating: Not available
Hits: 109

Review of Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter

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Comments for Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter

• Posted on 2009-11-04
  SO DISAPPOINTED!
  
  I thought this book would be so interesting to read...the jacket sounded great...so I picked it up from my library. As it turned out, it was painful to read and I had to force myself to continue to the very end. Why? I kept hoping and hoping that eventually it would deliver what was promised, but it never did! It was like watching a car wreck. It was painful, but I couldn't turn away, hoping it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Unfortunately, it was one of the worst books I've ever read.
  
  If Steve Dublanica were half as talented as he thinks he is he'd be 200 times better than he actually is!! What a pompous a$$!
  
  I'm not sure who actually told him he was a good writer, but I'll never read anything else he writes!
  
  
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• Posted on 2009-10-18
  Cynical is one way to put it.
  
  This book, while it does touch on some very good points about waiting tables, is more of a whine-fest for this waiter. I have been a waiter for almost 30 years. Started out in a diner and now work in the executive dining room of one of Hollywood's biggest movie studios. I have seen this guy on tv promoting this book and the only thing that made me want to read it was morbid curiosity. Nothing about his personality actually compelled me to want to read this. He does have some interesting observations, but this book is more about his blog, his book deal, and his pity-party about why and how he became a waiter in the first place. There was another book just like this called "Waiting" by some British chick that bored me to tears. I don't want to read about some waiter's personal life. I can go to work and hear that crap every day! Where are the funny stories? Where is the fun? Waiting tables is an adventure and he makes it seem like a horrible chore. I don't know how much he paid Anthony Bourdain to say that it was the "front of house version of Kitchen Confidential" on the front of his book, but that quote is far from accurate. "Kitchen Confidential" was a brilliant, interesting, funny, and honest look at the life of a cook. This book is just a self-indulgent rant that should be titled "Why Me?"
  
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• Posted on 2009-09-22
  Waiter, There's Spit in My Soup!
  
  What do waiters think of the people they serve? This book purports to answer this and many more questions. But rather than a collection of stories this is an autobiography of how the author became a waiter and a chronology of his career. Don't get me wrong, this book has plenty of anecdotal stories, frustrations and rants. But it also has a lot of serious points about the author's life and the lives of other waiters and waitresses. As the owner of a restaurant/bar, I can identify with a lot of the frustrations of the waiters.
  
  An interesting point in this book is near the end where after a while, management personalities begin to take its toll. Interestingly, the author gives a pretty good account of his faults and then tries to make excuses for them. It's a pretty good conclusion to this rather enjoyable book. I would also add that the lists at the end really add to the book's enjoyment. In addition, my later edition had an update on his life and the book tours and interviews with people like Oprah. This was quite enjoyable. Overall this was a very good read and I really look forward to his next book about tipping in other professions.
  
  
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• Posted on 2009-09-18
  Disappointing follow-up to the blog
  
  Waiter Rant suffers from poor direction and false marketing. From reading the blog, I was hoping this would be a humorous collection of restaurant war stories. The online Waiter Rant offers vignettes of life at the front of the house. The book tries to compile these into chapters separated by general themes. It doesn't quite succeed because his writing, while excellent for a blog, is mediocre for a memoir.
  
  One of the book's biggest weaknesses is The Waiter spends a lot of time waxing philosophical about why anyone would become a waiter. This introspection is often depressing and undercuts much of the humor of the book. It's like renting a comedy, only to discover it's a drama with a couple of jokes in it.
  
  It seems like the author didn't have a clear vision for the book. He came up with a few overarching themes and threw a few applicable stories into the corresponding chapter. This makes it clear that the events of the book didn't actually happen in the order he presented them.
  
  Another problem is the waiter spends too much time focusing on himself rather than the restaurant or the industry as a whole. It's difficult to take much interest in a protagonist who is anonymous. The insiders' perspective he gives comes with loads of personal baggage.
  
  The author also spends entirely too much ink describing the young women he checked out: waitresses, hostesses and customers. This was automatically annoying for half of his readership who don't care about the hotness of random 25-year-olds, and his middle-aged perspective of them. Having seen pictures of The Waiter, I know he's no Anthony Bourdain in the looks department. I would be surprised if he elicited as much interest from his young coworkers as he claimed.
  
  The best, and most memorable, moments of the book came when he simply described a scene. I enjoyed reading about the customers who were willing to step over a stroke victim for a good table, or who worried about whether they would be good parents. I wish the book had more of that and less of The Waiter's angst and introspection.
  
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• Posted on 2009-09-17
  A Perfect Antidote*
  
  
  I got this book a week for my daughter for her birthday. Armed with a similar wit, and a definite simpatico, I knew she'd read it ahead of the 5 other books I got to justify getting this one for her Dad at the book sellers we now frequent prior to our 3 kid's birthdays. No more 1-clicking, I want to see the money change hands and touch that product. He said, "Why would she want to read that?"
  
  But I know my kid. You bet she read it.
  
  For one thing she (turning 20 and a CalTech CNS-computation and neural systems- major) she knew about the Waiter Rant blog a LONG time ago. (really good entertainment even now)
  And for another she thought it was really funny. We like that So how hard is that actually to figure out?
  Turns out it was her favorite gift. Ha Ha!
  I agree he's a very good essayist, or I propose that, and I ACTUALLY think you are by-passing his writing talent if you think this is just some "every person" getting a blog and making it to a book. You would be way off on that.....this guy has something. I read blogs, I even try to write one. He just makes it look simple because he can actually write, analyze and imagine a "you" to take to "his world" via good description, great sense of style, and a pretty hefty set of writing chops.
  (It might not be your thing, I enjoy it.)
  His world is a resturant job like the ones you feared might become your life while you got out of grad school.
  
  This implies "writing" ability, with " training" on his skill, and a great sense of humor, a reader, and self deprecation. He has that talent. (If he's asked in interviews I see one more time about spitting in the food I think I'll lean over and spit in another's chowder. My answer actually "were it me" would be, "We got beyond that in the 80's, we just slip in meds. people leave at the tables now.":-)
  
  I was just re-reading a part of the book, because obviously a mom knows it's possible to either read birthday books first (and after the giving), and thus we share the wealth. I read this last week when out ill, and it's delightfully funny, but it's also something more-he has a terrific way of describing his waiter work. You practically want to adopt a waiter and start staying at home to eat. Practically. I love the part about the Czarist Catherine with the run by the false facade villages with the fake peasants so her take would be things were "going well" as an analogy to the restaurant front as we spin by and think "all's well." That's genius stuff; it sounds about like it is. I love him saying the back alley behind the restaurant is "the anus and mouth of the restaurant." You go word smith. My addition, if you ever eat in Santa Barbara be SURE to go to the restroom. You can confirm this analogy because you'll be looking directly into the kitchen where no one is going to be smiling at you, and the space really is smaller than the closet you had as a kid. And then you'll see the dumpster. Enjoy that sirloin!
  
  I live with a guy that says he always tips well, but he has an MO like my Dad, the definition of a "good tip" is best case 20%. Our after wedding dinner a three person affair ( the 3 that went included me and him) -the tip was 12.00. I remember he tipped the judge a twenty to do the ceremony.
  My definition in tip calculating was always, is always, "Do You Remember When You Did That Job?" So I suspect I think about 40%. He captures this tip scene as his bread and butter, and the reality of the dysfunction in the restaurant so well. So for ME the book is excellent social commentary equal to Molly Ivins and Barbara Erenrich. I'd URGE him to consider his talents in this way, and build a career that is based in bringing those observational skills into domains that are places people are getting shilled or shafted. I hope he doesn't turn into the next happy rich guy that goes and buys a giant Hummer to drive up my backside. Stay real. Stay aware.
  
  I look forward to his next steps. Recall you are an essayist in a land of lunar proportional denial. Hey, I laughed all the way to the AM noticing he humanized immigrant workers, saw people without coats and thought about it in fellow workers, looked at the slippery slope of hierarchy in places that are based on Darwinian ethics, explained to the blind the inner workings of places that are glossed over in media into Foodie Networks of daring, flaming, eating orgies. He laid it out there to allow us to dip our roll in. Teaching needs this humorous flailing. It needs to be exposed for how we are acting like we can take a uncommunicative, stubborn, disturbed and generally little stuffed toy thinking 6 year old and try and imply you can seat them all day in a duller than dirt content deprived workbook and collect "'data" and in explicit (their word) instruction turn out the achieving cookie cutter little paper cut person. Hand that consultant half a million, and we'll all nod our collectively empty head to rubber stamp that notion.
  What he does is challenge you to LOOK AGAIN. Ask SOMETHING. See the world where you are getting dinner, and care.
  And also he takes you there with outstanding humor. Basically without it, people wouldn't put up with the telling, because he's onto something, there are enough jerks out there to really amaze you, enough sheep and enough blindfolds. And people work in that industry poorer than poor.
  
  To me the blog was extremely humorous, and it would prompt me to just tip over tell, so that was good too- but the book I like better. For one thing I could look up his picture. While I really thought the anonymity of the blog was very cool, being able to look him up felt kind of voyeuristic enough that it satisfied the whole reading another's diary impulse I think a major blog feature, and you know as it stands this entire on-line culture drowns in Warhol. 15 minutes. Get it.
  Warhol may have been right, but I think folks are looking more for a 15 month run, so blogger's just develop hooks and they have to be good written language panhandlers. Only without the actual pay -that's a "hit." I rather am amazed by that language but there it is. This means they have to get effective at short essays, some kind of shock and awe, taking feedback cr*p with the good, and writing regularly, with as few typos and grammatical errors as possible, and somehow swimming upstream in a sea of blogs. What immediately hooked me on his was using the word "rant" because it's used enough on-line, and putting it together with waiter. Traditionally I think of a waiter as "silenced" and an example of several professions where the speak is like blowing bubbles through your lips.( EVERYONE sees this as the new age teacher)
  If not people fall over for your being real. (dentist, oral hygienist, hairdresser and your call girl being examples of those fairly limited to ranges they can talk in, with most limited "waiter") Thinking of a ranting waiter hooked me and then a phenomenal essay kind of closed the deal.
  
  Yeah, well, you can tell I liked the book, ok, dropped some recent pulled pork on it, dog-eared a page and I'll have to get her another copy because my daughter hates this. Hey ANOTHER sale! I can slip it to her as she goes out the door back to college though,as is, if I get cheap or decide to settle a score over that departure for the East Coast with no notice in the "summer car trip" child grows up and mom had to "take it fun." No, no, go get her one.
  
  You should too. You would enjoy a laugh!
  
  
  *My title refers to my fatigue with the family endlessly playing the food channel while I "plate" the dinner. I'm way more into "get up and dump this onto your own plates."
  
  
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