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 […]
About David Hayden
Author Archive | David Hayden
Food Allergies: A Responsible Approach
I have one hard and fast rule when it comes to waiting tables. No one dies on my watch. I have had several guests leave the restaurant in an ambulance, but none of them have died. It is a simple thing, but it helps me sleep better at night. I may not be changing the […]
The Lost Art Of Suggestive Selling
“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 far more information on a daily basis than our […]
Chef Nicolette: An Introduction
A few years ago I had the opportunity to work with a very talented and passionate pantry cook named Nicolette. She left not long after I started to attend culinary school. I advised against it. She has since graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and become an accomplished pastry chef. I asked her to […]
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.
Critiquing The Server
As you are reading this, I am most likely sitting in a courthouse awaiting a trial. Not my trial or anything of that nature. I was summoned for jury duty. If this is the last post for a while, you will know I was sequestered for the crime of the century. In anticipation of my […]