If you’re like most of us, restaurants play a key role in your Christmas merry-making. That’s because part of what makes this time of year the “most wonderful time of the year” is dining out (at restaurants); toasting the season with friends (at a restaurant); attending holiday parties (at restaurants); and getting cozy at home with takeout (from restaurants).
This, however, begs the question: What’s it like working at restaurants during the holidays?
Restaurant professionals — from chefs and managers, to servers and hosts — have a unique perspective on the season’s festivities. While restaurant guests enjoy the food and fun that restaurants provide at this time of year, restaurant professionals make that food and fun possible.
So we asked a few of our Restaurant & Culinary Management program graduates for their thoughts on this topic. Their answers may surprise you. (As a former restaurant professional, I concur with all of them.)
Thus, without further ado, here are six things restaurant professionals want you to know during the holidays. Happy dining!
Your favorite spot may be short-staffed.
“The holidays are my favorite time to interact with our guests,” says Samantha Stubbs-Wirtz, an ICE Restaurant & Culinary Management graduate and the manager of Alfred Coffee, a high-volume cafe open 365 days a year.
She adds, however, that it can also be a stressful time.
“We tend to be busiest during this time of year,” she says.
While more business is always a good thing, her employers also want to ensure that employees get time off to enjoy the holidays with their loved ones, too. To help cover bases, the employees who do work during the holidays are often working long days and double shifts.
“I think the thing that most service workers would like guests to know is we are working extra hard, and often under a lot of pressure, so we appreciate [their] patience and understanding — this time of year especially,” Stubbs-Wirtz says.
As the old saying goes, “Patience is a virtue” — and this is especially true when dining out at Christmas.
Dress up and have fun!
According to Stubbs-Wirtz, restaurant professionals love celebrating with their guests.
“Whether that’s seeing regulars before they head out for holiday shopping, or [when they’re] all dressed up on their way to their children's holiday performances, or especially those for whom the holiday might not be the happiest time of year,” she says.
For all of them — and especially for the latter — she and her team aren’t serving pastries and cups of coffee; they’re serving smiles and cups of kindness. It helps all of us “get through all of the stress,” she says.
As a former restaurant professional — I say, “hear, hear!” A cup of cheer and a spirit of togetherness really does help make the season bright.
Drink only in moderation — or enjoy a non-alcoholic beverage.
While toasts and tipples are prevalent this time of year, overindulging in alcoholic beverages can be problematic for those serving you.
“Bartenders and servers have a legal responsibility to their employer to “cut off” guest that appear intoxicated,” says Brian Konopka, ICE New York's Dean of Restaurant and Culinary Management.
“Obviously, members of the hospitality industry do not want to cut off guests from their holiday cheer, especially when they’re in the business of providing an enjoyable escape,” he says.
He notes, however, that there is a point at which “intoxication can become potentially dangerous” for you, your fellow guests, your server and the restaurant itself – not to mention those you encounter after departing the restaurant. In fact, your server and restaurant staff are responsible for safeguarding the restaurant and themselves from legal liability in the event that you injure yourself or someone else after your meal.
This, of course, may be uncomfortable, as your server is also responsible for ensuring you have a good time – and their tip, and thus their livelihood, depend on delivering what you request.
To avoid drinking too much, Konopka suggests alternating between an alcoholic beverage and a glass of sparkling water.
This has two positive effects: First, it “slows things down [and keeps] your blood alcohol level in a dignified range;” and second, it prevents a “potentially embarrassing experience and equally painful hangover.”
Mind your numbers.
Time of reservation and size of party are the numbers we’re talking about here. In short, if your reservation is for six people at 6:00 p.m., arrive at 6:00 p.m. as a group of six people.
Ten minutes and an additional two guests may seem inconsequential, but when a restaurant is at 100% capacity and all tables are accounted for, every seat and every minute matters.
This is true, by the way, of everything in restaurants, which is why a clock ticks incessantly in so many scenes of the popular restaurant-centric Hulu series ‘The Bear,’ whose star, Jeremy Allen White, trained for his role at ICE. (This is also why I, a former head waiter, liken restaurant service to a meticulously choreographed ballet where the music marches on even when the principal dancer breaks her foot, the stage lights go out, and the curtain catches fire. The show, as they say — and in the case of restaurants, the seating — must go on.)
Anthony Leo, ICE’s Social Media Manager and a former restaurant professional in New York City, agrees. He adds that when restaurants create guardrails to prevent late arrivals — because over the course of a single night, multiple late tables can have a severe negative impact on restaurant revenue — guests can become disgruntled.
“I worked at a restaurant that had a 15 minute grace period, so if guests arrived 15 minutes late or later, I would give them an "Out By" time to accommodate later reservations or find alternative seating for them at our bar or chef's counter," Leo says. "I can't tell you how many people became confrontational over this.”
Hence, mind your numbers. There’s a lot happening behind the scenes in a restaurant — especially at the busy holidays — so the difference between a table that arrives on time/as booked and one that doesn’t, is the difference between a tidal wave and a tsunami.
Opt for earlier reservations.
This is true always, but especially at the holidays. Leo notes that while “service staff want to curate an amazing night for everyone,” there’s an oft-overlooked consideration among diners — specifically, that servers and closing managers have work to perform after the last table leaves (that can’t be done while guests are present).
In practical terms, what this means is: If the restaurant closes at 11:00 p.m. and you stay until 12:00 p.m., your waiter then works until 1:00 a.m. and the closing manager works until 2:00 a.m. — and this extra hour, because they’re paid in tips and per-shift wages, respectively, is unpaid.
As the closing manager, Leo was responsible for running end of day accounts and locking up the restaurant, among other duties.
“I wasn't able to do all my closing reports, count the money and allocate tips until the last server was closed out and done with their side work, and that usually can't happen until the restaurant is empty,” he says.
And so, with deepest respect, restaurant professionals kindly ask that you leave your table within a reasonable time. Not eating and running, not rushing the experience — because good food and good friends are to be savored — but not long after the closing hours indicated on the restaurant’s website. This will ensure that, like you, restaurant professionals get time to rest, relish and recover from holiday service.
Sharing is caring.
In many U.S. states, servers, bartenders, bus boys, hosts and other front of house employees are paid a shockingly low hourly wage. Instead, they rely on tips they receive from guests. It goes without saying then, that generous or even slightly amplified tips at the holidays — say 25% instead of the standard 20% — are greatly appreciated by restaurant staff.
“Sometimes all it takes to make your server's day,” Stubbs-Wirtz says, “is a simple expression of gratitude. If you have a [restaurant or cafe that] you frequent often throughout the year, drop them a holiday card to let them know you're thinking of them.”
The Alfred Coffee team keeps a stack of cards from regulars posted at the back of house, and “it makes us smile every day,” Stubbs-Wirtz says.
And while most restaurant workers would never actually say this — because they chose their line of work because they like people and food, not because it’s wildly lucrative — a dollar or two in these cards (or on top of your tip) means a lot. It’s also guaranteed to get a you a primo table next Christmas.
Happy Holidays!
