Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress

by Debra Ginsberg

A veteran waitress dishes up a spicy and robust account of life as it really exists behind kitchen doors.

Part memoir, part social commentary, part guide to how to behave when dining out, Debra Ginsberg's book takes readers on her twenty-year journey as a waitress at a soap-operatic Italian restaurant, an exclusive five-star dining club, the dingiest of diners, and more. While chronicling her evolution as a writer, Ginsberg takes a behind-the-scenes look at restaurant life—revealing that yes, when pushed, a server will spit in food, and, no, that's not really decaf you're getting—and how most people in this business are in a constant state of waiting to do something else.

Colorful, insightful, and often irreverent, Ginsberg's stories truly capture the spirit of the universal things she's learned about human nature, interpersonal relationships, the frightening things that go on in the kitchen, romantic hopes dashed and rebuilt, and all of the frustrating and funny moments in this life. Waiting is for everyone who has had to wait for their life to begin—only to realize, suddenly, that they're living it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Food, Biography Memoir, Biography, Humor, Autobiography

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Debra M. Ginsberg is a London born, American author. She is the author of three memoirs as well as two novels. Her first memoir Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress was published by HarperCollins Publishers in 2000, followed by Raising Blaze: A Mother and Son's Long, Strange Journey Into Autism, which chronicled her longtime struggle to get her son the education he was entitled to.

Find Debra on Facebook:
Twitter.com/DebraMGinsberg

Follow Debra on Twitter:
Facebook.com/DebraGinsbergWriter

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having spent several years as a waitress myself, I was looking forward to reading this. Sadly, it wasn't as engrossing as I had hoped. I've read a few books written by waitresses/waiters, and this one is only so-so compared to the others.

3 Stars = Okay. Not a page-turner, but not sorry I read it.

[Iamshadow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply, utterly, brilliant.

Anyone who's worked in any kind of customer service industry will read this book and nod your head along with it. Anyone who's been a customer will read it and come away with an appreciation for what people in the customer service industry do.

Ginsberg is not only an excellent writer with clever, dry wit, but she's got some genuinely funny stories to tell. She paints the pictures of her colleagues and places of employment vividly, until you feel utterly immersed in her recollections, but she also talks about the industry, the mechanics of a restaurant, and all the ins and outs and ebbs and flows that make a restaurant, a job or a dining experience a very good one, mediocre, or a very bad one.

I tracked down this book because I'd read Ginsberg's second memoir, Raising Blaze, about bringing up her unique and gifted son (who also has special needs) and wanted to read more of her work. I haven't yet read About My Sisters, her third book, but it's on my bookshelf, waiting for me to crack it open!

But yes, to sum it up. Excellent, funny, and clever. A well-written light read that you'll come away from smiling, and hopefully, with a bit more appreciation for people working in what is surely one of the most under-appreciated professions in the world. I've said it before many times, millions of people work in customer service roles, many are doing it because it's a job, some are genuinely born to the role, and none of them are appreciated enough for what they do. While I doubt anyone's about to write a tell-all book about working in retail, if they did, I certainly hope it'd come out something like Waiting.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't nearly as fun as I had hoped. While funny at times to anyone who has waited tables, this memoir read more as a justification of an aging Reedie as to why, despite her quasi-Ivy League Liberal Arts education, she as yet to do anything worthwhile with her life. Rather than amusing antedotes, we are treated to sophmoronic attempts to intellectualize a profession in which on is paid to set a plate on a table. She fails to bring any commonality of the human experiece her memoir and, in fact, it seems the only worthwhile experience this woman has had is, indeed, waiting.

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Debra Ginsberg (b. 1962)'s first memoir, 2000's Waiting, recounts her 20-year career (from her teens to her 30s) was a waitress in various venues, from her family's short-lived pizza joint to Yellowstone National Park to various other diners, eateries, and restaurants. She tells her story with a dose of snark in places, which I appreciated:

Those who add the t on the end of cabernet, for example, are usually in the same league as those who ask for “a cup of chino” when they want that ubiquitous coffee drink commonly known as a cappuccino.

She also sprinkles in bits of sociological commentary (like a now-dated intro college English class level analysis of how waitresses are portrayed in popular movies of the '80s and '90s, none of which I've seen), though this book is mostly her own story. Like I imagine most other waiters and waitresses, Ginsberg viewed waiting as a temporary paycheck until she was able to pursue her ideal career (in her case, writing), though I get the sense she was doing a lot of aimless, live-for-the-day drifting during these years. I got bored reading this memoir as many of the stories blended together and there wasn't much character growth or perspective shown as time progressed.

Further reading: service industry memoirs
Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky
True Hospitality: Lessons Learned from Behind the Concierge Desk by Jamie Cooperstein
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

My statistics:
Book 226 for 2025
Book 2152 cumulatively

[Pinki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book came at a point in my life when I wanted to justify what I did for a living. I never really enjoyed waiting tables and don't I think the author does either but she made vaild points about the business.
It is grueling work, practically running all day on your feet, the organizational skills required, the psychology of every customer (and their personality profile), and how ultimately no one is ever just a waitress or a cook, or a manager owner, everyone gets into the business for some reason and ultimately gets to the point where enough is enough. BUT, when it is good its good, screw that, it is amazing, when everything falls into place or even when you had a rough day or night it reminds you that you are alive and you are capable of amazing feats while ultimately bringing home the bacon.
It points out that this job is bringing home the bacon without the on-going stress of coporate america but it still isn't without its own type.
This field of work is just unappreciated, and it has terrible reputation. This book tells the audience how it is (at least for one person, who has their master's degree and chooses to continue to do what she does), required for everyone to understand this industry isn't just about food, it should be about experience and culture of a massive growing industry that everyone relies on.

[JudiAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

While getting her BA in English, Debra Ginsberg supported herself as a waitress. She gives a glimpse into the the viewpoint of the server and what goes on in the kitchen. Sometimes funny, sometimes horrifying, it is definitely a memoir to be read for most all of us have been on the serving side and/or the dining side of the restaurant business. Ginsberg, while supporting her son as a single mom as a waitress in everything from diners to the upscale side of the dining experience, went on to become an author. She says the hundreds of human dramas and the paradise of seeing the human condition that unfolded every day and night gave enough material to begin writing. She also says that it is no surprise that there is only one letter different in the two words waiter and writer. For the people who never worked in a restaurant this book is, at the very least, a lesson in how to behave while dining.

I have read her latest novel What the Heart Remembers and really enjoyed it. I intend to read more of her books.

[Kimberly Carlson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very quick, easy read. Less than a day in fact... Having been in the food industry as both an employee and an owner for most of my life. And having been a server of some sort or another for 20 years, like the author of this book, I was interested to see what more I could learn.

While I very much enjoyed the walk down my own memory lane through the stories contained in Ms. Ginsberg's memoir, I was not very impressed by the lack of a moral to the story. As a hero's journey this was an incomplete.

Since I have spent the last year concentrated on understanding, as much as possible, the circuitous path I have walked to where I am standing today, I wanted to see this sort of self reflection mirrored by my heroine. Being that she is older and ostensibly more experienced than myself I was mystified by the lack of honest self seeing. There was something tense and angry about her vantage point. I felt a lot of compassion as I read the conclusions reached at the close of each of the chapters, in that I did not get the sense that the concept of true self empowerment and the source of this power is something she is currently aware of.

I was left wondering whether her evolution has continued, whether she has made any quantum leaps since the publishing of this book. I would actually like to know...

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author, a Reed grad who’s been waiting tables for 20 years (“and I’m still waiting,” she adds), describes the life of a waitress in general, the trials and tribulations of wait staff at various restaurants, and the public perception of waitresses. It’s also a memoir of her own life, which is of course less interesting.

Ginsberg has a good eye for the amusing story, and she relates her customers’ foibles as wryly as she exposes what can happen behind the scenes of every dining establishment (a lot of sex, apparently, and possibly some manhandling of food). This is a fun book and a very easy read. It’s a sort of companion piece to Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, though not as damning in its exposure of food handling. If nothing else, it makes a case for being nice to your food server. Gad, but people can be asses.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been on my shelf forever. I'm glad I finally got around to it. This was a fun read...a memoir by a waitress "lifer" (a woman who has been waitressing well past her college years). Ginsberg is a skilled writer and her stories are alternately amusing and frightening. Anyone who spent time as a server will relate to the lecherous customers, the soap opera romances and the unpredictable hierarchy of the restaurant staff. Ginsberg was a single mother and her stories of survival are both uplifting and terrifying. Parts of this are a little dated now but other parts are universal and timeless.

[melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone who has waited tables knows how your life can be enveloped by the restaurant. Long days and nights spent turning tables, coworkers who become like family, the soap operas that play around you with a live cast, the late night drinks and parties and the tips that make or break you. Ginsberg's book is a little more autobiographical than I cared for, though. I would suggest this to anyone waiting for the first time - most of the scenarios you're likely to run in to are in here. And Ginsberg isn't the only server I know of who got pregnant after meeting someone at a restaurant party. =)

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

My true philistinism is revealed when I am forced to admit that I enjoyed this book far more than the high-culture book of the same name, by Ha Jin. This book was a lively and entertaining read - Ha Jin's "Waiting" seemed to me to be a fairly dull book, about relatively pedestrian characters, which owed much of its success to the perceived 'exoticism' (and trendiness, at the time of its publication) of its setting. A book which was anointed as being important and worthy of attention, but which I suspect most people read out of a sense of duty, rather than enjoyment.

[Rhonda Ricardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just started reading this book. I like how she tells the story from the waiter and waitress' point of view... what they do to customers that "stiff" them... cast spells LOL!!..try to sue in court... chase them outside the cafe... haaha! It's really about life and how to treat people... I believe, but I'm not done with it yet so I'll be back! ;D

[With Butterflies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not everyone's life is interesting enough for a book, in my humble opinion.

Maybe I was expecting more juicy stories about customers and restaurants, but it's really just about her life which is pretty ordinary.

[Edwina Book Anaconda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Memoir of a waitress ... incredibly boring.
I thought I would laugh my way though this book, reading tales of crazy customers,
instead it was a yawner that took me forever to read.

[China · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid 3.5, I think. I work in communications and have always been paid to write in some context so it was refreshing to hear about someone else’s string of jobs. A while ago, our freelance writer at work—also a college educated waitress who wrote—told us she’d chosen to be a waitress (as a career) and a freelance writer for enjoyment, because she enjoyed the stories she got from serving and didn’t want to resent writing by needing to do it. Thought of her throughout this.

Waiting is somewhere between Nickel and Dimed and Kitchen Confidential, but respectively doesn’t have the pity or bite of either. There’s not much evolution or moral to be told, save for Debra Ginsberg realizing that waitressing can very much be a chosen profession that fits a life more easily than a desk job, as well as parenthood.

I think there’s also something to be said about reading this 20 years after publication; her epilogue acknowledges that celebrity chefs had since become a thing, whereas it’s not likely we’d ever call a restaurant a destination for its service—even if waiting requires its own skill set. By this point we’ve also learned enough about kitchen culture that there’re no secrets to learn from Waiting. And the cover is very of its time (remember the ironic use of the retro housewife look? I was all over it in 2000.). But if you enjoy reading about others’ lives, this is a perfectly enjoyable story.

I’ve looked her up to see what she’s doing these days—she’s written loads more books and now bakes the most beautiful cakes and pies. Which is a lovely update to find.

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I wanted to read about inside info. and details about waitressing. I was hoping to get a behind the scenes understanding of waitressing life. The book is sort of autobiographical as it relates to the author's work life in the food service industry.

The problem is simply that it's just not that interesting. I didn’t feel like I really learned anything new or helpful as it relates to my personal experiences in restaurants. I kept expecting to learn some exciting info. from a waitress's perspective or even some scandalous stories. The narrative and antidotes were for the most part pretty boring and all of her customers seem to be, in her eyes, either cheap, overly demanding or problematic in some way. There's no doubt wait staff often have customers that are dicks, but I didn’t need to read a book to know that.

[Stella Dinielli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Debra Ginsberg’s “Waiting- True Confessions of a Waitress” is a memoir about the life she made for herself out of waiting tables for over 20 years. As a teenager, serving tables was simply a way to gain independence from her parents, then as she got older, merely a way to put herself through college, and finally, as a way to make ends meet as a single mother.Debra Ginsberg inspired me and taught me that instead of cowering from the ugly, nasty and unfortunate, to face it, embrace it and write about it. After two decades, she's got stories of firsthand experience with the pros of restaurant life ''the excitement, the hustle, and the money'' and the cons- “customers bent on denigrating their waitress” and uses descriptive diction like this to write about unattractive things attractively, all the while never losing the attention of her audience.

[Nikbutterfly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never waited tables, but am quite the foodie, so love eating in restaurants and always wondered what goes on behind the scenes! This book is part expose, part memoir of a woman who has worked in tons of different restaurants over 20 years. Really liked it, and loved her tips on how NOT to be an a-hole as a restaurant patron and get spit free food!

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's the difference between a good writer and a great writer: A great writer makes the annoying and mundane fascinating.

Since my position as Queen of the World is not properly acknowledged, and my edict that everyone must work in food service has not been widely disseminated, I will instead require everyone to read this book. And tip lavishly.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not super interesting...does not pull you in but ok

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy reading about other people’s lives - interesting things they do, various places they’ve been, different people they’ve met, hardships they’ve endured.

That was Waiting for me.

Enjoyed the details of the author’s relationships within her family, sounds so special.

Complaint: Would have appreciated shorter chapters, makes it easier to find a stopping point when you have snippets of time to read.

Read the print copy (only format I could find, but a nice size to bring along.

[Mary K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a 3-1/2 star but I enjoyed the book. It was a fun read, well-written, and the author was funny. Problems: occasional wild forays, like when she goes into movies that involve servers, and the typical annoying advice that diners owe decent tips regardless of the service.

[Ani]

After seeing negative reviews, I read a few pages and decided the reviews were probably accurate.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked up this book expecting to give it 3 stars - another interesting (but not earth shattering) book about life in a restaurant. Unfortunately, it failed to meet expectations.

It started off well enough. Indeed the first 100 pages basically read themselves!

It did require the usual suspension of moral judgement that other restaurant books require. Actions and lives in this environment are judged by how interesting (or not) they are. A good story is a good story - especially if it involves human depravity of some sort. These are glamorized without a thought to the natural consequences and aftermath. All types of sex (teenage, premarital, extramarital, homosexual, even prostitution), drugs and alcoholism are a familiar theme.

The author is a decent writer and a likeable character, especially in the beginning. Apparently, she has an English degree, but for various reasons decided to keep waiting tables. The majority of her tales involve other people, so the worst tales don't reflect directly on her. She is an amused but uninvolved observer. Basically she uses other people's secrets and tales (a cynical impression).

Initially interesting as a human study to me. She works her first waitressing job at 16 in a family owned restaurant. Her father is content to hide in the kitchen, while she and her 13 year old sister waitress and handle customers alone. Sex, drugs and human misbehavior descend. Her family seems to take a hands-off, almost detached amusement, approach while observing her handle life's hurdles without any meaningful guidance or support. They were controlling in a few random and meaningless ways, but ultimately they appear to be drifters without high moral, financial or other ambitions for their family. As a mother, it was painful to watch her grow up in such an environment.

Later, when the author is a culpable adult, it was less interesting to read. Her worldview is so different than mine that she fails to identify and report markers in her career and personal development which could have created an interesting human study. She only writes about things that matter to her, negating traditionally important issues and events. The reader lacks the necessary material to read between lines and discern reality. Her memoir also feels spotty. She reports in detail about highly emotional situations, but jumps around between experiences frequently, so that situations feel detached from each other. With a side of emotional whiplash.

She is very one-sided (ie her hatred of restaurant spotters) and doesn't seem to have a great deal of emotional maturity or perspective. Like a middle schooler, she gets thrills from naughty stories, environments charged with sexual tension, the anonymity of interacting with strangers, the "risk" of possibly making lots of cash (or not so much) during any given shift, and the rush of a busy service period bumping & grinding into other servers where anything can and does happen.

By page 175, I had to force myself to finish reading the book. It was so miserable and depressing. Her reporting on waitress life didn't match up with my own experience working restaurants. There are always crazy stories of misbehavior, but most of the time these are just stories - embellished like a good fish story. This author doesn't seem to have perspective. She acts like all restaurant stories are true and occurring daily.

She also dramatically overestimates the responsibility of the server (being solely responsible for the psychological well being and happiness of guests) and has a disproportionate understanding of customer disapproval (pg. 176 - all customers are just one "bad visit" away from complaints, letters and lawsuits against restaurants and servers). She also contends that servers must have an immediate physiological understanding of each customer and what it will take to make they happy by the end of their visit. She claims this is emotionally taxing and compares her work to prostitution. As a former waitress, I can attest that you really are just taking orders & delivering food to a table. It isn't an intimate exchange unless you try to warp it into one.

Around page 250, she adopts the role of a film critic by reviewing the perception of the "waitress" in film through several decades. A wise editor would have cut her off at this point. But it rambles on for another 50 pages, while the author tries and fails to create a meaningful ending to her aimless life.

[Susi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review written in September 2010

This book is, as you might've guessed it, a memoir of Ginsberg's time as a waitress (a span of 20 years). She takes us through the ups and downs of living as a waitress, and offers something of a social commentary on how the public views waiters and waitresses (waitrons?). While the memoir doesn't reveal anything that a decent, feeling human being couldn't have guessed already, Ginsberg's voice is one that I've come to enjoy and admire. Her stories, ranging from the luncheonette that her family ran in the late 70s, to an Italian restaurant where sex and food bubble together like a nicely prepared tomato sauce, offer insight not only to Ginsberg's life as a waitress, but also as an observer of human nature.

(And here I would like to add that, as a customer, I hope I'm pretty okay to waiters and waitresses; I always tip at least 20%, I'm not into making stupid demands, and I'm out to have a good time, not to make a person's life miserable. Sure, I've had my share of bad experiences, but I'm not an asshole. Unlike Ginsberg's observation that a lot of people feel that any idiot could wait, I will say it now: I could not. I would spill your food, be mildly unpleasant to you [okay, very unpleasant], and I would not be into humoring you. I worked at a pizza place for one month, taking phone orders and making pies, and that convinced me that food and I don't mix unless I'm ingesting it.  Honest enough for ya? This is far from unskilled work in my humblest of opinions. We're all just trying to live our lives, no?)

Ahem.

Anyway, the book is a funny, intelligent read. And Ginsberg's observations apply not just to waiters, but to any person who has ever hated his or her job. I feel Ginsberg and her colleagues when she says that everything becomes a personal affront when burnout approaches. Hell, I've even contended to the husband that the Metro drivers who honk their horns at stations when the train they're driving is an empty, not-going-to-stop kind of train (you know what I mean), are specifically honking at me, mocking me that I will not get home quickly. Anything that a senior-level person at work does is an affront right now and I hate them all. Not gonna lie.

And the idea of leaving with a splash? It burns bright in my mind, I tell you. Nothing would give me greater satisfaction that a) telling my jefes that I'm leaving, b) telling them that I'm not negotiating and c) (this I would never reveal, but it's a part of my exit fantasy) that I'm leaving for less money. To do a job I want to do. Oh, heavens!

As waiters and waitresses fantasize about waltzing out during the middle of a shift or giving their bosses a piece of their mind, so do cube-drones: we want to make a splash, but we probably won't. Sigh. But even after the non-exits, here's another focus of the book: the idea that we're constantly waiting, literally or no, in order to move onto the next, best thing. I know I'm there in terms of my personal life. Professionally and creatively? I'm hoping I can make something happen with just a bit more effort.

Now I need to read Ginsberg's Raising Blaze: Bringing Up an Extraordinary Son in an Ordinary World , her memoir on raising her son (of much interest for various reasons) and her forthcoming novel, The Neighbors Are Watching . (Reviewer's note, August 2013: Have read The Neighbors Are Watching, have not read Raising Blaze.)

I leave you with Ginsberg's excellent description of the foul beast that is Thousand Island dressing:

I have never been able to understand the appeal of Thousand Island dressing. A hideous combination of mayonnaise, ketchup, and pickle relish, this thick sauce has an unnaturally pink hue and a noxious odor to match.

So very true. My parents bought it non-stop in the 80s. Why did they torture me so?

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

How arrived: ereader download
Why I picked it up: waitressing background
Expectations: middling
Stars: two

I have recently begun a job as a waitress and so have picked up a few books in the hopes that they will give me some commiseration and possibly pointers.

I have to say, this book was BLEAK. It started out ok���Ginsberg began her story as a child in a family who owned their own restaurant. She talks about the rush of having a new table every fifteen minutes, another chance to please, succeed, and come away with a big tip. She makes a point early on of stating that she did this for the easy money. Nothing can beat walking away after a six hour shift with two hundred dollars in small bills, she states.

Her stories range across the many different restaurants she worked in. She has coworker stories, kitchen stories, customer stories. Her theme is ���waiting��� as a general term. She keeps returning to the idea that waiting tables was not her life goal, and that as she waited on customers she was also, sort of, waiting on life. Sad, right? And she just keeps going. Her relationships fail, she has a son by a relationship that is over by the time she is officially pregnant. She waits tables for her family���s newest restaurant.

As she gets older, she realizes she has no appreciable skills. Yes, waiting is a skill, but it won���t get you anywhere when you���re sixty. She watches her son grow up and realizes with horror that she has become static. She states that he is her whole life. This book started out fun, but became so sad and motionless that I was relieved when it was over. The saddest part is that it isn���t a novel���it���s a real life, and this woman is out there somewhere. I guess a lot of women like her are also out there. That may be the most important thing I got out of this book: it���s ok to wait around a little, but you really do need to kick yourself in the butt and do something worthwhile. This sounds harsh, but she is clearly unhappy and continues to do nothing���except wait. Yikes.

I don���t know if the lure of two hundred dollars a night would pull me in to the point that I wouldn���t be able to walk away, but I certainly hope so. Working on all weekends and holidays is just too damn sad.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally posted on The Canon! {http://canireadeverything.blogspot.co...}

As a worker bee in the food/hospitality industry, I love to read memoirs about the business. When I was researching my review on a previous food book, I found so many good reviews online for Debra Ginsberg's Waiting that I couldn't stand it: I had to read it.

Unfortunately, I fell victim to the GoodReads recommendation; I did not like Ginsberg's Waiting. The writing was flawless, but occasionally leaning towards boring as Ginsberg wavers away from her stated premise of a memoir of her life's work and instead begins a commentary on her own life. Plainly, instead of writing about waiting tables, Ginsberg begins to write about simply waiting: waiting for her life to start, waiting to make a change, waiting for heaven knows what.

While I can identify with her struggle in waiting for her life to begin, I picked up this book to read about her ups and downs as a server, not her life story as she traveled across the country with a guy she didn't really like or her decision to move from Portland to California. The claim that "a veteran waitress dishes up spicy and robust account of life as it really exists behind kitchen doors" is stretching it...well, quite a bit. More than half of Ginsberg's work is her personal business, which is fine and dandy, but not the reason I picked up this book. The beginning of the book tells a bit of her 'confessions', but quickly her memoirs move into her struggle in becoming a writer - again, a story I can identify with, but not the one I picked up this book for.

As I researched Ms. Ginsberg this morning, I realized that Waiting is, in fact, her launching pad for her memoirs in general. The book ends in a sort of limbo, with Ginsberg beginning a new life for herself and appears to continue in her next books. If you were interested in reading how a woman transition from a server to a writer, Ginsberg's books are right up your alley. Unfortunately, for me, I was looking for a guilty-pleasure book along the lines of Dublancia's Waiter Rant to sink into after a hard day of waiting.

[Artie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sounded like it had potential to be very interesting when I found it at a library book sale. Maybe 1/8 of the way in, I'm beginning to lose steam. Hopefully she's got better insight going forward and not just well documented instances of server-customer interaction.

Update: 03/23/2009
Ok this book is picking up as the author explores her first experience in a fine dining restaurant and its subtleties both in terms of service and staff politics. I think I chose this book because I like hearing about the crazy stuff that supposedly goes down behind the scenes at restaurants. She's lightly touched on these things so far, including the ubiquitous chef-waitress f*ck-hate relationships and how having great boobs and being able to lie straight-faced can earn you the coveted dinner shifts. Continuing on with more vigor now...

Update: 04/04/2009
Solid finish. The book turned out to be something of a memoir with interesting anecdotes and insights to fill it out. Overall, I enjoyed Ginsberg's insights into the common personality traits of waitresses/waiters as well as the patrons they serve. It will definitely make me think twice about the way I treat my servers in the future... at least for a short period of time, until the memory of this book fades as I delve into the next! Seriously though, it's worth a read for the fun stories and narratives on server psychology. Servers take on roles whenever they're at the table, like actors. They crave new and exciting challenges on a regular basis. They're hooked on adrenaline. And they make damn good money for the hours they work compared to the perceived level of difficulty required. Pair this read with Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and you've pretty much got the skinny on all the people working so hard to make you happy for an hour or so.

[REbecca Darling]

So far, this is a really good book! This is one of those that I picked up off my bookshelf and thought, why not? It's like her memoirs, and a lot of stories and the truth about waitressing and whatnot. Each chapter seems to be like a different time in her life, and just general knowledge thrown in there. She talks about how waiters/waitresses can tell what kind of customers people will be just by their appearance and where they're from. She noted that New Yorkers are good tippers (Stored that away for later use). I also learned that the origin of the word "tips" is unknown, but a good hypothesis is that it used to stand for "to insure prompt service" and was later shortened to somewhat of an acronym. Huh, sounds good to me. Well, anyway. I'm starting to find out that I really like memoirs! Tina Fey's was very good, and now I'm liking this one. We may be on to something here! I really like her figurative language--it keeps everything very interesting. Things that would normally be rather ordinary to read are more interesting by the way she uses words. In all honesty, there is nothing I dislike about the book thus far. One of my favorite stories is about when she applied to work in the kitchen at Yellowstone. Her boyfriend applied too, and told her that she would probably not be accepted into the program. Talk about irony, (I think) she was accepted and he was not! She wrote about how horrible it was to work there, and how cruel the hierarchy of food service is. After a few weeks, she made her boyfriend come get her. He took her to meet his parents and it was too weird for her, so she just left! She also told a story about the trucker on her Greyhound bus that seemed to be nice, then tried to take advantage of her. Yeah, it sounds bad the way I'm describing it now, but it was pretty funny when she wrote it. It's one of those, "you had to be there" moments. Rather, a "you had to read that" moment. In any event, I'm really enjoying this book so far. I'm excited to read the rest of it soon.

[John Wiswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

“ I stormed into the kitchen and threw a handful of tickets over the line at Sonny.
“What’s the order?” he asked, baffled.
“You are such an asshole,” I spat at him.
“So, will that be rare or medium rare?” he asked. “

Every few dozen pages there was an exchange like this that I desperately wanted to share with someone, though I never made it back to the computer in time to do so. I don’t know how other people read this, but I found it to be the perfect bathroom book. Ginsberg writes in a very conversational tone and her chapters consist mostly of anecdotes related to one period in her life or one particular restaurant. Most of the anecdotes are one or two paragraphs long, which are perfect to read in snippets. The longest stories take three or four pages, and I found myself staying in the bathroom to finish each of them. Her little stories invariably have some form of entertainment, be it humor, information or opinion the restaurant-going public isn’t privy to, or just an interesting micro-story. These little stories add up to satisfying murals of the different parts of her life, with the most interesting parts usually being about the people she knew – a creepy truck driver, a particularly capable waitress, a humorously incapable waitress, her first boyfriend (a shameless greaser – it’s priceless). The stories are interwoven with explanations about how restaurants function, cultural views of waiters (in short – we’re jerks to them), how vital tips are (they government taxes for them regardless of whether or not you actually tip), friendships with restaurants, etc. She isn’t particularly trashy (the overwhelming amount of violent or sexual stories are left implied rather than described) or gossipy (she’s far too good a storyteller). It's particularly engaging to read her simultaneously explain this occupation and describe her life, from child to loser to single mother to published author, all fitting in the phases of the restaurants she worked in.