By: DWC
Have you ever had the waiter dream? We all have it. Let me jog your memory. During the dream you keep getting slammed and you are in the constant weeds, all the while the host/hostess keeps seating you more tables as you desperatly scramble always a little behind!
Then you wake up and have to go to work!
By: Candice
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You've had a really busy night, lots of demanding people and a good few laughable tips. You're tired and looking forward to a good night's rest.
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By Kim L.
In 1986, I started working in fine dining for the first time. It was very stressful for me. The restaurant had all hand (no tray) service, 40 wines by the glass, a daily changing menu, a tendency to quadruple seat the staff, and a system whereby all wines ordered had to be pulled up on computer by country of origin, region, and varietal! I had a really weird dream during that time that I still remember vividly today:
I am in the restaurant, and I am told rather matter of factly that we have a special that I really need to sell. The special is a drink made with White Zinfandel blended with Pistachio Ice Cream. I manage to sell one to a guest, and then I am asked for the full name of the guest so it can be written on a rectangular piece of brown paper towel. Then, while the manager writes the name of the guest (who will be receiving the drink) in black magic marker on the little piece of paper towel, I am instructed to lie down on the floor behind the bar. I am reluctant to do so, but the management insists that it is the only way I can be fitted with my tree costume. I am pushed into the tree costume, and tilted back upright, the paper towel nametag is pasted onto my forehead, and the White Zinfandel/Pistachio Ice Cream Drink is placed onto a tray on my hand for me. I precariously try to shuffle my way back to the table where I thought the customer was seated. My tree costume makes it hard to move, and makes peripheral vision impossible. All the tables look suddenly different, and are differently arranged. I can't find the customer who ordered the drink, and I wonder if he tired of waiting for me. Everyone starts yelling at me.
I woke up immediately at the end of this dream. I will never forget it, and my fellow servers are always amazed by it. I have had plenty of waiter dreams, but this one has always stood out
By the allways poetic Helmut S.
| Now let's look at a waiter's life. Running in circles if not standing around a waiter's mind is always busy. One has to be sharp to remember orders and to make a living on the floor. What for some might look like a nightmare is a dream come true for others. Waiting on tables allows contact and conversation with people one would have never met otherwise. Waiters are known to be alert, fast thinking, quick in answering questions. Where other people dream of meeting their idols, dream of getting to talk to stars from film, stage, publishing, politics or other many waiters working at the right time in the right place live such a dream. Where some people might wish to see Clint Eastwood in person, the waiters working at the Mission Ranch in Carmel get to see him daily. While waiting there is little time to dream, yet plenty of space to live and lead a life many dream of. |
By Guy M.
The usual dream... weeded badly, food going back, nobody else working and all the sideworks were down (no ice, etc...). In this dream I was at my OLD job for some reason, waiting tables in a place I'd not worked at for a few years. The hostess came to tell me I had another table; I of course tried to plead my way out of it, but she insisted. I got very angry, and walked up to the front lobby, grabbed her grease pencil, and phased myself (closed my section)! She tried to tell me that it was too early, and I couldn't do that. In a defiant tone, I turned back to her and yelled, "Look - I don't even work here anymore! I'm just helping you guys out!" and walked off to continue serving... the dream's action slowed down, and ended peacefully!
By Hummus
I used to have a recurring nightmare where I would try to leave my restaurant only to find the door locked, then I would turn around to see my station completely full and I would have to stay up the entire night waiting tables.
My best friend used to dream about having to serve tables at Candlestick Park because it had been turned into a giant coffee shop.
I also heard a waitress tell me about a dream where she was married at a Bakers Square restaurant dressed in her uniform.
By Lee F.
I'm the only waiter to show up for Sunday brunch and I have to take all 18 tables in the house plus the 8 outdoor cafe tables. I've got all the orders in my head (banana pancakes, arugula salad dressing on the side, vegetarian omelette, side of sausage) and I run out to a cafe table to deliver coffee, juice and mimosas and I'm suddenly in Yankee Stadium. The game has started and I'm standing on the field. I'm watching the game....from....the....field. I can't believe it. As I turn to walk towards the stands I am transported back to the restaurant and everybody inside says (in unison) "Where have you been? We want to order!"
My response, "I was at the Yankee game."
By PR
 | I was a waitress/cashier in a family style restaurant. One night I dreamed that above the restaurant was a mental institution. I was cashier that day, and had a long line of people waiting to pay, one of them was a woman who started complaining that she was tired of waiting, and after several minutes of listening to her, I informed her that everyone was tired of waiting and she would have to wait her turn. She moved to the front of the line and threatened me, so I grabbed the nearest weapon ( a sharpened pencil) and stabbed her in the head with it. She disappeared, and suddenly I am a waitress, and everyone around is screaming, "One of the lunatics has escaped and is attacking people with an axe" I looked up and there was my offensive customer, with a crazy look in her eye, chasing people with an axe. |
By Jennifer R.
I'll never forget the time that I moved in with my sister.... We were both waiting tables at a mexican restaraunt. One night after a particular busy day at work, we had been asleep for several hours.....and I see her run past my room. She is running all through the house. I finally get up and ask her what she is doing. She starts mumbling about a 4-top and she needs to get a setup (chips and hot sauce). She was begging me to help her out. I've never laughed so hard in my life. The crew got a kick out of it too.
By Jennifer S.
I frequently have a dream where the restaurant I work in is closed for remodeling, but people keep showing up at my house to be fed. In my dream, I'll be asleep, or in the shower, and I'll hear the doorbell ring. I'll go to the door in only a towel or pajamas (depending on where I was, shower or bed), and answer the door. And there will be an endless procession of two-tops and four-tops, etc, stretched around the block. And they come in and crowd around the coffee table, because the manager left a note on the restaurant door that service would temporarily be relocated to MY house. Then they demand intricate culinary delights. And all I have in the damn refigerator is a tomato and a container of soy milk. It's horrible. I'm afraid to go to sleep. LOL
By Melinda H.
Hi, I am responding to your request for "waiter nightmares". I worked at a very popular local restaurant for 5 years. The restaurant was known for it's traditional items such as "big boy" sandwiches, hot fudge cakes, and onion rings, etc. I put in a lot of hard, long hours while I worked non-stop in my spare time to start my own cake decorating business. My first couple of years at F*****'s I worked 60+ hours a week. Many mornings I would wake up as tired as I was when I went to bed because I would "wait tables" in my sleep. One of my most memorable nightmares involved a couple of F*****'s "famous" foods. I had a very vivid nightmare that I was drowning in hot fudge and people kept throwing me "big boys" to save me, but every time I tried to grab one, It would fall apart (which was a big complaint of mine...every time a cook would put one in the window, it was always leaning and on the verge of falling totally apart before I could get it to its rightful owner)...and another time I dreamed that our cole slaw was in such a demand that people were trying to hijack our trays of slaw, so we were removing them from the truck with machine guns in an assembly line fashion.
Fortunately, I no longer work there...my cake business is doing well (to see pics of some of my work, you can click here.) but my teenage daughter works there now and when she comes home fussing about the business, I just shudder....BAD memories!!
By JoAnne C.
I found myself in front of a restaurant dressed to serve. I didn't know where I was or what time I was supposed to be at work. There was a pounding on the glass window, a man was motioning at me to come in. He was annoyed. I walked in and the place was full. Everyone staring at me silently waiting to be served. I didn't even know where the kitchen was. The man started shoving me towards the kitchen - still no one was saying anything. I went through the double doors and food was cooking - but, no cook. The man who had led me in threw an apron at me and screamed "TABLE 4!" I look at the food - all of the meal tickets hanging on the clip wheel. All I could do was try and make sense of the whole thing. Suddenly a huge man comes in to the kitchen laughing. :Get out of the way, you moron!" he says. "Table 4 needs you!" I go out in to the dining and try and find table 4. Everyone started screaming at me to help them. "I NEED WATER, HERE!", "WHERE'S MY FOOD?!", "YOU'RE NOT GETTING A TIP, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK!"
"Where's table 4?" I asked. Suddenly the place was empty and dark. I tried the front door, but I couldn't get out. I went back to the kitchen, which was also dark. I sat down on the carpet, in the dark, in the main dining room and started to cry. I left food service by the following weekend, and I've never been back.
By Terri
I got hired on as part of the opening crew wait staff of the new "best" waterfront restaurant in town. The training was intensive 8 hour days of classes and pep talks about being the best servers in the world. Tensions were really high as opening day approached. A huge emphasis was placed on properly serving wine and other alcoholic drinks. I had never done any cocktailing up to that point so I knew that I was in trouble. To compound my own personal stress, I had just gone back to school full time. After several years away from school I was taking organic chemistry, and I was really worried about it.
The first week that I was doing both school and serving I had a huge server nightmare. The usual stuff was happening: my station kept expanding and contracting, all of my guests faces kept changing, everyone was changing their minds, couldn't remember my orders... But the worst part of it was that everyone was ordering cocktails and desserts. Everything was coming out late and all messed up, and when it did all of the drinks were coming out in beakers and Erlenmeyer flasks. Desserts lay melting in giant petri dishes. There were no straws, only giant glass stir rods and pipetters. The breaking point that shook me out of my dream? I couldn't figure out how to garnish a graduated cylinder with a martini in it.
By Kris
I dream of serving hot pitchers of beer. I go back to the bartender and she tells me to get over it. Then I stupidly serve the hot beer and get cursed out by an angry large male customer who procedes to through the beer at me. I generally wake up at this point.
I also dream that I am currently slammed with customers and I go up to the bar to put in my drink orders. As I approach, I notice a very large venomous snake at my station. I freak out telling anyone that is listening that there is a snake and could they please get rid of it. No one listens of course, and people are yelling and bitching about not getting drinks.. My manager starts in on me asking why I am unable to serve drink when everyone else can. I tell him about the snake and he shrugs not caring, and tells me to work around it.
2005 De
Voss Restaurant Group