The Impact of Servers, Bartenders and Restaurants in America
If you’ve ever thought your job as a server doesn’t matter, you should check out a recent New York Time article. It’s pretty much a love story to restaurants, as various writers share fond memories of establishments they’ve grieved during the closure period. It should forevermore convince you that your job as a server or bartender truly makes a difference in people’s lives.
- A former restaurant critic and current editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine shares a time she was begrudgingly joined by her husband and 8-year old son at an exclusive French restaurant. After a lovely evening for each member of their party, her son captures the general truth underlying her narrative – that “restaurants aren’t really about food.”
- An author shares her experience arriving at the mall for the purpose of shopping, only to discover the grand opening of a new location for a national chain restaurant. Reminiscing about her “luxurious” high school meals there, she waits three hours for a table and deems it entirely worth it.
- A former server, now writer, relays his experiences serving in an upscale, celebrity-laden restaurant. More than anything else, he highlights how the experience affected his relationship with his brother, to whom he offered a glass of Chianti at the restaurant after work one night. It began a continuing wine-sharing tradition between them.
- A restaurant critic and author shares his childhood family’s ritual of having weekly meals at restaurants in the foreign countries where they lived. Their experiences dining as “regulars” are woven into his formative memories.
- An author shares her experience mistaking a patron at a restaurant for a celebrity, in what has clearly become one of her “most embarrassing story” standbys.
- A writer shares his experience with eating out in a culture where eating out is a special occasion. He describes the particular privilege and enjoyment it creates as a result.
- An author explains a time she found herself unexpectedly eating alone at a restaurant during her college years, and recalls the effect of the experience as a coming-of-age moment for her. She goes on to recall an experience eating out just last year and reflects on how miraculous it seems to her today that she was able to simply enter a restaurant, order what she wanted, and have it brought for her enjoyment.
The very fact that bars and restaurants have been targeted for closure during COVID is evidence of how important they are in our lives. Bars and restaurants are places people want to be. Their risk to public health during a pandemic is found in the unavoidable reality that people will congregate there.
At BASSET On The Fly, we hope servers and establishments know the vital threads they are in the fabric of American culture. As the article above best put it, “our lives happen in restaurants.” We’re here to help you keep your BASSET certification up to date, so you can keep being a positive part of the lives of you influence.
Back to Blog