Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter

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More About This Book

Overview

FROM THE PRIZEWINNING BLOGGER OF WAITERRANT.NET, AN INSIDER'S HILARIOUS LOOK AT A WAITER'S LIFE AT AN UPSCALE NEW YORK-AREA RESTAURANT—KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL AT THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE.

According to The Waiter, eighty percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining twenty percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths. Waiter Rant offers the server's unique point of view, replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogant misbehavior, and unseen bits of human grace transpiring in the most unlikely places. Through outrageous stories, The Waiter reveals the secrets to getting good service, proper tipping etiquette, and how to keep him from spitting in your food. The Waiter also shares his ongoing struggle, at age thirty-eight, to figure out if he can finally leave the first job at which he's truly thrived.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
In this book, the pseudonymous Steve Dublanica (a.k.a. Dan John Miller) achieves for waiters what Anthony Bourdain did for cooks in Kitchen Confidential. By the evidence of Waiter Rant, not even his seminary classes or job as a psychiatric worker could prepare Dublanica adequately for what he would experience pulling shifts at an upscale restaurant outside New York City. He tells story after entertaining story about customers, co-workers, and bosses who range individually from the imperious to the clinically insane. Along the way, the author-waiter delivers sound advice on proper tip etiquette and the art of getting good service.
Bloomberg News
“Fortunately, The Waiter (who has since outed himself as a chap called Steve Dublanica) does more in this book than get even; he provides thoughtful insights into how the restaurant business works.”
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
From The Critics
“…here is my unabashed recommendation: If you eat out with any regularity, read this book!”

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780061256691
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 7/21/2009
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 336
  • Sales rank: 86,888
  • Series: P.S. Series
  • Product dimensions: 5.30 (w) x 7.90 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author

Steve Dublanica is the bestselling author of Waiter Rant, which spent twelve weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. He lives in the New York metropolitan area with his joint-custody dog, Buster.

Customer Reviews
Average Rating 4
( 175 )

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 9, 2008

    A must read for anyone who has worked or eaten in a Restaurant

    If you are a fan of the blog WaiterRant, you are going to love this book. If you've never read the WaiterRant blog, you'll find yourself going to read more. The book is hysterically accurate, from the egottistical owner/manager skimming tips and making staff pay him for good shifts, to the self-important yuppie who DEMANDS a table NOW(7pm valentines nite, no reservations. The 40 tips on how to be a good customer is a must read at the end of the book. I started reading it at 11pm and didnt put it down until the last page at 4:30am! Terrific read

    6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 28, 2008

    Good book, But.....

    I really enjoyed reading 'Waiter Rant', being in the industry myself, but it seems to take a lot of it's material from another book I read previously called 'Fine Dining Madness'. It has a similar style and copies some of the anecdotes Mr. Galloway uses in his book. Galloway's humor and points of view are more clever and interesting. I was disappointed. Good book, but not very original.

    4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 28, 2010

    An eye-opener!

    If you've worked in restaurants (for me, going on 25 years), you will find yourself nodding, laughing, and cringing in empathy as The Waiter, who has moved from internet blog to the written page, tells what life is like for the guy who is serving your food. Anyone who hasn't worked in restaurants will benefit from The Waiter's insight. Interesting bits on becoming a Jedi waiter and tips on how to be a better customer. And to answer the customer who asked The Waiter, "You're more than just a waiter, aren't you?" The answer is, "Yes, ma'am, we are all more than 'just' waiters, just as you are more than 'just' a customer." Jesus-card and verbal tippers, you especially need to read this book! Remember, every waiter has been a customer, but not every customer has been a waiter...

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 10, 2009

    Good book for a long flight

    No great masterpiece - just a nice read for a beach or a long flight.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted September 12, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Excellant Book

    Seriously, laugh out loud funny, and SOOO true! If you have ever worked in the restaurant business, you will totally relate to this book. If you haven't, please read it, and gain some understanding! Well written and humerous. Great Sunday afternoon read!

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 11, 2008

    Whine, whine, whine.

    As a waitress, I was excited to read about the experiences of someone else in a restaurant. I have had so many funny and great experiences, but I also have some true horror stories. I was hoping to read about someone else's trials and mistrials. This book has few of those. Mostly, The Waiter is a pretentious server who loves to whine about how pathetic his life is in between mistreating his fellow employees and complaining about his boss. I would not recommend this pity party of a book.

    3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted September 7, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    A nice companion book to Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential but I wouldn't read them back to back.

    With both of them, it might be "too much" to handle all at once. Although I've seen one review state that compared to Bourdain's book, Dublanica's seemed like a "whiney rant" there is a major difference. As a waiter, Dublanica has to deal directly with the public without a place to hide and is forced to "be nice" in the face of adversity. And as someone who works directly with the public I think Dublanica definitely deserves the right to rant. I tore through this one fairly quickly. It took me a little time to get used to Dublanica's acerbic style but I think that is part of the character we want to expect. Although readily admitting most of his clientele are wonderful (as are mine), I think he does a service to us by exposing the bad behavior and "entitlement" which seems to have become wrongly acceptable in today's world.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted August 18, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Interesting journey into the resturant business

    Recommend to anyone who wants a peek into The Bistro to see what goes on behind the scene at a real food establishment.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted February 16, 2009

    A Lukewarm Serving of Waiter Tales

    As a lifelong server/bartender I was delighted to find this collection of essays on my chosen trade, written by a veteran server. There were definitely those moments of recognition on my part, of experiences only a server can relate to. Customer types, dealing with the kitchen, the art of tipping. But I was expecting less of such a personal memoir, and more waiter antics we could all relate to. Overall, a good example of writing.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 7, 2008

    A reviewer

    I'm only on chapter seven and this book is to funny. I have worked at nice places and pizza places were we wear jeans and a shirt and everything this guy says is true. No matter what kind of place it is. I was working in the restaurant business for about six years and its all about getting what you can get, hooking up and drama. If you want to laugh read this book.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted February 2, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    THIS WEEK'S SPECIAL

    Aptly titled Waiter Rant Is a book many can't Bear to put down once begun As it's true and great fun. Why couldn't I put Waiter Rant down after reading a few pages? Because he started by serving great dish - although economists say that the restaurant business is a bellwether of the nation's economic health. Our author sees it differently: '... I think it's a bellwether of America's mental health as well. And let me tell you, 20 percent of the American dining public are socially maladjusted psychopaths. We should start putting Prozac in the Perrier.' Unfortunately for this waiter (Steve Dublanica who is no longer anonymous thanks to book tours) much of that 20 percentile found its way to his tables. It's more than entertaining to discover how he handled or mishandled the grouses, the souses, and the patently dishonest. But, how did a nice guy find himself in such a fix? He started out to become a piest. After attending a college seminary, he became disenchanted by 'an imperfect system.' Following college graduation with a major in psychiatry he worked for a drug-rehabilitation facility where he again met disillusionment when all the bugs in the health care system were discovered - insurance fraud, restraining patients against their will, etc. What to do to pay the rent and buy groceries? His brother worked as a waiter and found a job for Steve. Thus, it all began. As time passed he realized that what he witnessed each day as customers dined and drank were snapshots of their lives - either pretty or ugly but always revealing. Steve began to write about what he saw each day on his blog waiterrant.net. The blog eventually garnered a huge audience, won the 2006 'Best Writing in a Weblog' Bloggie award, and caught the attention of book publishers. Of course, this didn't happen overnight. What Steve thought was a stop gap job turned into 7 years at the Bistro, owned by Fluvio, an irrational dictator so ruled by paranoid anxiety that he installed hidden cameras in order to keep an eye on his staff in the dining room, kitchen, front sidewalk, and even the back alley where they went for a smoke. Steve's recollections of his customers are priceless, both heart warming and hilarious. His revelations about what goes on in a restaurant's kitchen aren't always appetizing. What goes on in a restaurant's rest room? Totally shocking! Waiter Rant is this year's special. Enjoy and be very, very kind to your waiters. Highly recommended. - Gail Cooke

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 15, 2008

    Wonderful Writing by the Waiter

    I would have enjoyed Waiter Rant had it just been anecdotes from The Waiter's restaurant career but this book is so much more. The Waiter has turned what could have been a simply entertaining collection of gross-out stories into a truly moving and memorable memoir. He is clearly not a slave to his subject matter. He handily transcended the confines of a single-subject blog and has written a touching story about finding his own place in the world. I am looking forward to what this writer has in store for us, on or off the subject of restaurants, fiction or non-fiction. This book offers compelling evidence that he will be a versatile wordsmith who will only get better with time.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 23, 2011

    I Also Recommend:

    excellent

    I love true stories and this was one of them. Can't wait to read more

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted August 4, 2010

    Witty, inspirational, and Funny!

    This is a great book: easy to read with lots of content, it will leave you surprised. The book goes beyond ranting and raving about the pleasures, and dis-pleasures of the food industry: it analyzes the root of human behavior, struggle for survival in the modern world, the difference in social classes, immigration, money, drugs, and sex and the sense of entitlement in American society. Pick a topic you will find it here, but the author managed to tie it all together into this clever and funny book without making it boring, too deep, or complicated.
    Basically the author is an honest working man that because of the hand he was dealt ends up working behind the scenes in the dysfunctional food industry. Like many of us he has parked himself on the side of the road watching life pass him by, his writing becomes his refuge and his confessor and we as the audience recognized his struggles as our own, and identify ourselves with him. A must read, is easy to read, you won't be able to put it down.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 30, 2010

    Unfortunately, frighteningly accurate!

    Having worked in restaurants on and off for thirty years as a server, I found this book to be (unfortunately)frighteningly accurate, especially for big-city restaurant situations - the more money people have, the more deluded they tend to be about what is appropriate to expect another human being to do at their behest. This book is most entertaining for those who have served their time in an apron, and while it would be enlightening for those who haven't, they'd probably think the writer is exaggerating. Trust me, he's not. . .many anecdotes are similar to my own experiences, except that I didn't encounter restaurants where the levels of internal antagonism were that high - my experience has been that the staff tends to bond together more in reaction to the customers' craziness.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted May 9, 2010

    Tip for Tat

    this is an interesting insight into the world of waitstaff. wonder how much is ad-libbed and how much is actual fact. Of course the supposed blog is not on line any longer or never existed. Just hard to say how much of this is true. Would love to hear from an actual group of servers in the business to see just where it plays. However, all told, it is a fun read, does make you appreciate those who are on their feet for hours at a stretch and have to be nice to everyone, ore else....! It also makes me consider where I'm eating, and sort of want to go behind the scenes to see how efficient, but more importantly how clean, and establishment is. Had the privilege of going in Bradly Odgden's kitchen while in Vegas. Now that is impressive--and five years later we still see several of the original servers. If you are into food and restaurants, this is a good read.

    1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted January 30, 2010

    Dont wait for Part 2

    ok the guys a waiter and as such he has had some unique experiences with customers, other waiters , waitresses and cooks -- Fun for about 100 pages than it gets old --Wait until its in the 2 for $5 bin

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 17, 2010

    Peer Review

    I'm in the restuarant business and had to stop reading just to wipe the tears from my eyes!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 10, 2010

    I found this book to be an easy, fun read. It certainly gave me a view into the life of a waiter. I enjoyed it. There's nothing mind-blowing, but it was entertaining and light.

    .

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 19, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Great read!

    Fun and absorbing book, couldn't put it down.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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