Waiters, How Do You Treat Single Diners Differently?

wait as waitresses on reddit be honest how do you treat single diners differently i always treat single diners better than groups they're always more friendly sometimes if i single man and a single woman come in i try to sit them near each other in case they make eye contact fall in love and don't have to eat alone anymore when i worked as a waiter i would prefer single patrons they would be there to order food eat and leave which resulted in a much higher turnaround and at the end of the day more total tips in my pocket this is it right here single diners take a lot less time and tend to order more food per cover they usually tend to be a lot less hassle as well fewer complaints or if there were problems were far more accommodating to problems high turnaround low maintenance and high tip yield i travel frequently and not always to places i know people in i've had nothing but positive experiences dining alone my personal favorite was in nice france where the waitress picked up the menu it was on a chalkboard sat it up on the table sat opposite me and walked me through the menu other than that i've never been treated differently when dining alone i would lose my crap if i went to red lobster and was not allowed cheddar bay biscuits they are 75 of the reason i'm there in the first goddang place when i'm on the road i usually get dinner alone but i sit in the bar it's easier to dine alone if people just think you're an alcoholic sit in the regular section and people will be like a ww sad man with nobody to dine out with common aww sad man with nobody to dine out with i say all my friends died the other day in a horrible fire omg i'm so sorry don't be i started the fire it's very dependent on how the single diner is giving off body language if they're wrapped up in a laptop and doing what appears to be business work or something of that nature i typically shorten up my sales pitches and try to make sure that meal is as complete as can be without coming off as being overbearing or interrupting their work if it's a single diner who comes in just reading a paper or toying around on a smartphone and they do not appear to be in any rush whatsoever i like to ask more personal questions like why they came in what they're in town for where they work etc etc this is something i normally don't get into too much when there is a party of two plus because that's something that they're probably already talking about to one another i've worked as a server for the past six years and i can say i never truly treat any two tables the same it's all about reading body language and adapting to how the guests react to whatever i'm doing for them some people when they come in to dine want to just get a meal be treated nicely and have everything go smoothly others are very open to entertainment and small talk and generally like getting personal or sharing stories the biggest thing about being a server is giving exceptional service regardless of what someone looks like smells like acts like etc just because that one crappy table you had came in and gave you an awful tip doesn't mean they didn't enjoy themselves i like to think about it like maybe that's all they could afford due to medical bills or something going awful in their life sometimes people in those situations go out to eat to get away from everything else and maybe they have an amazing time and only tip you five ten percent but they tell their rich friend john c money swarth and he comes in requests you because his friend said you were great orders a super expensive bottle of wine off the reserve list and leaves you a 20 plus tip i like to think karma works heavily in the waiting world tl doctor i treat just about every table differently regardless of table size i like the optimism it makes me feel happy about the world that waitress was dumb i prefer single patrons most of the time there aren't enough people that eat by themselves i end up talking to them a little bit longer than most people if it's not too busy and if they want to have a conversation it's also easier to remember one food and drink order and i can usually run their food out myself since it may be just one plate cleanup isn't a problem either i never did i was happy that most likely all their choices would take less time but you give 100 at all times even if they are b kill them with kindness i prefer single diners while i less maintenance easy to joke around with and establish rapport sure the tips might not be as big since it's a smaller check but i'd rather have one patron than a family with four kids or even one kid tl dr i hate kids but my special snowflakes would be the exceptions to your rule nope actually i never even thought of my customers as single versus not single until just now to me a customer is a customer when i was a waitress and an old person came in i was always so sad and thought their spouse had died and they were lonely one man came in two days a week or did the same thing every week i always felt so bad for him until i found out his wife just didn't like breakfast lol i'm a customer i recently moved to my home country for college and this one cashier at a cafe that i go to on a daily basis knows that i do not speak the native language very well i guess a single thing counts since i have absolutely no friends here you guys may think she's being nice because it's a job but let me specify this is an internet cafe all the cashiers have to do is make sure customers are not damaging the computers or if customers order snacks or drinks they deliver it to the customer and of course man the cash register this girl would greet me and add some points come up to me while i'm playing a game with my friends abroad and chat with me at one point she asked me if i wanted some of her dinner although she's a complete stranger to me i thought it was nice of her to offer me food sure i may be a loser or a loner it makes me feel better that i can talk to someone despite the fact that i'm really shy and there's already a communication barrier with everyone else in this country if it's a lunch shift i'll spend more time at the table and chat with single diners especially if they're older or bring in a book to read sounds counter-intuitive billy simple oh i love that author have you read blah blah really works refill the coffee nice and often boom extra friendliness equals awesome tip at night ain't nobody got time for that crap i treat them like everyone else okay here's your food you doing all right all right cool i got a screaming kid at table three who really needs his mac and cheese i gotta go yell at the kitchen again uh whoa i'm not in the same boat as you john green apparently i'll bring a book with me when i eat lunch out did this a lot last summer as most of my friends were out of town and i love it when people ask me about the book i'm reading we may end up having something awesome in common and i love making new friends i treat them like any other customer my boss loves lone diners he says they come to your place not to socialize but because they really want the food i think he's a little out of touch i always went out alone because i don't know how to cook but okay sometimes i'll be a little chattier if they would like to chat be christ i've had some people keep me at their table for a conversation when i have about a million other things to do anyone can do that though my boss loves lone diners he says they come to your place not to socialize but because they really want the food i think he's a little out of touch i always went out alone because i don't know how to cook but okay you are both right as a single diner i just want to point out how differently i experience my meal depending on whether i'm greeting with table 4-1 versus just you tonight i like lone diners they are easy and don't run you around plus sometimes you get to solve crossword puzzles together which is fun i'm always extra nice to loan diners and usually try and have a chat with them if they want to i know some people just want to be alone there's a man who always comes into our place of a weekend he's always on his own and i always have a chat with him i found out he hasn't been in the country long he seems to appreciate having someone to chat with for five minutes this will almost surely get lost somewhere and it's a bit off topic but i would dine out by myself regularly during the summer of 2008 while i was taking a night class between my high school and my first semester of college once a week after my monday or wednesday class i would go to a particular steak shake and grab a burger shake or whatever i was in the mood for it was almost always quiet and there was almost always the same way to there i became a regular he would guess my orders and we'd banter back and forth as he worked one night right after midterms i came into sns nearly in tears because of the three-hour long combined sa multiple choice test had just been subjected to i was 18 and i'd never taken a college class before i was mentally exhausted and terrified that i might have failed the test something that i was sure would set the tone for my whole college experience on top of all of that my hand was cramping and my head hurt badly enough to make me feel sick this waiter whose name i can't remember went to the back room and got some tylenol and a glass of water made me a strawberry milkshake and brought out one of my usual orders before i could even ask him for anything then he sat down across from me and asked me about my day later when i went to check out i found out that he'd given me his discount and i just left a 20 on the table for him because it was the only money i had he really deserved so much more because at that point in time that was the single nicest thing anyone had ever done for me i'm really glad that i was dining alone all those times i went to sns because i wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to get to know that waiter like i did he was a really cool guy single diners where i work are always marked as swanier that is vip they get served an amuse-bouche on the house the chef greets them etc we take extra care to ensure that their visit is perfect why because single diners in high-end restaurants are often reviewers and as much as our chef denies it he wants awards and a claim and he wants them bad i prefer lone diners it's much easier to connect with them and they generally seem willing to be friendly and sociable as opposed to groups which often forget that servers are humans this is also why i like eating alone too it's a great chance to have a conversation with a total stranger and not feel like a total stranger doing it the last time i went to my favorite restaurant alone the waitress asked me what was wrong and why my gf wasn't with me i then overheard her talking to the other waitress gesturing at me and saying something to the effects of it must be bad he looks really upset i just wanted a fish sandwich as a shy person i make a point to force myself to eat out alone once a week the servers are always nice to me always and i always tip 20 plus people come into restaurants alone for a lot of reasons sometimes they're traveling on business sometimes they want a quiet table to sit and read while they eat maybe they're lonely or just hungry and in a rush whatever the case i have to assume that those people chose to dine out instead of ordering food and eating at home or in their hotel because they wanted some sort of human connection this is the highlight of a server's career a lot of guests have bad habits of forgetting that their servers are people too not just food bringing robots so it's always nice to know that someone came in specifically to engage you and maybe make a friend i always give my single diners extra attention because whether you're in a group or alone restaurant dining is about making a connection over food a lot of single diners have the best stories to tell and no one to tell them to that old man who comes in every wednesday afternoon this may have been he and his wife's favorite restaurant for years and years that young woman who looks a little lost she just decided to move to a brand new town on a whim many servers grown over single diners because they generally make less money off of them but all it takes is a little more diligence to figure out how to make a worthwhile connection some of the best tips i've gotten were from single diners because our interactions were more intimate were one of my favorite memories as a server was when through talking to a man who came in alone i discovered that he was alone in a foreign city on his birthday we gave him free dessert a chef's hat that part standard and another table saw the celebration going on and called him over to their table they ended up chatting a bit too and the man hugged me at the end of his meal single diners are one of my favorite parts about working in a restaurant because they are the ones who understand more than anyone that servers are fellow human beings worth engaging and befriending honestly you should have called a manager over i treat my one tops like unicorns because if they are happy with the experience they will want to bring someone back with them it happened so much where i work any server that would treat you like that is a lazy idiot that doesn't deserve the job i work at a japanese sushi boat restaurant in san francisco and i always try to sit singles next to each other the way the restaurant is laid out is a sushi bar surrounded by chairs in a circular manner we can only fit about 30 people in at a time therefore it's nearly impossible to not have a conversation with the persons next to you i've definitely seen relationships start there that's just a dong maneuver the only way i ever treated solo eaters differently was offering them a newspaper or magazine if they didn't have anything else to do i worked chiefly in hotels though so more often than not they'd be on a computer of some description also waiters and waitresses please stop asking just one when i walk in i travel a lot and this question is asked fifty percent of the times i come to eat nobody ever says just two or just 18 the just part in it kind of implies you're surprised that anybody wants to dine alone maybe i'm reading this wrong but that's the impression i get each customer is different when i had tables of one i would try to read them just like tables of two or three if they were chatty or wanted to talk i would spend some time there just like bigger tables if they brought a book and glasses i would do more of a quick raffle drop by service making money waiting as a male is all about reading people and giving them what they want if you cannot do this you won't make any money making money as a female is about being attractive not fair but that is how life works i think if you're an attractive female men will tip better i am a female server and i don't think i'm the best looking and could stand to lose a few lbs but i give great service and i think people respond to kindness and promptness of service more than looks you could be super hot but if you freak up my order and i sit with an empty cup for 20 minutes i'm not giving you a full tip when i see the longing for company in their eyes i treat them real nice so that they know some good can still come from this world i always give a single diner maybe a little extra attention to make sure they have a nice time since they don't have people with them to entertain i will strike up small conversations why would anybody treat a person who is alone any different sometimes those are the people who leave the best tips especially if you give good attention i don't know if it was because i was a teenager at the time or alone but the waitress at this one place seemed to want me out as quick as possible never refilled my drink either i didn't leave that great of a tip self-fulfilling prophecy right there when i used to get single customers i would be a little more chatty than usual with them idk why maybe because in the back of my head in a skewed way i thought they wanted the company i've personally never been treated differently as a loan diner i was in a job for some five years that was 100 out of state travel judging from what other servers here have said it seems like i was the ideal customer i would sit down make a quick decision on what i was going to eat i would try to minimize my mess so they wouldn't have to clean up after me and there were times where i would ask to be seated at the bar or a smaller table so i wasn't taking up a four plus person booth although i did wonder if other people thought that as a lone diner if i was lonely or whatever i'm both a waiter and someone who genuinely enjoys having meals alone not all the time but sometimes it's nice probably echoing a lot of what has been said generally they tip well don't linger and you're not worried about timing visits so that they aren't mid conversation overall they're awesome and single patrons probably get better service on average than couples or groups i usually had better conversations with single diners couples or groups want to talk to each other but with one person there's better chance of friendly banter and therefore a bigger tip i feel like i'm actually kinder and more friendlier to single diners i never know their circumstances so i try to be as friendly and genuine as possible although they may just be passing through on business i'd like to think that if they are just lonely etc that my sincerity and smile added something to their day that's extremely weird that she didn't want to give you biscuits when i worked there there was a huge heating tower thing that holds 15 pans with at least 30 biscuits each we snacked on them when we were hungry and there was always more than enough for customers the restaurant that i work at in los angeles has a very neighborhood-wide vibe aka we have a lot of regulars and a lot of those regulars mostly come and solo so i tend to hang around their table and chat catch up with them which results in other single diners at nearby tables chiming in on the conversation and making everyone feel welcome and friendly now i'll admit that every once in a while you'll get that bitter and angry solo guest that hates the world and is going to take it out on their server but those are pretty uncommon at least in my experiences in short i feel that i typically give my solo guests more attention than i give an individual in a large group if you are new to the channel you can subscribe i publish new videos every day until then check another video [Music] bye for now

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Keywords: single diner, wasted loveters, restaurant, single dining table, dinner, restaurant dinner, #updootst, updoot, reddit, r/askreddit, askreddit, ask reddit, r/, \r, r\, best of reddit, reddit stories, reddit story, top posts, funniest posts, funny, funny posts, funny reddit stories, funny askreddit, reddit funny, askreddit funny, askreddit stories, reddit stories 2021, people of reddit, sub, reddit cringe, memes, toadfilms, updoot everything, updoot reddit, story, stories, rslash, comedy, fresh

Id: gYXx2Ei32sQ

Length: 19min 53sec (1193 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021