Waiter Rant

"Today waiters are expected to be food-allergy specialists, sommeliers, cell-phone-rule enforcers, eye candy, confessors, entertainers, mixologists, emergency medical technicians, bouncers, receptionists, joke tellers, therapists, linguists, punching bags, psychics, protocol specialists, and amateur chefs."

Waiter Rant started out as an anonymous blog, it's a simple premise - guy chronicles his life as a waiter in a restaurant, "The Bistro". As he says in the preface: "After you read this book I doubt you'll ever look at your server the same way again. And maybe you'll learn how to be a better customer in the process."

While I enjoyed the stories of nutty, drunk or just plain rude customers, I think they would have worked better as blog entries. The waiter's life is just not as entertaining as his customer's antics, and I skipped over the bits about his pre-waiter experiences. Too often, he tries to tie his anecdotes to something bigger, but that didn't really work for me. All said, it's a quick easy read, and yes, I did learn more about the world of waiting tables than I need to know. However, I'd suggest you read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential (or read it again if you've already read it!) than read this one.