@Dutchess_III & @MrGrimm888 When I first got the idea to work as a waiter to support me through college, I worked a volume restaurant. They served three large, complete entrees and no a la carte subs: T-bone steak platter, shrimp platter, fish (grouper) platter. . 8 large dining rooms with different motifs. Long banquet tables. $3.95 a head. At 5 O’clock opening, it was like feeding time at the Colosseum and we were the Christians.
A crowd of about 400 was lined up at the gate and it went on all night long non-stop till last seating at 10pm. You ran all night till closing, cleaned your station and got out of there by 12 midnight dripping in sweat, but with good cash money, more than I made as carpenter. But you felt like a first string lineman after playing four quarters of football.
The owner had a high-end restaurant hidden in a thick oak grove across the road. I saw the waiters at the end of the night in a little pub near our respective restaurants. They were dressed in tuxes, bow ties and cumberbuns, were loaded with tens and twenties next to my stack of ones, and they looked fresh and clean with not a hint of yellow sweat on their starched, white collars.
Needless to say, I went across that road and got a job as soon as I could afford to buy a used tux from a rental place. The patrons were very well behaved compared to the cattle I had been shoveling food into across the road, many were famous old movie stars. The stations were small and there were two seatings at best. I learned to cook at the table using a garradon cart, I learned flambe cooking, never broke a sweat, and the tips were enormous.
Man, I never went back to volume ever again. I do not react well to abuse.