I almost hate to ask this but…
A couple months ago I went to a nummy place called Taste of India (in Maplewood, MN) and while supping there, my friend and I noticed that the entire waitstaff were all men. I’ve been to a couple other Indian restaurants since then and have noticed that at each of these, the entire waitstaff was men and I haven’t noticed a woman working at any of 'em. Is this coincidental or cultural?
Anecdotal, I know, bu at the Indian restaraunt I ate at about three weeks ago, the person bussing the tables was a woman, as was the person taking money at the register.
Just my experience but…
Of the 3 Indian restaurants I have frequented recently, 2 had all male staff in the dining room and 1 has a woman that delivers stuff to the tables and busses the tables but only men take the customers orders.
I can only recall being served by a woman once in an ‘Indian’ restaurant - and this was a Bangladeshi one, rather than the Pakistani (Sylhetti) ones which are far more common in the areas I’ve lived.
There does seem to be a general lack of women working in Indian restaurants. But one of the best ranking Indian restaurans in London ‘Chutney Maries’ is owned and named by a woman, also one of the best Slough Indian restaurants is owned by a lady I used to know. An Indian friend once told me tongue in cheek, that if an Indian lady is a good cook she can marry whoever she wants, so is unlikely to need to work. And from other Indian friends the claim is Indian women are far better cooks than anyone who works in an Indian restaurant. Indian’s sure tend to love their food 
Now that you mention it,
All the Indian places I go here are all men. One of them had some women working who were obviously related to the men but they weren’t of Indian decent in fact they seemed Slavic or Eastern European by their skintones and accents. THey no longer work there.
Most Indian places have mostly men in the kitchen as well.
I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing as a great many Indian women work (both here and in India).
The Pakistani restaurant I go to has only one male out front (he seems to own the place) and 3 or 4 women. The chef is male but he is teaching one of the young girls to cook, so sometimes they ask me if it’s alright if she cooks my meal when it’s quiet.
I was going to observe that the only time I can remember being served by a woman in an Indian restaurant was in England (Cambridge, I think).
[tongue in cheek]
That’s because all the Indian women are doctors and engineers and have no time for that serving in a restaurant business.
[/tongue in cheek]
Hmm, it couldn’t be that it’s silly to try to say anything based on a couple of observations about immigrants from a country of a billion people and almost that many social groupings, could it?
I guess it could be possible that in your neck of the woods, Indian immigrants who open restaurants are all from a certain location or social grouping that has a bias against women working in restaurants.
It ain’t so where I live, though. Here women work in and also run Indian restaurants.
I’ll bet it true where you live as well. No matter where that is.
Sorry to be sarcastic, but what answer could the OP have been expecting? “Yes, all Indians think alike. In total lockstep. And none of them change when they get to America either. Ever.”
Not likely.
Thanks for the bitchy response. It’s really appreciated. :rolleyes:
If you haven’t noticed, a number of the responses in this thread have echoed the same observation as well as my wording in the OP left the option open to have just been coincidence. Yet, out of the four different restaurants in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St Paul, MN area), ALL of them were staffed by men ONLY. If you saw that, I’d take it that you’d just mark it all up as coincidence since that IS possible. However, I, in my naive little myopic state was curious if it was coincidence. Moreover, I never, ANYWHERE, implied that if it is their culture to do such in India that that *must * carryon over here. :mad:
All of the Indian restaurants I’ve been to in North Carolina appear to be staffed almost exclusively by men. I’ve only been served by a woman once, and she was a white woman. Obviously, it will vary from restaurant to restaurant and region to region, but I think it’s a fair question, stpauler.
Both my local Indian restaraunts seems to be male only as well.
Thus, we have proved conclusively that EVERY SINGLE INDIAN IN THE WORLD IS A SEXIST BASTARD!
There. Hope that clears things up.
I realize that this isn’t what the OP was asking about but if I wanted to see an Indian woman working in food service, I’d have no problems at all.
I’d say that fully half of the local (Chicago) Subway franchises and virtually all of the Dunkin Donuts are, if not Indian owned, certainly Indian staffed and usually women at that.
One of these days I’m going to get over to Devon Avenue and eat at any of the dozens of great sounding restaurants…
There used to be an awesome Indian restaurant in Duluth, GA (metro Atlanta) called “Indian Delights” that was staffed almost exclusively by women. I think there might have been one man that worked there, but the other six employees were all women. They had another location in Decatur, GA - perhaps all the men worked there?
Indian restaurants tend to be run by Indian men, yep.
All restaurants tend to be run by men, though. It’s just that Indian restaurants tend to be staffed by men too.
stpauler, you posted in GQ. I gave you the proper GQ answer. Which, to say it again, is coincidence.
If you wanted a poll about observations of Indian restaurants, then you should have put this in IMHO.
You didn’t give that answer. You ranted.
And, if there is a dominance of men in Indian restaurants, what evidence do you have that it is a coincidence?
Do you have a cite for your belief that it is coincidence? Maybe you could also cite why office managers often being female is also just a coincidence. Some of us have eaten at huge numbers of Indian restaurants and have noticed that the number of female servers is proportionally less than for Itallian or Chinese Restaurants. Please show how this is merely coincidence.
Paging Xash, do you have any contribution to this thread about the waitstaff in Indian Restaurants in India?
Hmm, I always wanted to try that place. I bank right by there and drive by all the time. Kinda interesting because I frequent the India Palace in Woodbury and noticed that the entire staff was male also.