Waiters: what's the most lucrative kind of restaurant to work in?

My brother waits tables at a regional chain restaurant in Wisconsin. Dinner entrees run between $10 and $20. It’s not a fancy place by any means.

He’s moving out to Seattle next month. We were talking about restaurants and the possibility that he could make more money (in tips) by working at a somewhat nicer restaurant with higher menu prices. He believes, however, that he wouldn’t necessarily make more money by working in a fancier restaurant because table turnover slows down. So even though each individual table may tip more, the lack of turnover means fewer total tips and a final income that’s about the same as, or less than, what he’s making now.

He doesn’t have experience working at a fancier restaurant, though, so he’s hypothesizing.

Any waiters, waitresses, waitrons or ex-waiters care to weigh in on this? If you want to maximize your tip income, what kind of restaurant should you work at? I assume Denny’s isn’t going to bring home more metaphorical bacon, but is there a financial advantage to working at a slower paced, classy joint?

(I suspect that people in Seattle tip better than those in the heartland of Wisconsin, too, because he complains about the tip rate there. But let’s leave that out of this argument for now.)

i think it all matters what you’re comfortable with. i’ve been waiting tables throughout college. the one thing that i have noticed is that in more family type restaraunts i can talk to people more easily. there’s more of a place for me to joke around and be casual, which helps out my tips greatly. in more high end places people tend not to want this. their server tends to become faceless and nameless. just some one refilling the drinks and bringing out the meal.

another thing is that with the economy being in the slump that it is, people don’t tend to cut out going out to eat, just the price of where they go. even though a place may have higher menu prices doesn’t mean that the server makes more money. i personally have made more money at a ruby tuesday with average tips then the higher end places that i’ve worked at.

location is another thing to keep in mind. if it’s around shopping areas or tourists locations then business tends to be a little better. also (i hate to say it) but working for a chain tends to be a little better. they are more recognizable by the public, the menu is better known, people know how much they’re going to spend, and generally people are afraid to try new things.

my thoughts on waiting on the wealthy… i’d rather not do it. i’m treated more like a servant. generally they’re ruder to me, run me like crazy and tip horribly… after all there’s a reason that they’re rich.

I worked at a fine dining establishment and wine bar during grad school. People often wondered why the poor grad student drove a brand new Wrangler…It’s because I was a hard worker, and ran my ass off for the opulent clientel in Phoenix.

To give you an Idea. I made close to 400 a weekend. Thats Thursday through Sunday. I was a happy camper.

But fine dining serving is not for everyone. One must be conscious of the way they dress and look, and must have a good sense of humor.

I made more in the last two years of grad school than I did the first year of my first job out of grad school. My W-2 for one year was 66K.

Fine dining serving is generally VERY stressful, compared to other types of serving (not that others aren’t stressful too!) due to the fact that part of the expensive price they’re paying for that meal is for the service and treatment they receive.

Screw up a 6 dollar plate at Denny’s, it’s not a big deal. Screw up a 300 dollar per couple dinner, and it’s a HUGE deal.

It’s interesting – and now that I think about it, shouldn’t be surprising – that waiters’ salaries don’t go up in direct correlation with the price of the entrees.

But I’d like to clarify that I’m not only talking about fine dining vs. non-fine dining. It seems to me that there’s a range of restaurants out there, many of which offer somewhat more expensive entrees without the expectations of a fine dining experience.

Thanks for the responses so far. This is interesting.

Definitely, the biggest tips to be made are at either (a) nicer seafood restaurants (where prices are sky-high, there are tons in Seattle), or (b) busy places where you’re getting a lot of expense account customers. If it’s both, then all the better. This is why entry-level servers work at crap chain restaurants, and those with extensive experience move on to more lucrative positions at fine dining restaurants. And when people are spending their company’s money, they’re likely to leave bigger tips. I’d recommend your brother find out where the movers and shakers do their dining, and try to get in there.

A friend who works at an expensive (~$35 per entree) restaurant pulls in about $400-500 on a good night, since it’s a place that’s always busy. Other friends who’ve worked at Friday’s pull in usually less than half that on an good night.

Lucrative resaurant work? Sounds like an oxymoron.

The basic rule is middle class people work at a desk, lower classes on their feet. (What the upper class does I will never know. :smiley: )

Hmmm. The trend in this thread matches what I’ve been hearing. Kids today tell me that a reliable chain restaurant is the best deal, even though most of them are Italian and the dishes are heavy. (Not the Olive Garden! A few rungs up.)

When you work in swank hash houses, as I did, you have to tip an awful lot of people. I get the idea that in a chain, you have a hostess, a bus pool, and a bar pool.

Just to add a bit of caution- my friend moved to Seattle to look for a fine dining restaurant to work at and failed miserably. He had great experience, knew wines, etc. but couldn’t get a good job to save his life. He returned to Boulder, CO broke. This was in 1995 before the boom, and now with the economy I would say its probably close to the same. Make sure he has enough money to live on for awhile. Also, little things can add up- Seattle has a shitty local-calls area. My friend found an apartment at 128th and all of his calls into town looking for work were long-distance. He ran up a $500 phone bill in a week without realizing it!

-Tcat