blogs: Steve Coomes's blog 

When I cooked in restaurants back in the 1980s—yeah, young punks, we had indoor fires back then, but those flint rock knives sure sucked—I regarded Valentine's Day service differently every year. If I got stationed on the grill that night, I knew I was in for a beating because so many customers ordered well-done steaks. The action on the sauté station never seemed to suffer quite as much, but in the end, we all were in the weeds on this, one of the year's busiest shifts. Seemed the servers especially hated it, and they griped endlessly about it, claiming Valentine's night was for amateurs trying to impress their dates. They carped about orders for cheap wine, beer drunk straight from bottles or cocktail requests that included liquor you'd find only at discount drugstores. After too many mispronunciations of menu items or misused silverware, much of the service staff was convinced it was below them to step and fetch for such troglodytes. Numerous sub-15 percent tips confirmed, they said, that this was a whole different class of people not worthy of their time. Whatever. I was a galley slave making somewhere between $4 and $6 an hour, and even their bad tips were doubling my nightly take. Sure, some of the griping was actually funny, especially the fashion commentary. Since all I saw was the business side of a stainless steel line cooking for hours on end, I never saw the ill-fitted, rack-bought suits (like the ones in my '80s closet) the mall hair, the horrendous toupees or the cleavage displayed by many, um, rent-a-dates. And then in 1990, I went over to the Dark Side and put on a waiter's apron—and I saw the Valentine diners up close. All had one head, two eyes, a pair of hands and feet. No one drooled or bore fangs or suggested I scrounge up a nip of Night Train. They were, well, normal. To be fair, I cooked only in fine dining places, so the dinner table behavior standards were different, and not everyone we fed knew which fork went with which course—what a crime! But by and large, the people I waited on in the casual restaurant scene were infrequent diners out for a special occasion come Valentine's. Yeah, lots of them were shocked to see several thousand others had the same idea to take their ladies out for the night, and disappointed they'd have to wait for a table. But miracle of miracles, they caught on quickly, settled in and enjoyed themselves. Truth is my tip average was about the same on Valentine's as any other night. Sure, there were some disappointing 10 percenters, but they were balanced out by some cool dudes dropping 25 percent "for you son, so you can take your girl out after work." Sales usually were so good that just by volume alone, servers made much more that night than they normally would. So we return to the question: Is Valentine's night out dining for amateurs? Maybe I'm forgetful or viewing the past through the gauzy lens of nostalgia, but I'd say no, it's not. Real service pros look at everyone the same—a difficult feat sometimes, I admit—and give them the best service possible. Not every server will make the killing they hope to next week, but that's just life in that line of work. Over the long haul, the tips always shake out in the end. At least that's what happens when you treat all your guests well.

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	Beverly Bartlett   wed feb 03 2010 at 3:53 pm         ·  Once I was out of town on business and forced to eat out alone on Valentine's Day. I went sort of early to avoid the crowd and managed to select a restaurant that had a special V-day menu. I have to say that ordering "Cupid's Chicken for One" was one of the low moments of my single days.
	SciFiNut   wed feb 03 2010 at 4:05 pm         ·  I made reservations for Jack Fry's almost two months ago so I'd be sure to get a table during the "middle" seating. LOVE THAT PLACE! You see a few amateurs trying to waltz in and get a table without a reservation -- not happening at Jack's.
	J.S. Holland   wed feb 03 2010 at 8:51 pm         ·  I've never waited tables, but I would have thought that the "rube factor" would work to the benefit of the servers, since we're working from the theory that the men are trying hard to impress their dates. Surely some of them are making an ostentatious show of being a big tipper. (Then again, if they're really that clueless about restaurants that don't have drive-thrus, they may not even be familiar with the concept of tipping...)
	Steve Coomes   thu feb 04 2010 at 6:48 am         ·  My experience, J.S., was if they were trying to impress their ladies, they spent the money on them, not on a big tip. But overall, it was never a big deal. So called "rubes" could be charming to wait on, kind and humble. I'd take a modest-tipping "rube" over a demanding and condescending big tipper any day.
	Mr. Breeze©   tue feb 09 2010 at 6:04 am         ·  I'm sure I will get grief out of this, Last year I wanted to be silly and fun, so I got reservations at white castle (We went to Rocky's later for the real dinner), They both had table side service, and the service at White Castle, was better than Rocky's. Rocky's was get in eat and get out, we need table space.