Hey everyone. A few quick updates!
My nephew loves the book. And he can’t even read!
I got a little love from Forbes.com. Very cool!
Waiter Rant is now in it’s sixth printing!
Waiter Rant is on the New York Times Bestseller List for a third week.
Here’s an interview I did for Good Morning America NOW.
I’ll be back with a story in a day or two. Thanks everyone!
Great news on the Bestseller List!
LOL Waiter
Looks like he’s saying
Mom why did he do that? Why did uncle Steve drop this big thing on my lap?
Saw the GMA interview; looked great, sounded great! Congrats!
I haven’t dropped by yet to say a huge contratulations about the book. Well done you.
Ha, I can’t think of a better way to shamelessly self promote … or of a much cuter way! He’s adorable!
Can’t wait to get the book and check it out. Loved you with Matt Lauer!
~Brea
🙂
Just finished the book. Thought it was great and a good read. Good job!
Ok, so why do I find it more exciting to see a picture of the cutie we all got to welcome into the world (via your blog) months ago, than to hear you on GMA? LOL
He is ADORABLE!!!
Book’s not bad either. 😉
Waiter, you totally deserve it. As my comment goes on Amazon: If a book takes me longer than a week to read, I may as well put it down and never look at it again. This book took me 2 days to read. Fantastic writing style, really.
The interview was great… but I miss reading your stories on your blog. What happens next?
He just likes chewing on it. It has a flavor.
~C~
Love from Forbes.com, GMA and you’re on the NYTimes bestseller list; you must be thrilled. You deserve it, Steve, well done. I agree with your nephew. Great book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
So, guess we needn’t suggest:
Tell your nephew NOT to become a waiter!
A writer, on the other hand . . .
He’s absolutely precious!!! I’m very happy for you, Steve. Looking forward to your return.
Great work Waiter! I just bought the book and enjoying it!
Another great interview, Writer. Also, it must be said…you have really fantastic posture! 🙂
I just finished reading your book. I found it very interesting. My fiance bought it becuase he used to be a waiter in a fine dining restaurant and I have heard him say many of the things you say in your book. He just had to have it, so he bought it and I finished reading it first. Lol. The writing was very well done.
Great interview, but I have to ask, in your opinion is there ever a time when tipping less than 15% is called for?
Awwwww!
He kinda looks like you. (I can say that now! Yay!)
Congrats on the book. You deserved every bit of it. I finished it a week ago, and there were several placed that really touched my heart.
Hi Waiter,
Congratulations on all your success, you are a great writer and that transcends all media. Please keep blogging, though. How about Wealthy Author Rant?
p.s. Possessive its has no apostrophe:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.possessive.its.has.no.apostrophe/topics
p.p.s. Sorry.
Wow, 14th! I’ve been following the blog for a few years and it’s great to see how far you’ve come. Even though I don’t actually know you, I feel proud to see you doing so well…the internet is weird.
You know what I say about writers? They write publicly much better than they speak. It seems to hold true to most of them. Guess you break the mold on many of the common idioms and assumptions given out there to waiters and writers alike.
Got the book recently. Am only half through but it is great so far! Well done!
Anyway, adorable nephew you have:)
Brad Pitt with glasses???
Waiter, I clicked on the “Good Morning America” video, can’t hear the audio until I find my headphones, but I’m telling you … very very cute. Hope the Brad Pitt comment is OK, he’s a decent looking guy and you’ve got that same look – but with better hair (you, not him). Yeah, you really “look” exactly as I thought – intelligent and rather hot.
L. (yes, I’m a girl)
Great job on the interview. I eat out twice a day during the work week and have to say the blog has been tremendously beneficial.
I hope you make a shitload of money, man.
Hey Waiter. I’m halfway through the book and loving every word of it. I’m a manager and former waiter at a restaurant in Austin, Texas, and a lot of what you’ve written his eerily close to home. Aaaahhh surveillance cameras…
Hey, I went to the bookstore yesterday and was on my way to pay for the book I’ve chosen when I saw your’s lying on the table – I couldn’t resist, bought it, and now I’m halfway through – great, great, great book! Rock on!
This is yours and you earned it. Ride that wave my friend. All the way to the beach.
You know, if you account for all those polisci hardcovers that no one ever actually reads, your book is in the top three.
Hey Man,
I just heard your interview on BIG 100.3 with Struber here in the D.C. area! Congratulations on your book deal. You have changed my whole mindset on what blogging is. This is very engaging and entertaining. (though, it seems like none of my business)
It’s like one of those reality T.V. shows without the “enhanced” drama. Speaking of “tips”…
Do you have any tips on how to write a blog that people will actually read. I think the ones I’ve been writting are more -ya know- “here’s what so & so has to say about this and that.” It’s Rivetting!! Thanks Mom 🙁
Heck I may even start quoting you!!! Okay? Got an RSS feed for this puppy?
Please advise, if you have moment!
Continued Success,
Kevin
Ok, your nephew totally looks like you!!
ok is it just me or has no one else noticed the young jedi practicing his 1000 yard waiter stare?
Adorable! 🙂
And congratulations.
Way to go Waiter!
But now to some butt kissing, growing up my parents taught me to tip 15%, but now I tip 20% since I’ve been following your blog for the past 3 years.
Love the story from the Bloomberg News interview about your classy revenge on nutty customers!
(Are you like the only other New Yorker who doesn’t spit? Or is it just in people’s food??)
I posted it, deservingly, on my NutsInNewYork blog.
Stay classy!
DD
Congratulations Waiter! From one writer to another I know how excited you must be!
Best of luck.
Congratulations!
And I am proud of you for finally being honest in your self-promotion.
I’m so disappointed waiter (not in you) the backward little end of the earth place I live, while it does have a Barnes & Noble couldn’t be bothered to have your book! While they could order it for me, it just was so disappointing that I couldn’t point it out to anybody!!! Nice voice, by the way.
My name is Robert Stempkowski. I am the new food and restaurants Examiner for Examiner.com. My story is not unlike yours. In 1998, I was tending bar at a trendy Phoenix joint when a magazine editor eavesdropping on my conversational schtick offered me the chance to pen a restaurant review (she’d recently 86’d her regular food editor). I’d found my muse (or vice versa), and the rest, as they say, is history. Over the past decade, I’ve done review work for a host of national and international publishers. Point being, you and I have both turned tables for a living, and have each turned the tables on our professional fortunes armed with little more than our wits and a palate for the prose. I’d love to interview you, as I think you and I have spoken much the same language in our dual professional lives. Could amount to something significant, I think.
Chew on it, friend. Contact me at my email address.
RS Examiner.com
Oh, he’s adorable, looks just like you with that “look”.
6th printing! That is so stupendous! you deserve every minute of this. God is telling you to write more!
Wow, what a great review in Forbes! And I loved the GMA NOW interview, particularly because it was longer than the tiny-sound-bite Today Show type interview. I am so happy for you. Keep up the good work!!!!
“I’ll be back with a story in a day or two. Thanks everyone!”
Of course, it won’t be a story about WAITING TABLES because you don’t do that any more! How about some truth in advertising and change the name of your blog to “Ex-Waiter Rant” and your byline to “The Ex-Waiter”.
You had a great thing going and you had to ruin it with the lure of one book deal. I hope you made enough money to last a lifetime, because you’ll need it. Come to think of it, you may be back to waiting tables sooner than you think.
(Customer at restaurant) “Say, aren’t you the guy who once wrote that book about that thing…?”
I liked it too. It took em a couple of days to read after searching at most places (sold out!). I endedup finding a copy at Barnes and Noble in west L.A. the only one available.
Thank you for the book
sixth printing? jesus. thank god i got in on the ground floor!
Congratulations on your success! I can’t wait to pick up my very own copy.
Your nephew is adorable. And you are a very handsome man.
Oh my Gosh, what a cutie pie. . .
GCBCman The green eyed monster is poking out. Instead of congratulating waiter you have to criticise. Pure unaldulterated jealousie. Get a life GCBCman
Bought your book on Amazon. Great read. Just like your blog—you educate us. Great to SEE what you look like on the web interviews, too. Congratulations on being #14 in just two weeks ! Fantastic !!! As I have said before, a smart owner would hire you in a heartbeat because he knows you are a professional, and customers would know they better behave or they will end up in your next book and on your blog !
Best seat in the house, I see. He must have said he knows the owner!
From your stories I thought you would be older and fatter. I always seemed to get the 20% that were psychopaths. Another reason for sitting where you’re seated is that in a lot of places certain waiters/waitresses are assigned to certain tables. If you triple seat them then obviously it’s going to take longer to take your order as the waiter’s trying to work 3 tables at once instead of 1 at a time.
“If a book takes me longer than a week to read, I may as well put it down and never look at it again.”
So in other words, you have a short attention span and its the author’s fault? Grow up.
I have always wanted to try being a waitress but I’m too scared because of three things.
1. What will people think of me? Yes I’m a snob.
2. What if I drop something on someone? I just can’t stand the thought of ruining someone’s day.
3. What if I’m so good at it that I never want to do anything else. What’s wrong with me?
Okay – 3 was not real. The real number 3 is what if I end up passing out my phone numbers to every hot guy I see and I become a sex addict? This is so possible.
I was a waitress for 30 years I grew up in the business and the stories I could tell!!You just can’t make this stuff up!I don’t do it anymore because quite frankly I just got sick of people being such pains in the ass. One of my pet peeves is the we’ll just have ice water and don’t forget the lemon and watch them make lemonade at the table with the diet sweetener.I lived in New York and I worked for years in the same spot right of the New York Thruway on the way up to the Catskills!
You think people are “pains in the ass” when they go out to a restaurant? Try providing a service for them in their homes. The pain in the ass factor shoots through the roof exponentially. Doing children’s birthday parties for years I learned that it doesn’t matter if I was at a celebrities house or at the home of someone in a much lower economical situation, people are just plain crazy. Not all of them of-course, but I would have to agree with Waiter, it’s around 20%.
When is the paperback coming out?
Typically, books are released in paperback after about a year, longer if demand is still quite high. But I would highly recommend against waiting on picking up this AWESOME book.
Just finished reading it at 4:30 last night. Book was great, saw some familiar stuff, well re-written and enjoyable. I markered it up and made it a house copy book for all my waitstaff to read. So far, everyone’s got a kick out of it. Great job Steve!
Some nasty bugger posted on Forbes that your book is just a recap of your blog. I defended you, since that’s exactly the mistake you DIDN’T make. 🙂 Woo pah!
Loooong time reader, first time commenter…
I have to admit I was nervous to click on the GMA link; I’ve had a crystal-clear mental image of you and I didn’t want to be disappointed when you looked nothing like it. I was elated to see that you looked just as I’ve pictured you for all this time!
Congrats on the success of your book and I hope to read more from you soon!
whooo.
I have been traveling a lot this summer but have kept up with your great news. Yay you!!!
I was in Boston where you were on TODAY and thought you did a super job on the interview. And later that day I saw your book featured very prominently at the Museum of Fine Arts gift shop. Cut to yesterday and I see your book all over Borders (Park @ 58th.)
I am truly thrilled for you. Major congrats for your achievement.
Awesome picture! So cute. And congrats on your success so far!
What a cutie! I loved the interview on GMA. I put in for your book at the lib but the list is sooo long–I’ll just have to buy it. 🙂
Loved the book. it answered many questions about things you were playing close to the vest on the blog and why. It is a great companion to the blog itself. You look so composed in the interview. Were you nervous? If so you hid it well.
test
You’ve got an award at http://carmelsundae.blogspot.com/2008/08/arte-y-pico.html 🙂
Thanks for so frequently inspiring.
I found your blog two weeks ago and it saved my sanity (multiple 2-hour breaks between classes). Just purchased your book today and can’t wait to read it (I haven’t read a book for fun in years, let alone bought one). Keep up the great work.
Any No Reservations type tv show in the works? =)
you’re a star, wait! 😀
I found your book in a Borders friday on my way home from work and snapped it right up. I devoured the book over the weekend and I have to say. It was fantastic. I even got a little teary eyed at the end.
You should know, you’re a terrific writer. 🙂
Good for you! Love hearing about your success story. I just saw the artcle on Nj.com.
Your nephew is truly adorable and, judging by his looks, he may turn out to be a best-selling author.
Reading your blog, for about a year now – I can happily say I became an addict of it – it is very nice to hear that your book is so successful. 6th reprint, wow! Congratulations, and I can’t wait to read it myself (my book is now somewhere between the States and my country: Finland 🙂 ).
I love your book and blog. I used to work as a waiter at a seafood resturant for 5 years and the stories in your book gave me some funny and not so funny flashbacks. I’d love to share some war stories in the resturant business with you. Congratualtions on the success of your book, it really hits home for us current anf former waiters!
Forbes.com called it “crude humour”!!! CRUDE humour? They think your sense of humour is crude? What, havent they ever heard of Sarah Silverman?? Now SHE is crude! You, Steve, are the antithesis of crude, the diametrical opposite of crude. You’re as refined as they come 🙂
Sometimes it’s not the customers that are the hardest to deal with, instead sometimes it can be your manager. He’s a little war story about one night I had as a waiter and my encounter with my less than competent manager.
It was 7:00 in the evening on a Friday night at a popular seafood restaurant
in Southern California. We were in the heart of the dinner rush and already
had a 2 hour wait to get a table, so needless to say it was a very busy
time. All of the food servers were running around like chickens with their
heads cut off trying to keep up with the furious pace the dinner time rush
is known for.
Out of nowhere one of the core pieces of restaurant equipment went down,
the dishwasher. Now we couldn’t recycle our dirty plates for clean ones.
Within 10 minutes there weren’t enough plates for the food that was
being cooked. Needless to say, we had a crisis on our hands. Me and
the rest of the servers quickly realized that the only way we were going to
get the food out to our customers was for us to hand wash the plates.
There we were, me and 5 other servers elbow deep in dirty dishes and hot
water (NOT in the job description) when in comes our manager. “Great!” I
thought, “Now we are going to get some help, the manager will help fix this
problem and I’ll be able to get back to my tables.” All I could get out was
a “Thank goodness-” before he interrupted me with his yelling. He went on
for some time, “I just had a customer complain that they haven’t seen their
server in 10 minutes! What are you guys doing? Don’t you remember your
training? Your one job is to make sure all the customers drinks are full and
their food gets to them correctly, and you can’t even do that! I guess I
don’t have as good a wait staff as I thought…now get out there and attend
to your tables IMMEDIATELY!” With that, he turned around and stormed out
of the kitchen and back into his office.
He didn’t observe the situation or take the time to ask the obvious
question, “Why are all you guys washing dishes?” So, he couldn’t help us by
letting our customers know the situation, or assigning kitchen staff to the
dishes so that we could attend to our tables. Instead, he reprimanded us and
took off. Basically, he swooped in, pooped all over our attempt at fixing
the problem, and then took off, leaving behind an even bigger mess for us to
clean up.
Eventually, our lead chef saw us struggling with the dishes and realized the
situation. He mobilized a group of the kitchen staff and busboys to clean
the dishes so we could get back out to our tables. No thanks to our seagull
manager, we were able to attend to our tables and explain the situation to
them. Most of the customers completely understood.
Its amazing the types of situations you face while waiting tables. And usually the hardest part isn;t even dealing with customers, it’s dealing with your moron manager.
Any chance of your books hitting Asia perhaps? can’t get a hold of one and i’ve been waiting for that for quite a while now…
I’m enjoying the book so far, but man, there are quite a few typos in it. I’ve counted three and I’m only on page 43. No editing?
I was so excited to read your book. I think I’ve gotten the whole restaurant to read it. The book is amazing and I think I’ve had about the same experiences you have had.