Many people can tell horror stories about their teenage or university years waiting tables. For Debra Ginsberg, struggling writer and single mother, waitressing has been a means of survival - and she has the scars to prove it.
This book is part memoir, part social commentary, part guide on how to behave when dining out. Debra Ginsberg takes readers on an intimate - and often hilarious - journey of her 20 years as a waitress at the dingiest of diners, a soap-operatic Italian restaurant, an exclusive five-star supper club, and other fine and not-so-fine dining establishments.
While chronicling her parallel evolution as a writer and single mother, she also takes a behind-the-scenes look at restaurant life (revealing that yes, when pushed, a server will spit in food, and no, that's not really decaf you're getting) and how most people in the business are in a constant state of "waiting" to do something else.
Witty, poignant, and often irreverent, this book reveals what goes on "on the other side of the table" as well as truths about human nature, the frightening things that go on in the kitchen, and all of the frustrating and funny moments in this life.
