Waiter Schools for Restaurant Servers

Waiter schools are offering restaurants in the United States a “much needed refresher course,” according to an article in this week’s Bloomberg Business Week. In a piece captioned Garçon Academy, author David Sax writes that there is a “sorry state of American table waiting,” and that the business of training waiters is gaining traction.  According to one restaurant consultant, only 5-15 percent of waiters are doing their job correctly.  Sax writes that serving is often a bootstrap business or backup plan in the United States, whereas in Europe, serving is often a career.  Waiter schools claim that an increase in the professionalism of the waitstaff is an effective way to boost restaurant revenues and that an investment in education can yield an immediate increase in check averages the day after training.