I used to wait tables at a seafood restaurant in a San Francisco bay area suburb. I had a lot of fun waiting tables and working with the rest of the folks in the restaurant. I mainly worked weekends and sometimes more often during the summer.
I learned a lot about food at the restaurant and learned to appreciate calamari, oysters and other seafood dishes I hadn’t tried before. I knew a fair amount about wine before I started the job because my father was a wine lover, so that helped me when I was assisting customers selecting wine.
One of my favorite waiting “incidents” was serving champagne to a couple celebrating their 25th anniversary. I picked up the chamapgne from the bar and opened it at the table. Unfortunately the bartender had grabbed one of the bottles he put in just a while earlier so the outside of the bottle was cold, but the interior was still warm. The bottle started spraying out so the only thing I could do is point it at myself and take the brunt of the flow until it subsided. The couple took it all in stride and thanked me for the champagne fountain celebrating their special day. I got them a new bottle (properly chilled) and they gave me a big tip.
