Insider Secrets: What Restaurant And Bar Workers Won’t Tell You About How They Cut Costs Behind The Scenes
There are a number of things that less-than-scrupulous owners do to increase their margins. I’ve seen operators pour bulk liquor into premium bottles hoping guests won’t notice. Cocktail bars can print one brand on the menu and then pour another one because they ran out of the more expensive one. The shadiest thing that I’ve encountered though was an owner that tried to hire all of his staff as independent contractors so he wasn’t liable for paying payroll tax or required insurance. Treating the human capital poorly is the shadiest tactic an owner could do to cut costs.
I was a 16-year-old waitress in a deli and my cheap boss would make me re-use the soda cups unless they had obvious lipstick marks on them. I lost all respect for him and soon quit.
It was back in the 1970’s. I was a young cook in a restaurant in LaCrosse Wisconsin. Most restaurants would run a Friday night all you can eat special which was always fried fish, usually beer battered, Cole slaw and fries. Yep, YOU KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING.. An extra dishwasher was scheduled that night to search the returning plates for untouched fish and fries. These would be refried and served again. The owner’s explanation was that the refrying killed all “GERMS”. Needless to say I rapidly found another job before someone got sick and the kitchen was blamed.
In my teen years I worked at a Sonic Drive In. When it got slow, the manager would make us carhops dig through the trash (no gloves) and pull out unused ketchup, mustard, etc packets and put them back in the bin on the shelf. I did that once and then quit and never went back!
My cousin work at the same Sonic and she said they used to make her wipe the green slime off of the hot dog wieners and then throw them on the grill. Barf!!
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