Server Roles and Restaurant Service Styles: A Comprehensive Look
The Server
Benefits: Flexible hours, monetary benefits, contact with people, minimal investment in wardrobe.
Restaurant Management Roles
- Restaurant Management: Ensures that the restaurant operates efficiently and profitably.
- Dining Room Manager: Directs and coordinates food service in the dining room; hires, trains, and supervises employees; handles budgets, payroll, and purchasing.
- Host or Maître d’Hôtel: Schedules shifts and assigns stations; holds daily meetings with staff; controls the flow of seating; greets, seats, and provides menus to guests.
- Head Server: Supervises and coordinates dining room employees for a section of the dining room; may greet and seat guests; may serve guests.
- Busser: Assists servers in serving water, bread and butter, and coffee refills; clears soiled dinnerware; resets tables.
Server’s Opening Duties
The first opening duty for a server is to check the assigned station to see that the general area is presentable and ready to set up for service.
Using a clean cloth or sponge rinsed in sanitizing solution, a server should thoroughly wash the tables before setting them. Carry supplies of chinaware, glassware, silverware, and napkins to the table on clean trays. Set aside any service ware that is soiled, and return it to the kitchen. Discard any chipped or cracked glassware or china. A sidestand is a storage and service unit, sometimes with a computer terminal, located close to serving areas. A well-stocked sidestand eliminates the need for servers to make frequent trips to the kitchen for supplies or to place orders.
One of the main opening duties is to stock the sidestand nearest your station with service ware, garnishes, beverages, and supplies. The items kept in stock at the sidestand vary among restaurants. Because the sidestand is in plain view of the guests, it must be clean, neat, and presentable at all times.
Typical Sidestand Supplies
- Water pitchers, jugs, or carafes
- Clean, folded napkins
- Sponges and towels
- Order pads, guest checks, and extra pencils and pens
- Condiments
- Decorative garnishes
- Clean dinner menus and specialty menus, such as dessert and wine menus
- Drink coasters or napkins
- Tip wallets or trays
- China, silver, and glasses to set up covers
Types of Restaurant Service
French Service
In French service, the food is either cooked or completed at a side table in front of the guests. The food is brought from the kitchen to the dining room on heavy silver platters and placed on a cart called a guéridon. It employs two servers working together to serve the meal and may include a captain to seat guests and a wine steward to serve wine. The principal server is the chef de rang (or experienced server), who seats the guests when a captain is not present, takes the order, serves the drinks, prepares some of the food with flourish at the guests’ table, and presents the check for payment. The assistant is the commis de rang, who takes the order from the chef de rang to the kitchen, picks up the food and carries it to the dining room, serves the plates as dished up by the chef de rang, clears the dishes, and stands ready to assist whenever necessary. Finger bowls—bowls of warm water with rose petals or lemon slices in them—are served with all finger foods and at the end of the meal. The finger bowl is set on an underliner, a small plate with a doily, and placed, with a clean napkin, in front of the guests. Soiled dishes are cleared only when all guests have completed their meals.
The French cover includes an hors d’oeuvre plate (or show plate), napkin, dinner fork, dinner knife, soup spoon, butter plate, butter spreader, dessert fork and spoon, and a water or wine glass. The advantages of French service are that guests receive a great deal of attention, and the service is extremely elegant. The disadvantages are that fewer guests may be served, more space is necessary for service, many highly professional servers are required, and service is time-consuming.
Russian Service
The two major differences are that only one server is needed and that food is fully prepared and attractively arranged on silver platters in the kitchen. To serve, the server places a heated plate before each guest from the right side, going around the table clockwise. Then the server brings the platters of food to the dining room from the kitchen and presents them to the guests at the table. Standing to the left of each guest and holding the platter of food in the left hand, the server shows each guest the food and then, using a large spoon and fork in the right hand, dishes up the desired portion on the guest’s plate. The advantages of Russian service are that only one server is needed and that this service is as elegant as French service, yet faster and less expensive. No extra space is needed for special equipment, such as the guéridon. The disadvantages of Russian service are the large investment in silver service ware and the number of platters needed, especially when every guest in a party orders a different selection. Another disadvantage is that the last guest served at the table must be served from the less well-displayed food remaining.
English Service
English service is used occasionally for a special dinner served in a private dining room of a restaurant, but it is more typical of a meal served by servants in a private home. The food on platters and the heated plates are brought from the kitchen and placed before the host at the head of the table. The host or one of the servers carves the meat, if necessary, and dishes up the entrée and vegetable on individual plates. He or she hands the plates to the server standing to the left, who serves the guest of honor and all other guests. Dessert may also be served in this manner. All sauces and side dishes and, in some cases, vegetables are placed on the table to be passed by the guests. The advantage of English service is that it involves a great deal of showmanship for a special occasion. The disadvantages are that the host may be required to do a lot of the work by dishing up some of the food, and with only one person serving the meal, the service can be very time-consuming.
American Service
American service is less formal than French, Russian, or English service. It is the most prevalent style of service in restaurants in the United States. In American service, food is dished up on plates in the kitchen. Usually, only one server presents the meal. Food is served from the left of the guest, beverages are served from the right, and soiled dishes are cleared from the right. The American breakfast and lunch table setting differs from the American dinner setting. Breakfast and lunch are simple meals and require only a limited amount of service ware. Dinner involves more courses and more service ware. American service can be simple and casual or complex and elegant.
Banquet Service
Banquet service involves serving a meal to a group of people who are celebrating, gathering for a special occasion, or honoring special guests. The menu, number of guests, and time of service are predetermined, and the banquet is well-organized in advance. Banquet service is offered in hotels, resorts, country clubs, casinos, and restaurants that have conference rooms for holding meetings. The server generally sets the tables with American settings modified according to the particular menu. Occasionally, French, Russian, or buffet service is used at a banquet, and the table is set accordingly. If the guests will remain seated for entertainment or a speaker after dinner, be sure the tables are cleared and tidy at the completion of the meal. Because the banquet is paid for in advance, the server does not need to present a check or collect payment. The tip is often included in the contract made by the catering manager and the client arranging the banquet. The advantage of banquet service is that the menu and serving time are predetermined, which makes service a simple routine, accomplished by fewer servers than needed for other types of serving. A disadvantage of banquet service is that guests receive very little personal attention. They are usually seated in close quarters, which makes proper service difficult.
Family-Style Service
Family-style service is a modification of American service and somewhat more informal. All necessary preparation, such as cooking foods and slicing meats, is done in the kitchen. The food is then placed in large bowls and on platters and is properly garnished. The server serves the bowls and platters by placing them in the center of the table. The food is passed around the table by the guests, who help themselves to the portions desired. If the family-style service has an all-you-can-eat feature, servers must refill serving containers when requested. This simplified manner of service is advantageous to new waitstaff who have not learned the proper details of serving. It is fast because the guests actually serve themselves; servers can serve more people than when a more formal type of service is used. The disadvantages are that guests receive less personal attention and must serve themselves from a food platter that becomes less attractive as other guests serve themselves.
Buffet Service
A smorgasbord is a buffet featuring a large selection of food with Scandinavian selections, such as cheese and herring. One advantage to buffet service is that food can be displayed in a very attractive manner. However, this can quickly become a disadvantage if care is not taken to keep the food selections fresh and complete. Another advantage is that servers can attend to many guests at one time, but guests receive less personal attention than with table service.
Salad Bars
Guests prepare their own tossed green salads and help themselves to a variety of prepared salad accompaniments, such as salad dressings, crackers, and breadsticks. More elaborate salad bars offer soups, pasta salads, cold-cut vegetables, fruits, hard-boiled eggs, grated cheese, and crouton and seed toppings. And even more elaborate salad bars may include dishes such as pickled herring, sardines, thinly sliced ham, and tuna salad. Salad bars are available in casual, informal restaurants.
Oyster Bars
An oyster bar is a buffet featuring oysters on the half shell and various seafood and mustard sauces that complement the oysters. Sometimes boiled shrimp or other appetizer seafood extends the selection.
Dessert Tables
A tantalizing display of tortes, pies, cakes, cream puffs, eclairs, fresh fruits, and soft cheeses displayed in buffet fashion.
As with conventional buffet service, the food at the salad and oyster bars and dessert table can be arranged very attractively. Less work is involved for the server because the guests take care of getting their own soup, salad, bread, appetizer, and dessert. The server has more time to serve many guests, which increases opportunities for extra tips.