Restaurant Key Terms: Fine Dining Language That All Servers MUST know
If you’ve actually waited tables in the past, you might have been told to possess your waiter/waitress checkbook and wine key readily available at all times. And if you’ve ever endured an initial day waiting tables in a restaurant before, you might have found yourself right in the center of a linguistics lesson situation
This also applies very much so to the seasoned vets of the food and beverage business. With a little or perhaps a large amount of experience under your belt, you can still end up in uncharted verbal terrain whenever starting a new job elsewhere. That’s because terminology can differ just a little from restaurant to restaurant, and the frequency of use with particular sayings changes also. But despite having the some differences within the very same terminology, there exists a still a commonly used list of Restaurant Key Terms that tend to be universal within the industry.
Each profession has their own jargons that only people in that industry knows about. It’s not made to make a distinction but to make communication between front and back-end personnel address the concerns easily with minimal words. These words helps them to be more efficient and bring more focus on the tasks at hand especially during peak hours where everything starts to be confusing and noisy. Here are some terms that each food servers, chefs, and most staff members commonly use:
Restaurant Language: Essential Waiter Key Terms
7, 11, – This is referred to the number by itself – This is a table number. Restaurant personnel often talk in shorthand to save time when speaking to one another. So instead of saying “table 11 would like refills” a coworker could say ” you’re 4-top on 11 needs water.”
86’d – This keyword is two-fold. It could simply imply “we’re out of something” as in “the fish special is currently 86’d” or ” miller lights are 86’d.” Additionally, it may mean a person has been kicked out from the establishment for disrupting other guests. “Mr. Johnson has been recently 86’d for his inappropriate behavior with the customers. If he attempts to enter again, immediately look for the supervisor.”
Back of the house – The back end of the restaurant, the kitchen and storage areas, where the chefs, cooks, prep people and dishwashers primarily work. These are the workers that does not have direct contact with the customers.
Bank – The money a server or bartender holds onto to deliver change to the customer throughout their shift. Some restaurants may necessitate servers to bring their own bank themselves, while other restaurants provides a stack of 1’s, 5’s, 10’s and 20’s and also nickels, dimes, and quarters for waiters and waitresses to have from the start of their shift.
Bar Back – The staff member who helps maintain the bar stocked and operating therefore the bartender can concentrate on taking orders from clients. This may include obtaining ice, running beverage orders, and replacing kegs.
Behind – That is called out when somebody is transporting drinks or plates behind you. It’s a simplified version instead of saying something like:
“Be careful, Don’t back up, I’m carrying a lot of burning hot plates, if you bump into me we’re going to get covered in it and proceed to scream in excruciating pain”.
Bubble Dancer – Term used to the most valuable and unrecognized of kitchen staff – the dishwasher.
Campers – A party that stays at a table for a long time.
Chef de Partie – Station chefs. In the brigade system, these are the line cook positions, such as saucier, grillardin, etc.
Commis – An apprentice. A cook who works under the Chef de Partie to learn the station and responsibilities.
Comp – In an essence it means free beverage or food. This is often given to a table that’s upset about an order they placed or even to a customer that comes regularly as an appreciation for his or her continues business. This can be said as “The supervisor comped my table for the reason that the soup was completely cold, again” or “He comped Mrs. Richardson’s first beer since she rang up an extremely nice tab the other day.”
Covers – The amount of meals served in an individual shift or altogether for the entire day of business in the restaurant. This is used for restaurant managers, supervisors and proprietors to track daily visitors in the establishment. The term “covers” can be used to arrange for a future reservation. Hostesses could be told to just seat a specific number of covers (people) at the same time to ensure that the kitchen will keep up with the business and traffic.
Cryovaced – Generally used with meat products, but many dried goods are packed this way to retain freshness. Cryovacing is a process used to remove any excess oxygen from a bag, and then the bag is heat sealed to make it airtight. When receiving meat products that have been cryovaced, keep a look out for products that are discolored and brownlooking, this means the airtight seal has been broken and you should send the product back.
Deuce – A table with only two seating spaces. For example, “Seat this deuce at Table 12″
Double – Two shifts in a row. “I’m exhausted, I just pulled a double.”
Double/Triple Sat – When more than one table is seated in a particular station at the same time.
Dupe – The ticket/information that gets submitted to the kitchen so the cooks can cook orders of food.
Drop the Cheque – Taking a guest’s bill to their table for payment.
Drop – Start cooking the accompanied item. “The mussels are almost done, better drop the calamari.”
Drop Food/Order – The moment at which the kitchen begins to prepare a guest’s food or the moment a server delivers an order to the customers. “I just dropped the drinks on table
Early Bird – Generally elderly people or tourists who want everything included for very little money.
Early Bird Special – A cheap meal that is generally available for a limited amount of time when the restaurant opens for service.
Expo, Expeditor – A food runner. It is a position frequently employed at busy dining places to relieve the necessity for servers to rush backwards and forwards to the kitchen to check on orders. The food expeditors are located across the pick-up station, their purpose is to assure food order accuracy and run the meals out to the table when it’s prepared. This system is put in place to keep the servers in the primary dining room and the meals coming out promptly.
Fire, Fire it – Order given by the head of the line to the other cooks to begin preparation of certain orders, such as “Fire those shepherds pies!”
Flip/ Turning Tables Over – This means getting a massive amount of customers sat, fed, getting payment and having them out the entranceway so guests can sit at exactly the same table. High-traffic restaurants often enjoy servers that are proficient at keeping customers moving at a faster pace so more business could be accomplished.
Food cost – What a menu item costs to prepare. The cost of a chicken entrée with meat, sauce, vegetables and starch is your food cost. Most restaurants run between a 30-40% food cost, this does not include the cost of overhead that needs to get added in before you start making a profit.
Front of the house – The front end of the restaurant, the dining room and bar where the customers are served and wait staff, bartenders, bussers and dining room managers primarily work.
Garde-Manger – Pantry chef/station. The postion responsible for cold food preparation, including salads, cold appetizers and plating desserts.
Hockey Puck – A well done hamburger..
In the Weeds – This is referring to when a bartender, waiter, waitress or cook is hectic beyond their very own capacity. This tends to happen to everyone at one certain point of their career or another. It may be a consequence of inexperienced staff, whenever a section is sat all at one time or perhaps a slam of customers throughout a particularly crazy rush. If somebody is struggling in the weeds, backup is normally sent out to greatly help them out.
Mispick – An item that is ordered from a vendor that has a label on it that does not match the product it contains.
No Call/No Show – Employee who does not show up and does not call or a Reservation that does not show up and does not call.
On the Fly – This phrase means to obtain the order and have it shipped out as quickly as humanly feasible. On the fly is normally used when an purchase is sent back due to customer dislike or just because a server skipped something and requires it set out immediately
Overhead – The added in factors when you are costing out menu products to make sure you are making a profit. Overhead may include electricity costs, paper and chemical products, employee salaries and any additional costs that may be relevant in serving an item.
Party – A group of people at a table.
Saucier – Sauté Chef/station. The chef de partie responsible for all the sautéed items and their sauces.
Server – The preferred term for waiter or waitress, for example, “Could you find my server, please, I need a refill on my Pepsi.”
Shelf life – The amount of time in storage that a product can maintain quality, freshness and edibility.
Sous Chef – Generally the second in command in a kitchen; there can be an Executive Sous Chef, generally found in a larger kitchen with a lot of staff. The Sous Chef runs the kitchen when it’s the Chef’s day off or he/she is not available.
Upsell/Upgrade – To suggest a higher priced item.
Veg – The vegetable accompaniment to a plated meal.
VIP – A very important customer, perhaps well-known and deserving of extra special treatment. Food critics fall into this category. Generally accompanied by many Comps.
Well drinks – “Well” drinks are made from the inexpensive house liquors on hand. i.e. If you ask for a unspecified gin and tonic you will get whatever gin they serve as opposed to a Tanqueray and tonic.
I’m positive this has been a very helpful post for all you veteran waiters and waitresses along with brand new employees of the restaurant business. Make sure to bookmark this page to refer back to it whenever you are confused about any terminology or just want to up your restaurant vocabulary repertoire. Make sure to Sign up below for Exclusive content, graphs, charts, and specific tips that I save for loyal fans.
