Hi all,

Many years of restaurant and farm work; degree in food policy and aquaculture. Currently starting a wholesale ice cream manufacturing facility, hoping to one day grow into distribution of high-end frozen food. Just curious if there are any other food professionals around here: retail, wholesale, policy, etc?

rafa sells oranges

not really but I'd love to hear your stories about what you do on a daily basis

I waited tables and bartended for about 8 years. Mostly waited tables. Please don't make me go back there.

I'm considering going into this line of work. You think I'll hate it? Keep in mind I've been working with kids for almost ten years.

My friend has been a waiter for like 15 years. Works in St Helena and Napa currently. He loves it and says tips can be great

That's so hard for me to fathom. Waiting tables would be my nightmare job.

Before I joined the military I was a bartender and waiter and a popular seafood joint here at the beach. From May thru September I would walk out of every shift with at least 300 bucks in tips. Was a shock to my wallet when I first went into the military.

It's great at first when your straight out of high school. The longer you do it, the more you learn to hate humanity. some people act like savages when it comes to stuffing their faces.

Yep. I waited tabled for many years, starting in no-name spots, and worked my way into very high-end James Beard Award-winning places. It was amazing when I was young, selfish, and single: great cash every night, a revolving door of women to pursue, and fantastic food, wine, liquor, and weed every night.

As I got older, it felt awful. My hips hurt, the promiscuity felt gross, and I had developed a steady weed habit. I left it all behind in 2010, and am a much happier man for it. I think if I wanted to run my own restaurant, it would have been a different story, because I would have had a dream to pursue. But if you're not in it for the passion of hospitality, then I'd caution that it has a limited shelf life.

Depends on the day. Understand that I worked in farming in my early 20s because I loved it, and it was a great way to travel (through WWOOF); and then I worked with livestock when I went back to school in my early 30s (I'm almost 35). The restaurant work was more frequent, and it started as a way to pay the bills while I pursued work in recording studios. That took a long time. In 2010, I was getting enough studio work that I was able to quit the restaurant world and do the studio thing full-time, but I hated it after just three years.

I went back to school at the age of 31, and designed a degree in Food Policy (with a minor in fisheries and aquaculture) at a very progressive school that has a working farm; I worked as a livestock assistant, and also designed a small aquaculture system. Then I got extraordinarily lucky: the school held an investment competition (like Sharktank), I pitched them on an ice cream company, and they went for it. I recently moved from MA to MT with my wife, and I am currently working out the fine print on a lease for a commercial production facility.

My days are currently spent creating budgets; interacting with suppliers, distributors, and/or state regulators; reviewing site plans; and working on the translation of home ice cream recipes to manufacturable formulas. The current timeline sees me making product around January or February, and hopefully turning a profit before 2020

yeah, you can definitely hook up with some shady people in the biz.

Yeah people like me.

The sex and drugs part was great for awhile, but yeah, it's a dead end. The instant paycheck was nice too.

I had no idea being a waiter was so similar to being a rock star.

I met way more famous people waiting tables than I did working in the music industry.

The money is probably a little better than being a rock star these days. Sometimes I made a hundred whole dollars in a single shift.

No disrespect intended, but for the guy who was considering a move into waiting tables: You can do much better than this. You'll have to get some experience under your belt first, but the money can become pretty significant. I would regularly get $300 a shift, and I have friends who currently get around $700 a night at places that come with more bullshit attached. It makes it hard to walk away, once you get used to it...

That was years ago, and in Mississippi dollars. I was practically a millionaire.

Also I really sucked at it. I couldn't hide my contempt for my customers very well, and refused to learn the specials and wine and stuff.