Brunch haters

Restaurant people are really like vampires; most waiters I know never get out of bed before 10am or out of the house by noon. Chefs have to get up much earlier than that, which I think is why they're usually snappish and grumpy. Long hours, high stress, and not enough sleep. I love waiting tables because you show up for a few hours, do your job, collect your cash, and go home. I never think about the restaurant when I'm not at work, except sometimes fleetingly. While you're actually at work, it can be a very high-stress environment (that's why waiters drink so much), but it's a low-stress job overall because you don't have to think about it at all when you're not there.

All of the restaurant workers I know love going out to brunch and hate working it. The restaurant I work at just started serving a Sunday brunch and the servers are furious; most people took the job because there's not a lunch shift and we all have other jobs or school during the day.

Now that I'm the server that's been working at the restaurant the longest (which has only been six months, but the entire service staff has changed over in that time), the regulars are starting to recognize me and be friendly and personal. There's a section in our restaurant that's like a bar area, right in front of the open kitchen line where the waiter station is, and diners can eat or have cocktails there. I was serving a couple of regulars (who usually sit at the bar, but on Friday night the bar was too packed to order dinner) there, and they were so sweet. They embodied the kind of eye-rolling, confiding, well-dressed, olderish, gay males who frequent our place of establishment to a T.

The thing I love the most about gay men is their candor. If there's something wrong with my outfit, or the service I'm giving, or the food, they're not going to hesitate to tell me. So I can be confident when these regulars said, "Girl, I've been watching the way you work, and let me tell you, you are good!" that it was true. It also makes me feel especially fabulous when I get compliments on my hair. In any case, these two regulars dine out every night (and probably at least once a week at the place I work), and so I asked them where was the hippest new place to eat in San Francisco. One of them told me Tres Agaves is the place to dine right now.