1. You never know what the new stain on your clothes is at the end of the night
You’ll end up with different sauces, wines, cheeses and much much more on your clothes, shoes and other various parts of your body at the end of the night and you’ll never know what exactly it is and where it came from… and maybe that’s a good thing sometimes.
2. You will have to correct people on their Italian pronunciation
Italian is a beautiful language when it’s spoken correctly, but sometimes words get lost in translation while making their way across the Atlantic.
American customers tend not to pronounce the “e” at the end of Bolognese, or they say “Eye-talian” instead of “Ih-talian”, and most don’t even try to pronounce “gnocchi“; these types of customers make you appreciate the people who know how to speak Italian even more.
3. You will be so grateful when you get a customer who knows Italian
It is so nice to hear the different dishes pronounced correctly in their full Italian glory.. These customers are few and far between in Des Moines, Iowa, but they are so much fun to wait on.
4. You’ll make more money in tips at the end of the night than you can fit in your wallet
The best part of any shift is the end of it, and at the end of the night if you have done your job well, you’ll have a heaping wad of tip money to take home and most of the time it won’t fit in your wallet. You’ll definitely feel like a baller walking out at the end of the night, but I wouldn’t recommend making it rain…
5. You’ll have to get used to being yelled at in a foreign language
There’s lots of yelling in the restaurant business. It’s a high stress, high productivity operation on a Friday or Saturday night. Your boss will most likely be yelling at you in Italian, which if you don’t know, it can be scary, but is sometimes even worse if you know the language.
6. You’ll learn the language
If you’re studying or have studied abroad or are just looking to learn a new language, working at an Italian restaurant is definitely a really good way to get to know the cuisine and the language.
7. You’ll drop stuff
When mastering the art of balancing multiple wine glasses, pizzas, pastas and whatever else people order, you won’t always be able to keep it all stable. Sometimes it goes crashing down, and that’s just the way it goes. Oh, and it will probably end up all over your clothes too.
8. You might get a free meal
One of the many perks of working at an Italian restaurant is hands down the possibility that you might get free leftover pasta, pizza, wine, gelato, tiramisu, and whatever else the cooks are feeling generous enough to dish out to you. So basically the moral of the story is to always be nice to your cooks.
9. Your co-workers become family
The best part of working at an Italian restaurant is that your coworkers will become like your family. You will all depend on each other, work together to give the best service to the customers and will have a pretty fun time doing it. If you weren’t born into an Italian family, this is the second best thing.