86'd getting to know us

Episode 9 was our second try with Breanna due to technical difficulties and thank you so much to Breanna for making this happen. Breanna has worked in many service industry roles: Expo, Hostess's, Server, Owner of a juice business and her most recent job, Wine Rep. Breanna has so much to offer in the way of service industry conversation, but it's her extensive wine knowledge where we wanted to take the conversation. We finish the show talking briefly about the latest Rochester Magazine cover story "Rochester's Restaurant influencers", and these wonderful people's sense of community and commitment to the service industry. So please join us for some great conversation. cover art is provided by Micha Hackbarth mroseart.bigcartel.com

episode 8 - we start the show reflecting on one of the three big (rookie/amateur) nights in our industry, Valentines and then shift gears to discussing a situation that many of us in the industry dread, an injury that puts us out of work. Brian has long had a troublesome knee but when his knee pops at work, things don't look good. spoiler alert: Brian is fine, but a good conversation was had about the fear of prolonged absence from work.  Our guest this week is one of our newer co-workers Brittney and get her perspective of being the Newbie at an established restaurant, coming from a college bar and grill into a restaurant full of veteran staff and in a busy downtown atmosphere. To finish up the show, Rant and Raves is back, and this week mostly Rants, it is the middle of winter and Valentines just happened, what do you expect? Enjoy the show! Artwork provided by: Micha Hackbarth  mroseart.bigcartel.com

This week we have the pleasure of talking to the General Manager/Server/Bartender extraordinaire, Nicole from Thirsty Belgian. We discuss what its like to work for a neighborhood bar and importance of community to them and as a whole for the service industry and yes we address Thirsty Belgian reputation of being the nerdiest bar in Rochester.

Many of us in the server industry have faced this inquiry in some form or another? Are you in school? What’s your plan? You don't just do this, do you? Sometimes, it's said innocently enough, other times with a very obvious condescension. When a popular restaurant bar, in our town, took to Facebook to clap back at a customer who went after their employee for being just a server, it got us thinking what constitutes a real job and who gets to decide? We realize that we just scratched the service of this topic but, it made for great conversation with a very honorable ex co-worker who has taken his talents to another honorable profession, nursing. Chad was a great server and king of the catch phrase when we shared the floor together. We hope you enjoy the show.  The post we reference in the show can be found on the Taphouse West End, Rochester MN Facebook page. Extremely well written and worth the read. The artwork is done by: Micha Hackbarth mrosearts.bigcartel.com

Episode 4 we look at trends in the restaurant business with our guest, Kelly Radke, who had worked in the industry for years as a server, bartender and manager (she was voted best bartender in our lovely little town by Rochester Magazine).  We would like to say thank you for listening to our podcast, this particular episode was a blast and a bit challenging with four voices and one microphone, but Santa was good to us and we have an upgrade in equipment in hopes to bring a more polished listen going forward. 

Episode 3 we go into server industry burnout, our own experiences and how we deal with it. As it often goes in the setting of the restaurant, things do not always go as planned, our guest was not able to show for this week, so we pivoted to a request we heard from a few of our followers to expand our origin stories in the biz. Thanks for listening, hope you enjoy!

Episode 2 was a mailbag episode, that quickly devolved into some customer experiences that were not really life affirming but we also touch on our expectations when dining out and what celebrities we have had the pleasure and not pleasure of meeting . So please join us for a little more than usual rant filled episode but not too much

This episode is a lighthearted approach to the restaurant and service industry from the lenses of three professional servers, don't be surprised if we veer off into other topical issues. Episode #1 is a 'get to know us' overview. Let us know any compelling questions or thought-provoking topics from the view of a server or customer you'd like us to cover.