Eat Arkansas: Meet Your Waiter

Blogging food all over the state.

« Sixteen Arkansas Restaurants Made the Cut for Wine Spectator | Main | What's your bbq pleasure? »

Meet Your Waiter

Obviously, if you are reading this blog, you love food. You think about it, you read about it, you probably even dream about it. As foodies, we care deeply about our food and where it comes from. We wonder about the farms that produce what we eat. We wonder about the chefs that can create dishes that we only wish we could make ourselves. But how often do we wonder about who is serving our food? Well, Meet Your Waiter hopes to change all that. Here, we will highlight those unsung heroes of the restaurant biz, without which your food would never get from that brilliant chef in the kitchen all the way to your table. Some things you learn about them may surprise you. Other things you may have had pegged the minute you laid on eyes on them. Either way, meet your waiter this week:

Name: Hannah Burton

Age: 20

Where she works: Gusano’s Chicago Style Pizzeria, server

Favorite dish she serves: The Hula Pizza. The name implies that the pizza has something to do with Hawaii, but it doesn’t. It’s named after one of the owners, whose nickname is Hula. It is a traditional crust pizza with ranch dressing instead of pizza sauce. It is topped with Chicken, spinach, mushrooms, and onions.

Best part about waiting tables: “Downtown has such a fast pace”, she says. “You meet so many different people.” Also, working at sports bar is just up Hannah’s alley. She is really looking forward to the upcoming football season.

What you may not know: Hannah has been in 10 car wrecks in 4 years! One of which involved a drunk driver. Her car was totaled and she broke her shoulder and tore muscles in her back. Now, when she’s serving a table drinks, she always asks who’s driving.

Her future plans: Hannah is a speech pathology major at UCA. Her goal is to work with handicapped children.

If you want your favorite waiter profiled here, leave a comment and let me know where they work and why they are awesome.

Posted by Jessica Kokinos-Havel on August 17, 2008 07:17 PM | Permalink

Comments

How can she serve drinks if she's not 21? Or did I just dream that was the law?

Posted by: EY | August 17, 2008 08:00 PM

I have always been impressed with Gusano's waitresses. My favorite is Sarah, who has been there a long time. World class.

You can serve drinks if you're 18 or older. Loophole so that 18-20 yr olds can work in bar/restaurants.

Posted by: Big Fun | August 17, 2008 08:56 PM

I thought you had to be 19 to serve a drink, but I really don't know for sure. Are there different rules for open saloons vs. private clubs? What about smoking vs. non-smoking establishments? Do you still have to be 21 to work in a liquor store?

The bartender - waitress line has always been pretty fine in Arkansas. I just call them barmaids--they mix and carry drinks. I wonder about age limits for stay behind the bar bartenders.

Back in dem der days, women were not accepted behind the bar. For the past 20 years or more in Arkansas, they have been required, and men need not apply for bartender jobs. The sage mixologist polishing glasses and providing a non-judgmental ear is no longer. Now even that has been replaced by the constant chasing of the cat.

Posted by: Whoscrumdown | August 18, 2008 10:46 AM

The law changed within the last 5 or 6 years. You must be at least 19 to serve liquor but you still cannot work behind the bar mixing drinks and you must also have a signed letter from your parent or guardian giving permission to serve. I am not familiar with the law pertaining to private clubs, but I am quite certain that you must be 21 to serve in a smoking establishment considering you must be 21 to even enter as a customer.

Posted by: eldee | August 18, 2008 11:06 AM

So what's the rule for band members? I was at West End the other night and the band had a 14 year old keyboard player. I know there was a law enacted many moons ago that let under 21 folks play in bars. (was it the Art Porter Jr. law?) but I figured with the new "no one under 21 in smoking bars period!" law would have superseded the band member law.

Posted by: conform&bedull | August 18, 2008 12:52 PM

Hope the service/food has gotten better in the past few months!!
I've been there 3 times and each time the service was terrible. It took forever to get a pizza and the pizza was so-so at best.

Everyone in the party were disappointed with the place. We usually go over to the burrito place or get Greek now.

Posted by: kretara | August 18, 2008 03:25 PM

By the way, Jessica, please keep up the good work! You are doing an excellent job on this blog, and I really enjoy the new features you've introduced.

Posted by: Arkhobbit | August 18, 2008 05:03 PM

Jessica,

I feel bad saying this, but I don't know the name of my fav waiter. He works at Acadia, waited on the group in the Private Dining Room on Aug 9 and he's really cool. Waited on us last year for my birthday dinner as well. They can probably tell you lots more about him. All I know is we didn't scare him, he joined in on our jokes and did a fine FINE job taking care of us.

I second Arkhobbit's kudos on the features!

Posted by: EY | August 18, 2008 07:16 PM

Eat Arkansas

Blogging food all over the state.

Meet Your Waiter

Comments

Post a comment