How to Keep White Server Shirts White

Serving, like any job, has it’s moments - good and bad.  But nothing quite compares to the moment when your co worker bumps into you, spilling the contents of a fresh brewed iced tea pitcher all over your brand new, perfectly pressed,  now formerly perfect white shirt.

Maintaining the server whites can be a challenge and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be.  A new shirt from  *the discount store that shall not be named* runs about $13 plus tax.  With luck white shirts can be picked up at Ross or TJ Max for around $10.  Outside of regularly scrounging the thrift stores ( I have co workers that do this successfully),  any bump, slip, splatter, or drip can set you back a healthy portion of your nights wages in uniform replacement costs.

In the past I tried soaking, hydrogen peroxide, bleach, spot stain removal, spray starch, and hair spray (it works a bit like scotch guard if applied to the shirt prior to the shift).  I even tried soaking my shirts with dishwasher detergent. Pre-treating my shirts with a pure or laundry bar soap and water has worked the best for me.  All of these things work well - especially the bar soap, but not every mustard, tea, steak grease, or spaghetti sauce stain would come out.  Outside of adding dry cleaning to an already stretched budget, what is a server to do?

Ask Grandma - go old school.  The best way I have found to protect my server whites without spending a fortune on dry cleaning is good old fashioned boiled starch.   A one dollar investment in a box of Corn Starch will buy you a month (or more) worth of protection.  When you starch your shirts the old fashioned way you actually get the starch in the fabric.  Stains are more likely to stick to the starch and wash out with the starch during laundering.  Bonus, no more spray starch all over the floor under the ironing board.  Your shirt will keep it’s razor sharp creases throughout your shift, and you will look more professional.   Second bonus, with razor sharp creases management and customers are less likely to notice those stubborn spots that just won’t come out.

David Thompson gives a wonderful guide to making and using your own home made boiled starch in his article on Ehow article: How to Make Homemade Boiled Starch.  All you need is 1/4 cup corn starch and water.  Dissolve the corn starch in 1 cup of water.  After the cornstarch is dissolved add 1 quart of water and microwave until it boils stirring every so often.  This gives you stand up and salute heavy starch, after boiling the starch add another quart of water for a "medium starch." I usually add 2 cups of water to my starch solution, I guess you could call it a "heavy medium" starch.

I run my clean shirts through a rinse cycle in the washer to get them wet, put the boiled starch in the sink, dip and agitate each shirt through the starch, and hand wring out each shirt.  I then put all my shirts back in the washer and skip it straight to the spin cycle (not rinse - spin only).  This removes the excess water and starch solution from the shirts before they go in the dryer.

The dry shirts iron out beautifully with a steam iron and when I’m feeling fancy or encounter a tough wrinkle I use a spray it some homemade linen water (tap water works fine too) on it and it irons right out.

Btw - Homemade linen water is 1/4 rubbing alcohol, 4 cups water, and a teaspoon fragrance or essential oil mixed together in a spray bottle, shake before each use.  (Always spot check on an inconspicuous part of the fabric before use).  It also make a great air freshener!

 

Had to go there - apologies ahead of time - Restaurant Tipping

Mary Hunt, who authors the Everyday Cheapskate advice column, implies that you should only tip restaurant employees for excellent service.  The definition of excellent service being left to the reader. You can read her column here.  Shame on you Mary!

My response:

Dear Mary,

Your recommendations for tipping a restaurant server are wrong.  A minimum of 15% gratuity is expected, with the caveat of less for bad or poor service.  In many areas the expected gratuity is 20%, but not a point worth arguing.  Post tax or pre-tax, calculate it however you feel comfortable, if the extra dollar or two is going to break your bank, calculate it pre-tax.  

Adequate service is  being served by a friendly and efficient server throughout your meal, with any mishaps (over/under cooked steak/ wrong side item) fixed quickly and professionally with an apology and deserves a minimum15% gratuity.  If the service is less than described above you may reduce the gratuity.  

If the server listens to your  life story,  politely engages with your crazy, condescending, mean, or just plain weird dining partner(s), gets to know every child at your table by name and makes them feel special, refills your drinks every 2 minutes because you are extremely thirsty or brings you two  beverages at a time for the same reason, effectively communicates your complicated special order to the kitchen (which involves praying that the cooks are paying attention as well as the expediter reading the ticket before sending the order out), or otherwise makes you feel special, they deserve a minimum of 20% (substantially more if they do all of the above at the same time).  If they do all of the above at 7pm on a Saturday night adopt, marry, or hire that server because you just found a perfect person.

Please keep in mind that your server is paying 2-3% of your check total to support staff.  If you leave no tip, the server still has to pay for waiting on you.  That is simply unkind and unjustified in all but the most egregious situations.

Myself, I tip post-tax 20% plus $2.  The reason I throw in the extra $2 dollars is because for two dollars more I can brighten someones day, pay them a compliment, and make them smile.  I'm not saying that everyone should do that, but to me it's worth two dollars to make a fellow human being smile.  For truly exceptional, kind, or thoughtful service I tip more.

If I can't afford to tip, I eat at home or go through the local drive-thru.

About Me

I’m living life in the weeds - Financial Weeds that is. The Glossary of Restaurant Industry Terms defines In the Weeds as follows: “A colloquial expression used when persons are near or beyond their capacity to handle a situation or cannot catch up. Struggling. Very busy.“

In a restaurant the only way out of the weeds is to slow down, move and think deliberately, ask for help, and sometimes pray (quickly). At the end of the day weeds or not, the shift is over. You either triumphed heroically through the battlefield of a busy night or you went down in flames. Either way, you formulate the battle plan for tomorrow on your way home (how to do it better, do it right, keep the guest happy). Go to bed and start over the next day.

About me:: Formerly Fabulous Successful Full - Time Salesperson (salary, benefits, etc) Now Presently Part Time want(need)-to-be Full Time Chain Restaurant Server. In short, Like so many others I have harshly fallen from the Great Middle Class and joined the growing ranks of the barely surviving.

Long on time, but short on resources, I am learning what our Grandmothers and Great-Grandmothers already knew. Vinegar cleans just about anything, food cooked from scratch tastes better, and making/doing things yourself has it’s own rewards.

Armed with an income lower than most states unemployment checks, a room mate that needs child care and laundry service more than rent, internet access, and an inquisitive nature I am learning to live well with less - alot less.

How to Indulge, save money, and feel good all at the same time.

Lots of time on your hands with few bucks in your pocket?  You can eat better than your well and fully employed friends.  Better yet, share with your friends, maybe they’ll pick up the ingredients next time.

I found instructions for How to Make Homemade Pasta  from Scratch online.  A couple of hours, several Italian Fantasies,  and eighty cents worth of ingredients later,  I was enjoying my very first batch of homemade fettuccine noodles.  Wow!!  Yum!! Upscale -Restaurant quality. What I would imagine an Italian Grandmother making for her family.

According to the recipe you are create a mound of flour, in the middle of this volcano-mound top it with eggs, olive oil, and salt.  Whisk it all together and knead your dough to a glossy consistency.

Being a modern girl, I chose food processor over mound, top, and whisk.   It did a good job starting the dough, but required finishing by hand, kneading the dough until it was shiny.  Maybe I’ll try the by hand method next time.....

Next step, let the dough rest 30 minutes....  just enough time to give the pile of laundry some attention.

Now the fun part, dividing the dough, rolling it out folding it in half, repeat, repeat, repeat...  I imagined myself in a beautiful kitchen carefully preparing a wonderful meal for large Italian family.  I imagined myself a Chef lovingly preparing the staple ingredients for the nights dinner service. Finally, I imagined retiring the rolling pin permanently.

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes (again)... time to walk the dogs and consider ironing...

On cutting the dough.  For noodles, the recipe reads: “roll the sheets up loosely into a Swiss roll ... and use a sharp knife to slice noodles to the desired width.”  After producing three very jagged sad “noodles,”  I changed techniques.  All the hand rolling (with the soon to be retired rolling pin) was not going to result in jagged ugly noodles!!  

Taking a cue from a long ago drafting class taught with slide rules, I solved the ugly noodle problem....  Two chopping mats!! Placing my pasta sheet on the bottom mat and aligning the edges of the top map allowed me to make my own “slide rule.”  Pizza cutter in hand, imagining myself an Italian grandmother in a beautiful Tuscan villa complete with vineyards, slide rule as my guide,  I carefully cut fabulous, beautiful fettuccine noodles.  Mama Mia!  Success!

I carefully laid half the fresh noodles over a high top chair back to dry.  With anticipation, I dropped the other half into a salted pot of boiling water.  I quickly whisked together milk and parmesan cheese in a sauce pan over high heat.  One minute, Two minutes - al dente (hmmm,,, Should we cook it more or not? More! Said my brain.), Three minutes, Four minutes -- Overcooked.  Bummer.  

Topped with the improvised Alfredo Sauce, my overcooked homemade pasta was still better than most restaurants and definitely better than the dried stuff sold at the store and I did it!!  Too much time off and not enough work, treading on the wrong side of broke Me!!

But wait what about the rest of the pasta?? The pasta hung to dry??

Three days later...

Salted Boiling water with just a touch of olive oil -- Check

Garlic and Onions sauteing in a mix of butter and olive oil -- Check

The fettuccine drops into the boiling water.  One small tomato, salt, pepper, dried basil, leftover baby portobello mushrooms (they were on sale), and a small contribution from my room mates open bottle of red wine joined the garlic and onions in the saute pan.

One Minute, Two (check for Al Dente), Three Minutes, Four - and a half - Al Dente!!

Strain the fettuccine, put it back in the empty pot, take the saute pan and top the pasta, stir, plate, add Parmesan.  Wow!  Amazing!  You have to find one of those small, locally owned, Chef inspired Italian Restaurants to enjoy something this good!  

Bonus - leftovers - lunch tomorrow!

Wish list for next time - pasta roller/ cutter.  Found one on Amazon.com for under $30. Hmmmm....

Search Amazon.com for Pasta Maker