Chefs and Restaurants

A Restaurant Staff Doesn't Have to Be a Family to Be Great

Adam Reiner

Along with chronically sore feet, I owe my longest tenured friendships to the restaurant business. I’ve attended weddings, baby showers, bachelor parties, and funerals of former colleagues. Those enduring bonds, earned through shared sacrifice and a common struggle, often transcended friendship. In good and bad ways, a restaurant staff functions a lot like a real-life family. Good when there’s mutual respect, bad when you’re forced to spend the holidays together. Restaurant life has all the...