A whole host — and hostess — of problems

​If you’ve worked in the restaurant industry for any length of time, you’ve probably done a stint as a host or hostess in a dining room, a job distinctly more difficult than it may appear. My friend Lorraine calls the job “working the book,” since juggling the requirements and demands of the reservation book is no simple task. Like everything connected with the hosting duties — particularly in very busy corporate restaurants — it can be stressful, even slightly dangerous (I’ve known hosts and hostesses who were threatened by angry diners). To say the very least: it’s a job that looks so effortless, but involves a lot more than just greeting the patrons, although that’s one of the most important tasks and one that a lot of young men and women in the business today utterly disregard.

“The host or hostess immediately sets the tone for the entire evening,” says my friend Truman, a 25-year veteran of the restaurant business. “If you step into a restaurant and you’re not immediately greeted warmly by the person at the front desk or — even worse — met with a frosty reception or haughtiness, your mood is soured right away. It can take a good server the rest of the night to turn that perception around.”

A friend of mine who recently took a second job working as a host in one of the Plaza’s busiest dining venues was stunned by what he’s learned working behind the hostess desk. He assumed the job would be relatively simple. You greet guests and show them to their tables, right?