*Disclaimer: Although loosely related to golf, this post has nothing to do with Tiger Woods.

While I was in college, I worked as a waitress at a country club. The first summer I worked there, I didn’t even wait tables – just delivered cocktails. I’d travel from the bar in the clubhouse’s grillroom to the outside terrace with as many drinks as I could fit on my little tray.

Being that this was a private golf club and class act establishment, we never served a drink that wasn’t carried on a tray and we served them all with cocktail napkins, while wearing a skirt. It doesn’t sound like a very difficult task but when you’ve got martinis filled to the top, wine glasses, rocks glasses, highball glasses and bottles of beer all on the same tray, it takes some skill to carry them without sloshing (that’s why cocktail waitresses hate when you order martinis!)

You also have to make sure that you serve the cocktails in a strategic manner. If the weight on the tray becomes imbalanced, the tray tips and your drinks fall. They don’t fall very gracefully either. I know this because I learned it the hard way when I dumped a large glass of red wine on an important man wearing a very nice suit. My point here is that serving drinks is not as easy as it looks. Everything that restaurant and bar managers can do to make cocktailing easier for their staff is always appreciated.

We had a variety of trays available to us but the other waitresses and I used to fight for the cork lined ones. If you happened to put one down, you’d lose it – so we carried them around with a tight grip. Why? It’s simple. The cork keeps the drinks from sliding around and your chances of both sloshing and slipping are significantly reduced.

I feel compelled to urge anyone who supplies drink service items to take this into consideration and buy the right trays. Your servers will be much happier, your drinks will stay where they belong and all will be well in the world.

TAGS [ COCKTAIL SERVICE | SERVING TRAYS | CORK LINED SERVING TRAYS | COCKTAIL SERVING TRAYS ]