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springliketheseason's review
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.0
If you've worked food service you'll like it.
greensalbet's review
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
A great frolic through the New York restaurant scene from the 1980s up to the pandemic. Cecchi-Azzolina gives readers a front row look into the kitchens, dining rooms, design and marketing teams, house staff, bartenders, and waiters who make fine dining happen in the city that never sleeps.
Cecchi-Azzolina holds nothing back in this telling. Readers learn about the drugs, the drinking, the sex, the coke snorting, and the palm greasing that occurs in most high-end restaurants where seats are hard to reserve, expectations for dining perfection are expected, and restaurant employees bust their asses nightly to serve demanding guests. The staff consume whatever uppers and downers they can get their hands on to keep their equilibrium in check. High levels of repressed rage have to be monitored when dealing with cruel, demanding patrons in a business designed for their every need.
Cecchi-Azzolina holds nothing back in this telling. Readers learn about the drugs, the drinking, the sex, the coke snorting, and the palm greasing that occurs in most high-end restaurants where seats are hard to reserve, expectations for dining perfection are expected, and restaurant employees bust their asses nightly to serve demanding guests. The staff consume whatever uppers and downers they can get their hands on to keep their equilibrium in check. High levels of repressed rage have to be monitored when dealing with cruel, demanding patrons in a business designed for their every need.
apiep97's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
2.5
A lot of the stories were the same.. cocaine, chaos, sex and name-dropping celebrities
madzco's review
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
5.0
I listened to this book on audio via Spotify and it felt like I was sitting at a bar after hours with the author while he told me tale after tale of his life leading up to the moment he sat down next to me. Had the same exact vibe as when the bartender does a shot with you or a hair dresser compliments your shoes or when the grocer rounds down the cost— a little wink and a nudge from one side of the service industry to the other that keeps you coming back for more.
5_katsbooks's review
A little too raunchy for me.
Content Warnings
Reads well and is interesting, but the language bothered me.