Ever worked for any of these?

[N.Bailey]

Wow! That's good money. We have Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc. I definitely agree about working at a nicer place.

N. Bailey - Thanks for the idea about Ponderosa type places. We have 1 or 2 places like that.

You could start a post asking people what they made at Red Lobster, but I worked with quite a few people at Hoss's that had left Red Lobster because they couldn't make much there. You get 3 tables at a time and they are super involved. It's all fine and dandy if you luck into everyone leaving close to 15% (was the standard back then), but they said it just doesn't happen consistently.

10 years ago a bad week at a Ponderosa style restaurant was $500 for me. That was as full time as one could get really (5 nights a week). You could literally make upward to $200 a night on a VERY good night.

I'm telling you, check it out in your area.

 

[N.Bailey]

My cousin made great money as a waitress at the Sizzler. She started working there when she was in her 40's. Now she manages one.

If I'm not mistaken, Bill Campbell (owner of Hoss's) started out at Sizzler, and it's quite apparent in the decor that he took some of those ideas with him. He then started his own chain that have turned out to be super successful (at least in the north) They've tried taking the restaurant south, but it seems like southerns just don't care for it as much as we do up north. IMO, I think they chose some horrible locations when they've tried going out of state, and that's the reason those restaurants weren't successful.

 

[AUdisfan]

Bumping myself back up in case anyone has any more suggestions.