Some people in restaurant management say a degree was not necessarily a part of their
Recipe for
Story by Ann Marchand
SUCCESS
Illustration by Micah Laaker
although thousands of undergraduates across the country panic to earn degrees, some stable career options don't require a degree at all. Others don't have a specific degree option but
just require the right person for the job.
just require the right person for the job. One such career is restaurant management. Many restaurant managers arrived at their positions from a nonacademic avenue, yet they love their work and would be hard-pressed to leave the profession. And restaurant managers soon will be in high demand. Employment projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics predict that there will be a 15 percent growth in restaurant management positions by 2005.
Fifi Paden, co-owner of Fifi's Restaurant, 925 Iowa St., said she did not have any reservations about starting her own restaurant in 1981.
"I think it's in the blood," she said.
"I think it's in the blood," she said.
Paden did not earn a college degree,
although she did study for two years at
the University of Buffalo in New York.
Once she founded her restaurant, she employed her entire family in the business. Her children started out washing dishes, bussing tables and cooking. Paden said she was lucky to have such a flexible, supportive family. If an employee failed to show up for work, she could count on her children to fill the shift.
Her son, Brian Paden, is now the general manager of Fifi's. Although he had left Kansas to work in Hawaii, he has returned home, much to the delight of his mother. Brian Paden was formerly an employee of the Khala Hilton's five-star restaurant in Honolulu.
Fifi Paden said the biggest joy she derived from her work was making people happy.
"I love the interaction with customers, to see the satisfaction in their faces after they eat," she said.
Tammy Davis, restaurant manager at Don's Steak House, 2176 E. 23rd St., turned her part-time job into a full-time career. She started her career at B.C.'s Bar and Grill in Lawrence to earn extra money.
Davis eventually sacrificed her paralegal work, in which she had a degree, for the restaurant industry.
"I was a paralegal, and I needed a part-time job for extra income," she said.
In 1990, she was hired by Don's and has remained there full time since.
Just decided that it was more money, better hours, better people than working as a paralegal," she said. "Every day is different. It's not a routine, mundane job."
But Davis said she could do without the paperwork.
The worst part of the restaurant management position is dealing with the bureaucracy," she said. "You have to deal with the state to get your liquor license, and pay the taxes every month... the stuff you have no control over."
tyan Sciara, bar manager/director at Teller's, 746 Massachusetts St., joined the restaurant soon after it opened more than four years ago. Before he worked at Teller's,
Restaurant management
At the bottom of the employee food chain.
Where to start:
Rapid turnover means easy advance-
Money
Social atmosphere
Long hours, often hectic pace
Cons:
Requires exemplary attention to detail
Salary:
$20,000-35,000 to start, varies with experience and restaurant type.
At more elite eateries, salaries can be $70,000 and up, with a potential for six-factor salaries.
Sciara bussed tables at another restaurant, but he said money was his primary motivation for working in a restaurant.
"I started waiting tables in restaurants and bartending to get me through school." he said.
But after he earned his degree in criminal justice from Washburn University last year, Sciara decided to remain in the familiar restaurant setting rather than start a career in a new field. He has a piece of advice for students who are considering careers in the restaurant business: "The best way is to work your way up," he said. "I've bussed, I've dishwashed, I've waited. I've worked my way up."
Many community colleges and universities offer degrees in hotel and restaurant management. But Sciara cautioned that receiving a degree prior to working in the restaurant industry would be risky. He said the degrees usually were earned by people already in the business who were looking to improve earning or advancement potential.
"A degree in restaurant management doesn't guarantee that you'll be a good manager." Sciara said.
Like Sciara, Kenny Gall, floor manager of Dos Hombres, 815 New Hampshire St., did not intend to become a restaurant manager.
Gall said he had worked in restaurants since he was 16, and when he came to Lawrence and needed a job, he looked to restaurants.
"I couldn't get a job anywhere else, so I came down here because I figured they'd probably hire me on the spot," he said.
Gall started as a dishwasher and then worked in the kitchen for a year. He was promoted to kitchen manager and eventually to floor manager.
Gall enjoys his work, but he said there were distinct disadvantages to working in a restaurant.
Gall said that dealing with mean people was one of the common annoyances in his line of work.
Jeanne Costigan, supervisor at Olo Chicago, 2329 Iowa St., said that she did not have many encounters with mean people, but that the business had many positive aspects.
"Being in the restaurant busi-
you get to meet a lot of customers, and it's a great chance to interact with the community," she said. "To me, it's a well-rounded job."
Costigan received a communications degree from Fort Hays State University in 1993. She waited tables at several restaurants in Hays and started as a server when Old Chicago opened in Lawrence two years ago.
Costigan thought her communications degree prepared her well for the type of work she does now. She said communication was one of the main thing necessary for effective management.
Costigan said she liked working at Old Chicago because it was a chain, which offers unique opportunities for advancement.
Paden agreed that the best way to learn about the restaurant business was through firsthand experience. She recommended that students work in a restaurant first and see if they like working in that type of business before they try to get a degree.
"The odds are that if you continue, you will be transferred at some point in time," she said. "It gives you different opportunities to go different places and meet different people."
Paden said the biggest disadvantage in the industry was the long hours.
"Being in the restaurant business is like being married to it. It's a hands-on operation and long hours, and you have to be here," she said. "I do not recommend starting in the restaurant business if you're starting a family."
raden said that many people think that the restaurant-management business is a get-rich-fast deal. However, once they get into the business and see how hard it is and how long the hours are, they change their mind.
Ryan Sciara agreed, but she said that money was definitely one reason he had stayed in the industry for such a long time. He also said he had a chance to meet a large assortment of people.
"It doesn't sound like it's that much of a glamorous position, but I know so many people in this town because of what I do," he said.
And working in a restaurant has other advantages as well.
"I'm making more than a lot of my friends, and they don't have as much exposure or know as many people as I do," Sciara said.
Jeanne Costigan said that the industry is expected to grow in the future, creating more opportunities for newcomers.
"It's a really big business right now, and it's grown a lot in the last couple of years." Costigan said.
Kenny Gall said he thought the industry was so diverse that any ambitious person could find a job in management.
"If you've got a good head on your shoulders, all you have to do is work real hard, and sooner or later the opening will be there," he said.
Kris Humbarger, Lawrence sophomore, tends to his table as the dinner rush begins to set in at Old Chicago, 2329 Iowa.
Joey Bloom / KANSAN
LEAD STORIES
in October, Mr. Ferenc Kovacs, who recently invented a singing condom that plays communist marching songs, opened a laugh klosk in Budapest, Hungary (widely regarded as one of the most morose cities on Earth). His fee ranges from about 2 cents to provoke a smile to about 35 cents for a laugh. (Sample: Kovacs dons matching black arm bands and explains, "I was talking to my brother yesterday, and it turns out his mother died, too."
Michele G. Phebus, 27, and Tony A. Phebus, 29, were arrested in Lafayette, Ind., in August after they fell asleep in their car between the microphone and pick-up window at a White Castle drive-thru; police found numerous marijuana butts in the car and a brick of it in the trunk. And Brian K. Costa, 27, was found asleep in his car in the middle of
an on-ramp to the Henderson Bridge in East Providence, R.I., in September, with five bags of cocaine in his lap.
In August, Robert Norton, 73, was arrested for at least the 13th time since 1981 on public nudity charges while out working in his yard in Pekin, Ill. And in Brooksville, Fl., in August, Carolyn Sparks, 48, received a citation for raking topless in her front yard. (In November, a jury said her behavior did not amount to
disorderly conduct.)
GREAT ART
An October Associated Press story reported on the formaldehyde-saturated museum housing works of Mr. Honore Frangonard, an 18thcentury French anatomist who sculpted in cadavers, carefully skinned, preserved and posed.
Visitors to the Maisons-Aport,
Wilmetta Billington, 68, an invertebrator collector of trash, which she stored in her home in Metropolis, III., asphyxiated in December when she stumbled and fell into one of her many stacks, causing debris to fall on top of her. So jam-packed was the room that it took authorities 20 minutes to unstack the debris from on top of her body.
France, structure (just down the river from the Charenton insane asylum, which is where some say Fragonard belonged) are struck by how much his works resemble the monster in Alien and other creatures from modern horror films.
British tour Stephen John Peperell, 39, lost his balance as he was tossing a melon on the second-floor balcony into a trash can in Nicosia, Cyprus, in October and fell to his death.