Regulars are a welcome sight in any establishment. They bring a centred sense of purpose to jobs that can sometime be quite mercurial, with people coming and going all the time. But the dynamic between high-paying (or high-tipping) customers is always kind of odd. Don’t get me wrong, I love my regulars (or did, when I had them) but I keep expecting conversations like this to just crop up out of the blue.
Has this ever happened to you?
When I started drawing Waiting On Tables, I really wanted to bring in people I had known and situations I had been in when working in hospitality. But at the same time I was really conscious of possibly offending someone by putting words in their mouth – words they might not ever have actually said. So I sought a compromise. I change the names and appearance of any people I actually know, and tweak the circumstances so that they’re generic enough to make sense in any bar or restaurant, while still being recognisable to the people who were there at the time.
And with this one, I think I’ve hit it.
CJ
