Caffs & Greasy spoons

ClaphamCommoner · Post by **ClaphamCommoner** » Sun 04 Jul, 2010 8:35 pm

Trojan wrote: simonm wrote: I don't remember a Betty's, but would it be the same as the Harrogate one? I do remember the ranchburger joint as the Ceylon tea room. To get to it you had to go downstairs, I can't remember what was on the ground floor! I remember having a snack in Bettys Leeds around 1968. I think it closed shortly afterwards - they said they couldn't afford the rent increase - this was at the time of the first property boom. In those days I don't think it was as posh as it's now become - or I wouldn't have been able to afford to eat there! There certainly was a Betty's on the corner of Commercial Street - I worked there as a waitress when I was an A level student at the old Park Lane College. I got 19/6d for working 8.30-6pm on Saturday, out of which they took 2/6d for hire of my white pinny, cuffs and cap (which I had to iron and starch myself). Betty's considered itself very posh - the 'fur coat and no knickers' set (Vale of York farmers' wives) used to tip me handsomely because they thought my London accent was 'posh' (we'd moved to Leeds when I was 10) - I ended up with more tips than all the native Leeds lasses, so the head waitress brought in a new scheme whereby all tips were pooled and shared out between all waitresses. That's democracy. But you should have seen what went on in the kitchen. Chips dropped on the floor were shovelled back into the silver serving dish and sent out with the waitress to the customers, and if a waitress reported a rude customer, the chef would add a little special extra liquid of his own production to the soup before sending it on its way to the customer. The Leeds Betty's closed in 1976, I believe.

tilly · Post by **tilly** » Sun 04 Jul, 2010 9:47 pm

ClaphamCommoner wrote: Trojan wrote: simonm wrote: I don't remember a Betty's, but would it be the same as the Harrogate one? I do remember the ranchburger joint as the Ceylon tea room. To get to it you had to go downstairs, I can't remember what was on the ground floor! I remember having a snack in Bettys Leeds around 1968. I think it closed shortly afterwards - they said they couldn't afford the rent increase - this was at the time of the first property boom. In those days I don't think it was as posh as it's now become - or I wouldn't have been able to afford to eat there! There certainly was a Betty's on the corner of Commercial Street - I worked there as a waitress when I was an A level student at the old Park Lane College. I got 19/6d for working 8.30-6pm on Saturday, out of which they took 2/6d for hire of my white pinny, cuffs and cap (which I had to iron and starch myself). Betty's considered itself very posh - the 'fur coat and no knickers' set (Vale of York farmers' wives) used to tip me handsomely because they thought my London accent was 'posh' (we'd moved to Leeds when I was 10) - I ended up with more tips than all the native Leeds lasses, so the head waitress brought in a new scheme whereby all tips were pooled and shared out between all waitresses. That's democracy. But you should have seen what went on in the kitchen. Chips dropped on the floor were shovelled back into the silver serving dish and sent out with the waitress to the customers, and if a waitress reported a rude customer, the chef would add a little special extra liquid of his own production to the soup before sending it on its way to the customer. The Leeds Betty's closed in 1976, I believe. If that is what the chef did they should have called it Bettys Gaf.lol

ClaphamCommoner · Post by **ClaphamCommoner** » Mon 05 Jul, 2010 1:50 am

[quotenick="simonm"]I don't remember a Betty's, but would it be the same as the Harrogate one? I do remember the ranchburger joint as the Ceylon tea room. To get to it you had to go downstairs, I can't remember what was on the ground floor! [/quote

Si · Post by Si » Mon 05 Jul, 2010 11:51 am

ClaphamCommoner wrote: - the 'fur coat and no knickers' set (Vale of York farmers' wives) used to tip me handsomely because they thought my London accent was 'posh' (we'd moved to Leeds when I was 10) - I ended up with more tips than all the native Leeds lasses, so the head waitress brought in a new scheme whereby all tips were pooled and shared out between all waitresses. That's democracy. No it isn't. That's communism!!!

ClaphamCommoner · Post by **ClaphamCommoner** » Tue 06 Jul, 2010 3:11 am

Si wrote: ClaphamCommoner wrote: - the 'fur coat and no knickers' set (Vale of York farmers' wives) used to tip me handsomely because they thought my London accent was 'posh' (we'd moved to Leeds when I was 10) - I ended up with more tips than all the native Leeds lasses, so the head waitress brought in a new scheme whereby all tips were pooled and shared out between all waitresses. That's democracy. No it isn't. That's communism!!! I agree, Si. I was being sarky. I was pretty miffed at having to share my tips because I thought I got them for being extra polite and helpful and ingratiating, not by sounding "posh" through a geographical accident of my birth. It's OK, though - the head waitress who made me share my tips got her come-uppance.. She was once showing off to me about how many plates of soup she could carry up both arms and then serve, and she shot a plate of tomato soup all over a woman in a cream wool coat!

Si · Post by Si » Tue 06 Jul, 2010 12:57 pm

Yes, I don't get the logic about management sharing out the tips - where's the incentive to provide a better service? You put the effort in, you get the tips!PS I used to live in a basement flat opposite the Windmill pub, Clapham Commoner.

ClaphamCommoner · Post by **ClaphamCommoner** » Tue 06 Jul, 2010 3:41 pm

Si wrote: Yes, I don't get the logic about management sharing out the tips - where's the incentive to provide a better service? You put the effort in, you get the tips!PS I used to live in a basement flat opposite the Windmill pub, Clapham Commoner. That would be on Clapham Common Southside, around the junction with Elms Road, Si. Know it well.Perhaps instead of sharing my tips I should have given all the other girls elocution lessons so they could have lost their lovely Leeds accents and talked 'nice' like a Londoner and got bigger tips?!? Ha ha ha.

Chrism · Post by **Chrism** » Tue 06 Jul, 2010 4:07 pm

ClaphamCommoner wrote: Si wrote: Yes, I don't get the logic about management sharing out the tips - where's the incentive to provide a better service? You put the effort in, you get the tips!PS I used to live in a basement flat opposite the Windmill pub, Clapham Commoner. That would be on Clapham Common Southside, around the junction with Elms Road, Si. Know it well.Perhaps instead of sharing my tips I should have given all the other girls elocution lessons so they could have lost their lovely Leeds accents and talked 'nice' like a Londoner and got bigger tips?!? Ha ha ha. Mmmmmmm lovely Leeds girls with big tips!

Si · Post by Si » Tue 06 Jul, 2010 5:05 pm

ClaphamCommoner wrote: Si wrote: Yes, I don't get the logic about management sharing out the tips - where's the incentive to provide a better service? You put the effort in, you get the tips!PS I used to live in a basement flat opposite the Windmill pub, Clapham Commoner. That would be on Clapham Common Southside, around the junction with Elms Road, Si. Know it well. That's right. I lived there about 1984.

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Tue 06 Jul, 2010 5:23 pm

ClaphamCommoner wrote: But you should have seen what went on in the kitchen. Chips dropped on the floor were shovelled back into the silver serving dish and sent out with the waitress to the customers, TBH I think that sort of thing was fairly common in kitchens - probably still is. A friend of mine who was an industrial gas fitter was repairing the cookers at the Queens Hotel in the sixties, he saw the chef take a slice of lemon out of the waste foot bin and put it on a piece of fish that was en route to the restaurant.