Stephanie Danler

Like thousands of young people before her, 22-year-old Tess arrives in New York City with a dream, not much money, and a plan that is sketchy at best (to knock on restaurant doors until someone hires her). But unlike other young people, for whom a restaurant job is a stepping stone to a dazzling future (usually one involving fame and fortune), Tess’s dream is simply to work in a restaurant and learn about food. Much more quickly than she imagines possible, she talks herself into a job, as show more back waiter (ie, busboy) at a high-end Manhattan restaurant. And over the next 12 months, she learns many lessons, not all of them about food and wine. For Tess, low person on the restaurant staff totem pole, the work is grueling and the hours long, but she understood what she signed up for going in and absorbs each success and failure as a stage in a necessary process. In Stephanie Danler’s undeniably claustrophobic debut novel, Tess’s social life also revolves around the restaurant. In fact, the restaurant swallows Tess’s life whole, more or less—every relationship, every conversation, every piece of gossip, begins and ends with the restaurant. After close, she regularly meets with other staffers for drinks at a late-night bar, often rolling into her shared Williamsburg flat as the sun is coming up. Eventually, after much teasing, halting conversations, and fumbling in the cloakroom, she embarks on a stormy relationship with Jake, the taciturn bad-boy bartender whose mysterious bond with Simone, the ultra-competent senior server, nonetheless persists. Learning by doing, constantly pushing to be better, Tess finds herself a favourite of management, in line for a promotion (if only there were an opening). But Tess, though smart and self-reliant, is also impressionable. Her longing to be a part of something larger than herself renders her more emotionally vulnerable than she might care to admit. Finally, buckling under the pressures of work, play and love, she allows herself to be sucked into a vortex where bad behaviour is the norm and there is nothing to prevent her indulging a burgeoning appetite for drugs and booze. Sweetbitter is an unsentimental coming-of-age story that strips the polite veneer off restaurant life. Nothing is glossed over. Here are the petty rivalries, the in-fighting, the cruelty, the sexual exploitation that goes on behind the scenes. No one is immune. Tess is reckless and fearless: a glutton for punishment; we feel her pain but cringe when she debases herself. Danler’s jittery narrative creates a gripping push and pull: we’re often repelled, but can’t take our eyes away from the train wreck about to happen. The book is also stunningly written—crammed with startling metaphors, apt observations on modern life and shimmering descriptions of the New York skyline—a saving grace since Tess so often tests the reader’s patience. In the end, Sweetbitter is a book that we finish despite itself, steered through the rubble of Tess’s restaurant career by the author’s firm hand. show less

Fun, but often gritty, behind the scenes view of restaurant work

You may have to look beyond the often reckless drinking, drugging and sexing here to get at the heart of this coming-of-adulthood behind-the-scenes tale of a waitress working her way through an internship at a high-end NYC restaurant. If you can do that, there is a definite yearning beauty to this which will charm you. If you have an interest in the restaurant experience you will likely come away with a different view than you show more had previously and will never look at your servers and bartenders quite the same way again.

The book is a fictionalized take on the author's own experience of working at Danny Meyer's Union Square Café for several years from 2006 onwards. The protagonist Tess is beguiled by her mentor Simone, a veteran server, while crushing on bad-boy bartender Jake as she gradually learns about their past with each other. The arc follows a four-part seasonal year at the restaurant and is occasionally interspersed with free-verse poetry made up of overheard restaurant lingo and dialogue.

Links
You can generally make fairly easy deductions about most of the restaurant jargon in this book, but a quick view through https://firstwefeast.com/eat/kitchen-slang-101-talk-like-real-life-line-cook/ will give you further grounding.

Further Reading
I've been increasingly more intrigued by food and restaurant books since reading "In the Restaurant: Society in Four Courses" earlier this year. Selecting "Sweetbitter" was part of this extended exploration. show less

Stories like this one are why I read. Only through books would I allow myself to be immersed into this environment. I was so thoroughly transported into the lifestyle and culture of these restaurant servers that when I was finished, it was like waking up from a restless, drug-addled dream. It’s a story with a dirty sophistication. How you imagine the real, unfiltered version of New York City. Having worked in food service, I instantly recognized the camaraderie, the hard work, the late show more nights and the alcohol. So much alcohol. The research required for this novel must have been phenomenal, I received an satisfactory education in wine and undoubtedly mispronounced half the book due to the French references. I could hear and see everything, like I was one of the many fruit flies on the wall.

By the way, DO NOT read this book if you are hungry. If the wine descriptions aren’t enough to tease your palate, the endless descriptions of gourmet delicacies, hole-in-the-wall eateries, simple dinners of olives and cheese, the clean complexity of figs and apples – it will leave your mouth watering.

Different people will love this book for different reasons. Some might relate or get a glimpse into a world that they may not otherwise experience. You may like the nightlife, the underground scene, the restaurant, or the culinary aspect. I enjoyed the messy elegance of the apartments, the chaotic routines, and the freedom and spontaneity to just LIVE. show less

I’m a fan of the author’s first book “Sweetbitter”, and was excited to see a new book by her on the shelves at my library. Memoirs are a favorite genre of mine, especially when they’re from someone whose work I’ve become familiar with. ⁣
Stephanie lays bare her story before, during and after her first novel was published, beginning with a traumatic childhood with parents who were addicts. We’re there alongside Stephanie as she recounts the painful details of the neglect and show more abuse she endured, and the many feelings she battles as she attempts to reconcile caring for both of them when she’s in her twenties. As someone who was raised by an abusive family member, I shared many of the same feelings as Stephanie did. I was touched by the sentiment she writes that reads “being a victim but not living like you’re victimized”, as that is something I have strived to do since leaving my abuser. ⁣
Stephanie also isn’t shy about her own faults, particularly when it involves her complicated love life. She describes and reflects back on the men she has been involved with over the years, and there is one particular cringey character nicknamed “The Monster” who I inwardly shouted at her to run away from each time he entered her life.⁣
As painful as it was to read about Stephanie’s painful past, I enjoyed getting to know more about her, and I look forward to her next work. show less