The key to being a successful restaurant worker is personality, according to local restaurateurs Bill Schnettgoecke and Buddy Fresta.
“Being friendly, making customers happy (is crucial), so you want to see people who have a really great, positive attitude,” said Schnettgoecke, who owns Bellacinio’s in Arnold.
Fresta, who owns the Pasta House restaurant in Festus, said when he’s hiring, he looks for a “people person,” someone who talks easily and makes eye contact with him during an interview.
Experience is not always needed for positions, like servers, Fresta said.
“Sometimes we take a chance on that,” he said.
Fresta said he does take note of how people dress. “Well, you don’t see a suit-and-tie-type of person anymore; that’s gone out the window,” he said.
But, Fresta said he hopes to see candidates in presentable clothes, not jeans, shorts, flip flops or T-shirts.
Schnettgoecke also said what a person wears to the interview matters.
“I’m certainly not expecting people to come to this job in a suit, but I think having clothes that are clean, tidy looking, put together well, shows that you put an effort into getting ready to show up where you want to get a job,” he said.
Fresta said retention and money-counting skills in the restaurant field is important.
He said he always asks a candidate how they did in math class or if they ever worked a concession stand.
Schnettgoecke said he likes to hire self-starters and accountable people.
“They have to have a little bit of personal desire to do things right the first time,” he said.
Fresta said everyone should work in a restaurant at least once.
“As their first steppingstone, it’s a great place to learn how to deal with people, to interact, to develop those kinds of skills before you go out into the real world,” he said.
Fresta said 90 percent of the employees he hires are high school aged.
Schnettgoecke has owned Bellacino’s since 2016 and worked in restaurants in his “younger years.
Fresta has been in the restaurant field since 1976.