Photos by Dwain Hebda
The best restaurants stand on a trifold foundation of great food, excellent ambiance and, not least, terrific service. Everyone has a favorite server, the person who makes ordinary dinners special and special occasions extraordinary.
The hospitality business is hard work, as public-facing jobs tend to be. Anyone who has tended bar, managed an event or waited tables for any length of time has stories to tell that would fill magazines cover to cover. The best ones, however, do not dwell on the slammed rushes or the nightmare guests but on how they made guests’ days better by taking good care of them at lunch or dinner.
In covering dining across the Natural State, AY About You has always noticed and appreciated good service. That is why every year, we take time to recognize a handful of recommended service workers who work to ensure every guest encounter is a special one.
We realize this barely scratches the surface of good servers in Arkansas. Wherever you find yours, be sure to let them know they are appreciated, order the special and always tip your wait staff.
Cortney Watt
Cortney Watt
The Ohio Club
Hot Springs
On a mild Friday evening The Ohio Club in Hot Springs is standing room only. The famous former gangster hangout, one of the most interesting watering holes in all of Arkansas, is wall-to-wall people enjoying drinks, sharing a laugh and digging into plates of chef-inspired food.
Spa City native Cortney Watt winds her way from the bar to her tables and back again, working the crowd with a smile. She is coming up on her sixth anniversary at The Ohio Club, and her experience shows. Every customer, from familiar-faced regulars to wide-eyed first-timers and all others in between, gets the same friendly treatment.
It is the mingling with such a variety of people that has kept her in the business this long, 18 years in all.
“I tried to work a desk job once,” she said, “but the monotony of seeing the same people every day just wasn’t for me.”
If Watt ever doubted her job choice, the COVID-19 pandemic drove such thoughts from her mind as social distancing and staying locked up took its toll on such a social creature as herself.
“I stayed home for the entire two years of it,” she said. “I was ready to get back out there. I felt like I was going to go crazy. My mom actually knew the person who owned [The Ohio Club] at the time, and so I came down here, and we talked on the bench out front. She hired me on the spot.”
With its romantic backstory serving gangsters and molls back in the day, working at The Ohio Club requires one to do more than just recommend the pastrami. Watt and her cohorts are fonts of local lore and love to share the more colorful aspects of Hot Springs history.
“To me, the appeal of working here is the whole place — the history of it, the bar, the people,” she said. “Where we are downtown, we’re right in the middle of everything. The Ohio Club is one of the first original bars. It was a shotgun place, and it’s just really cool.”
The Ohio Club
336 Central Ave.
Hot Springs
501-627-0702
Dakota Besancon
Dakota Besancon
RŌBER :: Cocktails + Culinary
Benton
With more than a decade in the service industry, the last two at popular Benton night spot RŌBER :: Cocktails + Culinary, Dakota Besancon is living out a family tradition with every customer he serves.
“My sister and my stepmom always worked at restaurants, so I kind of grew up in restaurants because I’d go up there and see them [at work] a lot,” he said. “Just the act of taking care of people was really appealing to me.”
Besancon came to RŌBER because a friend of his was working in the kitchen and he knew other people on staff. Living in Benton, he did not mind not having to commute back and forth to Little Rock either.
“It’s a nice restaurant, the kind I’ve always wanted to work in,” he said.
Asked what it takes to be successful in the service industry, Besancon said a level head and even demeanor are two key elements to working with the public.
“Just keep things in order for yourself and don’t let anything overwhelm you too much,” he said. “If I get a bad table, which happens every once in a while, I don’t let it bother me.
“You also have to be able to multitask, and you have to be a good team player. I’ve played sports my whole life, and so I’ve always been a team-first kind of guy. Up here, I just kind of do as much as I can to help everybody out, helping run people’s food and just doing whatever I can to make sure the restaurant runs right.”
Besancon said while he and his friends in the industry have kicked around the idea of perhaps owning their own food truck one day, he has no immediate plans to do so. Instead, he directs all of his energy and skill to taking care of newbies and regulars alike as they enjoy the ambiance and fare at one of central Arkansas’ favorite hangouts.
“I’d kind of like to get my own thing going at some point, but right now, I’m very happy doing what I’m doing,” he said. “It’s great to give people a nice experience.”
RŌBER :: Cocktails + Culinary
302 W. South St.
Benton
501-403-1057
Dontea Aday
Dontea Aday
Cache Restaurant
Little Rock
When it comes to his chosen profession, Dontea Aday likes to keep things simple, focusing entirely on the dining enjoyment of his guests and doing whatever he can to make every meal a memorable one.
It is a lot harder than it looks but a challenge the veteran server enjoys every shift.
“What attracted me to serving, man, honestly, it’s just seeing people happy,” he said. “When they come out to eat, they expect to have a good time, and I want to go above and beyond to help them achieve that. Serving is something that’s in my heart.”
Aday has been with the legendary fine-dining restaurant Cache from its very earliest days and has earned some managerial duties to go along with those at tableside. Continuing to perfect the art of serving others not only helps him personally but has also shown him what attributes to look for in others looking to enter the service industry.
“The necessary skills to succeed in this business are patience, and you have to have passion for what you are doing,” he said. “You also have to have the ability to make people smile. These are things that always came naturally to me back to when I started as a barback. I’ve always been comfortable talking to customers and being at the table.”
Aday said in addition to making a living doing what he is doing, the ultimate compliment of being in the service industry is when people attribute part of their enjoyment to his work. He has a long list of people who ask for him by name to back that up.
“Serving isn’t pressure to me. I honestly enjoy it,” he said. “It means everything to me when somebody remembers my name and they come back or they let other people know through word of mouth what we do here and what I do here, as well. I really can’t explain it; I’ve just got a passion for it. I am lucky to have found this industry. It’s something that I like to do, and I take pride in doing it well.”
Cache Restaurant
425 President Clinton Ave.
Little Rock
501-285-8381
Laken Brown
Laken Brown
The Oyster Bar
Little Rock
Despite being the shortest-tenured server on this year’s list, Laken Brown has already ascended to favorite-server status. She joined the staff of The Oyster Bar four years ago, and while she also pulls the occasional shift at the eatery’s sister restaurant Samantha’s Tap Room & Wood Grill downtown, the Stifft Station neighborhood favorite is where she is known best.
Her formula for having excelled in the industry so quickly is not complicated, but it continues to draw raves from regulars and first-timers alike.
“I think it’s just really important to get to know your guests and decide whether they are wanting to interact or if they want more of an experience with the people at their table,” she said. “I kind of go based off of that.
“I try to make sure everyone has a great time. I like to make people smile because not often do people come in super happy. I mean, some people do, but some people don’t. I just try to make sure that they have a great time and they leave smiling.”
Brown said the other parts of the job are more learned behaviors, such as being able to juggle multiple orders during slammed periods as seamlessly as during more moderate traffic. She said time and experience are the best teachers there.
“I will say it gets very difficult sometimes, but I just try to keep things organized,” she said. “I’ve developed a certain way of doing things where I stay organized in my head, and I try to make sure that every five minutes or so, I go check on people. I have a mental timer, I guess you could say.”
Finally, thoroughly understanding the menu is an absolute must for any successful server, Brown said.
“I’ve tried everything on the menu, and so I am very good at recommending things,” she said. “I consider that part of building a relationship with the customer. Finding out what they like and even what they don’t like and then being able to recommend things I think they would enjoy is essential to giving everyone a positive experience.”
The Oyster Bar
3003 W. Markham St.
Little Rock
501-666-7100
David “DJ” Lenderman
David “DJ” Lenderman
Kemuri
Little Rock
Asked what he considers one of the best things about his job, David “DJ” Lenderman mentioned the immediacy of feedback serving others gives him. It is what has kept him in the industry in one way or another for more than two decades, the past seven at Kemuri in Little Rock’s Hillcrest neighborhood.
“Instant gratification, being able to give someone what they want, is something that is really, really nice about serving,” he said. “That’s mainly what got me involved and kept me going.”
Lenderman, who grew up on a farm in eastern Arkansas, said 20 years has vested him with a lot of applicable skills for creating an enjoyable night out for customers. However, knowing that anything expected or unexpected can and does walk through the front door keeps him light on his feet on any given shift.
“Being able to read the room is definitely a quality that I have,” he said. “There’s an art to picking up what people are putting down and talking to them in a way where I’m not overstating or understating anything.
“That’s something that I had innately, and I had a mentor or two develop it in me. It is really a skill that’s very important in a job where you’re helping people.”
Lenderman said such intuitive skills are important at any time but especially when a table is celebrating a special occasion. Not unlike a well-crafted dish, knowing how to accentuate the moment without upstaging it is the highest form of the server’s art, he said.
“I don’t see [special occasions] as pressure necessarily, but it is something where you want to really do what you can to make that moment,” he said. “You don’t override it; you’re just there for it, and you want to be a key part of making it happen perfectly by lending a helping hand in any way possible.
“Giving someone what they want to the best of my ability is what I really love about my job. I take pride in helping people, and I take pride in what I do.”
Kemuri
2601 Kavanaugh Blvd.
Little Rock
501-660-4100
Brittany Paladino
Brittany Paladino
Pasta Grill
Conway
People get into the service industry for a wide variety of reasons. For Brittany Paladino, fate had something to do with it.
“My grandpa owned Catfish City & BBQ Grill [in Little Rock]. He ran that place for 40 years,” she said. “My mom worked there, and I worked there growing up, doing little random jobs. That got me really interested in the restaurant business.”
Paladino worked fast food in high school and a couple of stints at pizza joints before finding her way to the acclaimed Pasta Grill’s Conway location.
“I had a friend who worked there, and she recommended that I apply,” she said. “I’m coming up on five years here. It’s been really, really awesome.”
Paladino said she has learned to look forward to special-occasion clients and the chance to play a role in someone’s birthday, proposal or other life event.
“It used to be a tad intimidating when I first started, but now I welcome it,” she said. “This wasn’t even a week ago: I had a two-top, serving a younger married couple, and they just recently found out they were pregnant. The wife gave me the results of the gender test, and I was supposed to bring out a strawberry cake for a girl or a chocolate cake for a boy.
“I told the other servers, and we put a plate on it so they wouldn’t see what dessert I was bringing out. Then we popped it open for them, the other servers clapped, and it was really sweet. It was fun to be a part of that moment, for sure.”
While most diners know Paladino for such encounters, what many do not know is that she credits the job with various aspects of self-improvement in her life.
“I don’t want to get too dramatic, but serving here has changed me as a person,” she said. “My boss has done a really good job bringing in a good crew, and they have motivated me. Everyone here was going to college, and I was like, ‘Well, I should be doing that,’ and I’ve actually gone to college and graduated. I’ve found a lot of really good friends here. It’s been a really great time at Pasta Grill.”
Pasta Grill
915 Front St., Conway
501-205-8751
Additional locations in Russellville and Van Buren
Morgan Roberson
Morgan Roberson
Brood & Barley
North Little Rock
Hospitality veteran Morgan Roberson, who has served people with a smile for the past four years at Brood & Barley in North Little Rock, believes in superpowers. Not only does she believe in them, but she points to a few of hers that have helped her reach the top of her profession over a career that spans more than a decade.
“I think the ability to read a table quickly is definitely a kind of superpower,” she said. “From the time I first seat the table, I can tell if they want some advice on the menu or if they have already decided they know what they’re doing. I can just tell based on those first couple of minutes if they want me to stop and chat with them and get to know them or if they would prefer to be left alone.
“That carries over to the menu. Sometimes I feel like I can look at them and have a two-sentence conversation with them, and I know what they’re actually looking for. It’s really weird sometimes. When people are like, ‘What’s your favorite thing on the menu?’ and I tell them, they’re like, ‘OK, that’s what I was thinking about ordering.’ It’s interesting how often that happens.”
An El Dorado native, Roberson first started waiting tables at Dixie Cafe when she was an 18-year-old college student. In 2020, she and her daughter moved to Benton, where she continued to refine her serving skills before a variety of customers.
She said the casual elegance of Brood & Barley, located in the stylish Argenta Arts District, offers the best of all worlds, from the quality of food and cozy ambiance to the friendly service she and her teammates work hard to deliver.
“What I really enjoy about serving is getting to build relationships with people,” she said. “Even if I’m serving a guest for the first time, I really try to make a point to remember what drinks they get or the food they order. I love making recommendations to people because we have a very unique menu at Brood & Barley, and it gives me time to talk to people and figure out what they’re actually looking for. I can be like, ‘Oh, you’ll love this.’”
Brood & Barley
411 Main St.
North Little Rock
501-400-8967
GiGi Sims
GiGi Sims
J&S Hospitality Group
Hot Springs
As hospitality manager at J&S Hospitality Group in Hot Springs, GiGi Sims may not have the title of server, but she does have a job description that mirrors very closely the company’s hard-working servers at its properties, The Ohio Club, J&S Italian Villa, Mueller’s Bistro & Bakery, and Copper Penny Pub, all in Hot Springs.
Sims is responsible for serving J&S Hospitality Group’s catering clientele, a role in which she sees to every detail of a function to ensure a wedding reception, corporate meal or other special occasion comes off deliciously and without a hitch. As her many satisfied clients attest, “service” is central to success in her role.
“No. 1, I’m in the people business,” she said. “I don’t look at it like I’m in the planning or food business; I’m in the people business. From the time I wake up to the time I go to bed, I just want to make a difference with someone.
“It’s about relationships. If I grow a good relationship with a client, everything else is smooth sailing. It’s about building that good reputation that says I’m there to make life easier.”
Sims, a licensed wedding planner, came to her role last April after operating her own party and event planning business. She said she got into the industry because it reminded her of the big family gatherings she loves so much, and she tries to make every client feel the same way she felt during those occasions.
“I come from a very big family, and we’re always planning and doing something. I’m No. 7 of eight kids,” she said. “There was always a ton of us, we all have big families, and we just continued to grow.
“In addition to that, I like good food, food that’s made with good-quality ingredients. Put that together, and working at J&S Hospitality Group is amazing. They have the same love for the community as I do. It’s not just about making money; it’s about taking care of people and building a good reputation and excelling at good food and good service.”
J&S Hospitality Group
501-237-1EAT (1328)
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