Restaurant vets: Meet some of Greenville’s career servers

Restaurant servers are often entrusted with the celebration of a milestone, the experience of a meal or just an evening’s enjoyment.

It’s an important job, and it’s hard work.

At times, the job title is thought of as requiring little skill, but few professions require as much constant physical, mental and emotional balance as serving. 

For a special few who can balance the skill and stress, it’s a lifelong occupation. Here are few professional servers around Greenville that residents trust handle their food experiences, large and small.

Juan Flores, Tipsy Taco

Flores has served in Greenville for over 20 years. He now works at Tipsy Taco, but that’s not where he spent most of his years in the city.

Flores moved to the area from Michoacan, Mexico, in the late 1990s and first started working at Corona Mexican Restaurant as a dishwasher in 1999. Within a month, he was asked to bus tables.

There was a hitch, though. He had to learn to speak English.

“I paid somebody to teach me, maybe three hours a weekend, something like that, because I worked all week,” he said. “So on my day off, I paid somebody to teach me English.”

“I’ll be so happy when I see people come that I don’t see for a long time and they still remember me.” —Juan Flores, waiter at Tipsy Taco

Flores did this for six months. When management changed at the restaurant, he was offered a chance to learn to serve and has been doing so for more than two decades.

He moved to Tipsy Taco in 2018 and has become recognizable to residents for his time at both restaurants. The longevity in his career makes providing good service even more important.

“I’ll be so happy when I see people come that I don’t see for a long time and they still remember me,” he said.

“I like to give good service to people because I know these people for a long time.”

Lynnette Carter, Soby’s New South Cuisine

Serving was not the career Lynnette Carter had in mind at first. It was a career that found her as her priorities changed.

She and her husband, Brion, have been married 45 years and have seven children. In the formative years of their family, Brion was a gospel singer so the family moved often. Lynnette has a degree in teaching and recognized that her children would have to change schools frequently with Brion’s career.

She didn’t want to pull her kids in and out of schools so she had an idea.

“‘Can I teach them myself?’” she remembered thinking. “So I found out I could. And so I started homeschooling before it was a popular thing.”

Lynnette homeschooled her children for 22 years. When her husband came off the road singing, she began working at Soby’s.

Lynnette started at Soby’s New South Cuisine in April 2004. Coming up on 20 years with the Table 301 Restaurant Group, she’s become nearly as familiar within the restaurant as the Greenville mainstay itself.

Over the years, she’s seen couples start dating, get married, have families and watch those children grow up.

Lynette is a Christian, and had heard a lot about talents given by God. She understood her husband had the gift of singing, but for a while didn’t know her own.

“One day, I heard a sermon on Jesus, washing the feet of his disciples and serving, and breaking the bread, and serving them,” she said. “They said, ‘This is a gift.’ And I’m like, ‘I think that’s my gift.’ Just a server, I like to take care of people and I never thought about that as a gift. But I think it’s a gift not everybody has.”

Brandon Cole, Larkin’s

Brandon Cole is a tenth-generation potter. The Cole family has been making and creating pottery since as far back as the 1700s. Pottery is in his lineage.

“At 9 years old, you start your training,” Cole said of the family tradition.

But at 14, Cole decided he wanted to explore other areas of interest.

“In North Carolina, you can get a workers permit at 14,” he said. “Literally on my birthday, I went and got a workers permit, and went and found a job the next week.”

Cole began bussing tables in a little diner in his hometown and was cooking on the flat top two years later. Now committed to working in restaurants, he wanted to be a chef. His dream was to go to The Culinary Institute of America, but he realized the cost of school could be staggering. Instead, he opted for an earned approach on the job, and switched to front of the house and worked through every position.

After making his was through Colorado and various locations in the Carolinas, he moved to Asheville. There, he moved into management and read Danny Meyer’s book “Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business.” It changed his perspective on hospitality and as a result, he began training staff in the pursuit of seamless service.

Working in management required a lot of time in the office and little time to connect with guests. He decided to move back into serving. 

In 2017, he left Asheville and moved to Greenville. He worked at Husk, Topsoil and CAMP. He moved to Larkin’s in 2022. 

Cole books most of his work nights himself by giving his guests business cards so they can call him directly and he can make the reservation for them. The cards give guests a personal touch.

“How do you exceed what you’ve already done? And if you think you’ve done something, well, how do you do better?” he asked.

Still, pottery is part of his lineage and remains a love. Those hoping to dine with Cole will have to do so soon. He’s retiring to focus full-time on his pottery business, Cole Pottery Design.

“I love clay; like clay is the thing that I ran from my whole life, to do something I wanted. And now I’ve accomplished the things I wanted,” he said. “So I can be proud on my exit and hold my head high and say ‘I did what I came to do.’ And now I’m just switching over to the other love.”

Katelin Wood, The Trappe Door

Katelin Wood has a family and two children. Then she has a second family – the staff at The Trappe Door. Wood started at The Trappe Door in 2018, having previously been a stay-at-home mom. 

Feeling that was taking its toll, she decided to find a job as a server, having bartended in the past. She found a post on Craigslist, applied and was hired on the spot. 

If you ask her what her favorite part of her job was after the last six years, she would acknowledge the food and note that Belgian beers are the best in the world. But overall, the best part is her coworkers.

Through her work, Wood has made friends who have become like family, which doubled down during the 2020 pandemic.

“It brought the service industry together, like if anybody needed anything. It was really cool,” she said. “I walk down the street, and I see like six people that work in different restaurants. It’s literally like a family.”

“I wish that it was a course that you have to take in high school — Service Industry, customer service, to teach you patience, how to deal with people. And that, servers are not just servants.” – Katelin Wood, The Trappe Door

One thing about working in food and beverage is that it’s a community. When guests are unkind or the restaurant is still packed after a long night, it can become a high-stress environment. In those moments, bonds are created among the staff.

Servers are the face of the restaurant. They are the embodiment of a great dining experience.

“I wish that it was a course that you have to take in high school – service industry, customer service – to teach you patience, how to deal with people,” Wood said. “And that servers are not just servants.”