The Door Whore: Confessions of a Restaurant Diva

by: Fern Esposito

Published by: Little Print Press

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

The Door Whore is laugh-out-loud funny. It is also full of raw obscenities, crude innuendos and situations that are so bizarre they were probably true.

Fern Esposito, a former restaurant owner, has taken much of what she gleaned as a novice restaurateur and formulated a book that reads like a memoir. The main character, Ivy Zingara, says in the opening line that she is the “door whore.” She then goes on to explain a term that is probably not familiar to anyone outside of the restaurant business. A “door whore” is the person – usually an attractive woman, who greets the guests at the podium of classy dining establishments. It is a derogatory term that the kitchen staff may use among themselves or to her face. I had never heard this particular phrase used before, but I have never worked in a restaurant.

Ivy is also the owner and brains behind Sentimento, the Italian restaurant in Summit, New Jersey where the story takes place. She gets the idea to open a place of her own and proceeds to do so – without any background in the business. She hires a longtime acquaintance as her chief chef and then watches in amazement as a formerly nice guy turns into a raving schizophrenic with a huge streak of verbal cruelty. He is also as vulgar as the day is long.

Esposito makes the episodes of near disaster and chaos hilariously amusing. Yet if true to life, it would certainly be a caution against jumping into the restaurant business on a whim and a stash of good recipes.

One of the more intriguing sections of the book defines various bits of restaurant terminology – phrases the customer is unlikely to hear. These include: Flip time- a list of seating assignments and pertinent info given to the employees before the dinner service starts- including, but not only the times of the first and second seatings for a table; Nazi list – a list of chronic “no-show” customers and very difficult or disruptive diners.

This is a fun book. But it does require the caution – the language is frequently riddled with obscenities.

Armchair Interviews says: Reader alert, laughter abounds, just be aware of “language.”

Author’s Web site: http://www.TheDoorWhore.net