The Last Supper Club: A Waiter’s Requiem, by Matthew Batt

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The Last Supper Club by Matthew Batt

Matthew Batt teaches English at a Twin Cities university. He’s on sabbatical and “damned near broke.” Sabbatical—time off from the classroom to write a book—pays half his usual salary. Traumatized by math in grade school, Batt realizes too late that with the student loans he’s still paying, and all the other monthly fees, he needs more income. He decides to find a job “most of my students deem beneath them”—restaurant work, waiting tables.

The sabbatical book that emerged is not an academic tome but a humorous memoir of life as a server in one of the Twin Cities trendiest restaurant-microbreweries. The Last Supper Club is self-deprecating. The Gen X professor is the odd and usually the old man out in a crew of Millennials, and finds the fun in every situation, including the corporate culture. The restaurant was founded by one Omar, an immigrant who managed to fulfill the American Dream; Omar’s advisor took a page—maybe an entire book—from the milieu of Apple, Google and friends. The slogans ring familiar: “Make a Great Beer, Have a Great Time, Give a Damn About Your Community, Be Independent, Don’t be a Dick.”

The author grew up in Milwaukee and recounts memories of Kopp’s, Lixx and The Chancery (adjacent to the old Harry W. Schwartz Books on Downer Avenue). “Since no one in my family ever cooked meals, restaurants would become the linchpin of our family time,” he recalls. He worked in restaurants while in college and learned something about jerk customers have no clue: empathy for those who serve.

Get The Last Supper Club: A Waiter's Requiem on Amazon here.

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