I rarely write much about restaurants, as that isn’t considered my oeuvre, but I’m wondering if and how the 1,405 restaurants that are currently now operating in New Orleans (stats courtesy NOMenu.com) are going to survive.

Not to be a pessimist, but there are new restaurants opening on every corner these days. Not that I’m against more restaurants, far from it. I love trying new places, because you never know when you’re going to run across some undiscovered gem.

Me, I’ll eat just about anything (you can look at my bod and tell that!), but I’m able and willing to try just about anything. I wish my digestive system and pocketbook could tolerate all the restaurants I’d like to try.

Because of the plethora of restaurants opening here, there’s a real dearth of qualified personnel to staff the place. How many times have you heard great things about a restaurant, you’re rarin’ to go there, and once you’re seated, the wait staff and/or service is abominable. How many times has that scenario kept you from going back? If you’re paying to be served good food, then you should expect great service, right? That’s one of the major problems the city is facing right now. If you don’t have good staff, it’s ultimately going to close your restaurant down.

New Orleans has a couple of schools that produce trained management and culinary staff, one at Delgado (culinary-oriented) and the University of New Orleans’ Lester E. Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism (HRT) that offers bachelors’ and masters’ degrees in hospitality management.

All graduates of these programs have to serve internships in local restaurants and hotels, or in hospitality industry businesses, but frankly, they are oriented towards producing managers, not wait staff, not the servers.

There’s also a New Orleans School of Bartending, and courses that can be taken serving alcohol that’s sponsored by the Louisiana Restaurant Association. But where’s the training school for hospitality people who don’t necessarily want to be managers? Or professional bartenders? Is there a demand for something like this that could benefit local restaurant owners?

It’s interesting to note that there are many people in New Orleans who have made their living for years and years at local restaurants, i.e. waiters at high-end places like Galatoire’s, Commanders, and Antoine’s. You are literally a journeyman for years and you work your way up the totem pole to become a full-fledged waiter. Of course, there’s a lot of money to be made at these types of places, and the staff generally is dedicated and works there for many years.

Most small restaurants don’t have the wherewithal or ability to do thorough training for wait staff, hostesses, line cooks, and bartenders. These kinds of jobs are the sort you “learn as you go,” for the most part, and many times are temporary gigs for people who really want to do something else with their lives.

Shouldn’t someone perhaps work with the restaurants or restaurant associations to come up with training courses and standards that can “certify” a job applicant? It might add another level of professionalism to our local restaurants. We obviously need qualified service personnel in the city.

But then…how many new restaurants can a city support—even if the food and service is stellar? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I am aware that the failure rate for new restaurants is extremely high. Something’s hot when it opens, but business generally falls off—a new “hottie” is just opening down the block. How can a restaurateur keep the business flowing and add new business?

Advertising and promotion are the traditional ways to do that. Sometimes a restaurant will add entertainment/music. Making sure your customers like your food, service and environment will keep them coming back…hopefully.

With the internet, mobile devices and social media having a major impact on how we look for good places to eat, how much do they influence our choices? How do you decide where to find information on restaurants?

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