Rodney

If you have no experience, the best way is to know somebody who'll vouch for you. If you don't have that, it's going to be tougher because a lot of other people have experience or "know somebody."

If you have to interview cold, convince them that you know at least something about fine dining. One of the things that a waiter must do -- because it makes the house a lot of cash -- is push wine. And you'd better push the right wine, or the customer will be unhappy. If you don't know a lot about wine, a quick readthrough of "Wine for Dummies" might help you impress a restaurant owner.

If you have friends who are waiters, ask them about their jobs so that you have the vocabulary and background knowledge to convince the owner that you can actually do the job. I'm especially talking about all the things waiters do that don't directly impact customers, like sidework. Helps to know the slang, too -- four-top, six-top, slammed, in the weeds, and so on.

For more background on the web, you might try tip20.com, bitterwaitress.com, and stainedapron.com -- last one isn't being maintained, but has a lot of funny stories. tip20.com has a fairly active waiter/waitress forum, so you could probably log in there and get some informed advice as well.