Soon, the world will know the true identity of the blog world’s ranting waiter

Until July 29. That's when the blogger and author of the new hardback Waiter Rant can come forward. His publisher officially releases his book that day. Until then, I'm not allowed to tell you his name. In fact, I don't even know it myself.

"Can you just call me 'The Waiter?'" he asked from his home during a phone conversation. He won't get specific about where he lives, either. "Just say it's in the New York area."

The Waiter isn't being coy. He just wants a little privacy before his identity is revealed to the world. Since 2004, this 40-year-old New Yorker has been the author of the popular waiterrant.net blog. As an anonymous blogger, The Waiter has been able to write candidly about restaurant life, but publication of the book will out him. That's OK, he says — he recently retired from the food-service trade after 10 years of waiting tables.

The blog has been his way of coping with the stress of working in restaurants. "I couldn't afford therapy," he says, "so I started a blog instead. It was an escape."

The Waiter will make one of his first public appearances (under his real name) at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 5, at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library (4801 Main). The library presents The Waiter as part of a series called "Order Up! Tales From the Dining Room."

Unlike most servers, The Waiter came to restaurant life late. He was 30 when he first put on a server's apron. "By restaurant standards, I was ancient," he says.

He studied psychology in college and worked in the mental-health field for years before becoming a server. "It was good training for being a waiter," he says. "I had been one of those men in the white coats who chased after patients. I had to let them scream and yell at me while I did nothing. I learned to keep my personal emotions to one side. That came in very handy as a waiter."

Why? "Most people don't realize that, with a few exceptions, restaurants are crazy, dysfunctional places."

His fans agree. At its peak, waiterrant.net had a million readers a week. "It's about 7,000 readers a week now," he says. "And that's great."