Fantasy by lady writer...

[Elenorasweet]

My father is looking for a fantasy title that he used to own, but seems to have accidentally given away.

He doesn't remember the name or author, but it was a lady.

The main character was a woman who worked in a restaurant. She would go out at night to fight monsters(?). There was elemental magic, like ice and earth powers.

That's all the info he remembers, I'm afraid. Does that ring a bell for anyone?

 

[HareBrain]

Sookie Stackhouse, in the books by Charlaine Harris, works in a resturant, and there's all kinds of vampires and stuff (I believe; I haven't read any myself). Could that be it?

 

[KyleAW]

Is it any good? Seems an odd premise to me but always interested in a different angle.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Mrs King and the Scarecrow with spies replaced by "stuff"
Sounds like it would work

 

[Elenorasweet]

Sookie Stackhouse, in the books by Charlaine Harris, works in a resturant, and there's all kinds of vampires and stuff (I believe; I haven't read any myself). Could that be it?

I had the same idea, but I'm afraid not. Thank you though.

 

[WaylanderToo]

one of the Kelly Armstrong novels?

 

[PaulMmn]

Possibly Mercedes Lackey's >Diana Tregarde< novels? She doesn't work in a restaurant, but does go out and fight demons and monsters and things that go bump in the night...

--Paul E Musselman

 

[dwndrgn]

Could it be:
Jennifer Estep‘s Elemental Assassin is an urban fantasy featuring Gin Blanco as its primary character who runs a barbecue restaurant as her day job. It’s an alternate world scenario with elementals pretty much running the town in which Gin Blanco lives.

 

[NannyOgg]

Possibly Mercedes Lackey's >Diana Tregarde< novels? She doesn't work in a restaurant, but does go out and fight demons and monsters and things that go bump in the night...

--Paul E Musselman

<grin> I was thinking of Mercedes Lackey too, as she has one set of books (the Diana Tregarde series you already mentioned) about someone with a day job who goes out and fights supernatural things, and another completely different set of books (Elemental Masters series) about elemental magic. But I can't think of any of hers that fit all the criteria given in the OP.