TheFoodTutor
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Posts posted by TheFoodTutor
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It isn't difficult to accomadate food allergies but some people make a career of being unpleasant about demanding attention to their needs and make a fuss if there is anything containing their problem ingredient anywhere near their food without having any consideration for other people.
You are quite correct. It is all about the attention for some people. I think that the average reaction for polite people when one learns one has an allergy or food sensitivity is to feel somewhat troubled that one must accomodate this and explain it to friends and relatives who will inevitably ask why you're not partaking of an alcoholic beverage, or why you can't have dessert. Others, however, feel that it's a license to hold others hostage and demand that every host bend to their will, and every guest eat the same way they do.
I knew a fellow who took up a fat-free lifestyle, and whenever he visited my in-laws, he would consume every package of fat-free anything that they owned. My mother-in-law would get very bitter about this, and I couldn't help pointing out that the obvious solution is to stop inviting him.
Unfortunately, she was also the perpetrator of most of the horrible meals I've had in another's home. Fat-free this, sugar-free that, a soup of plain, canned chicken broth with a couple (2) shreds of carrot and celery as the first course. A chicken dish stewed in fat-free canned soup.
Oh, and dessert was the piece de resistance. Orange Metamucil sprinkled over fat-free vanilla frozen yogurt. I actually heard my mother-in-law describing this as a special treat to someone once. She mentioned that they were eating Metamucil every day, since psyllium husks apparantly decrease cardiac risk, and they were ferociously afraid of dying some day. When someone mentioned that it didn't sound very tasty, to have a fiber supplement with dinner, she responded, "But we serve it on ice cream." He replied, "Now, you're talkin'!"
No, no, no. Now you're not talking about anything real at all. We're talking about gelatinous granules of psyllium fiber, sprinkled on tasteless, fat-free frozen yogurt that doesn't even have any noticeable vanilla flavor. We're talking about yuck on top of yuck.
Pass the antacids, please.
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I use turkey, mayonnaise and a touch of cranberry sauce. I don't like to put stuffing on my sandwich, though, because it's just too much bread for me that way. I usually eat my first leftover turkey sandwich on the evening of Thanksgiving and then I just keep eating them until the turkey's all gone.
I've never heard it called a White Horse, though. Oh, and sometimes they're good with iceberg lettuce, too.
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yeah cool pick lamb nice knife :) even tho im a mac fan now for life .
Yeah, I like that knife pretty well, too. Lambfries is my other half, but we work in different restaurants. The best family meals we tend to have are beef ribs, which we make by cutting the bones off of the prime rib and then adding a little barbecue sauce on the hickory grill. Sometimes we have chicken wings, which are leftovers from the roasted chicken we serve, and we can either roast them with lemon pepper or do them buffalo style. Other times we just have turkey club sandwiches, salsbury steak or something else that's not that remarkable.
But family meal at Lamb's restaurant are really good. I've worked there a couple of nights and there have been great meatloaf sandwiches, or sliced, grilled steak with a fresh mixed-green salad or something of that nature. He should really take more pictures, if he can remember to bring the camera.
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As to the charge that some of us may be Luddites and might have objected to the horseless carriage in its day, forgive me but that holds no water.
I thought the same thing when I saw that charge. Actually, if I had lived in 1905, I would have been agog with all the rest at the wonders of the horseless carriage, and far from thinking it would be a producer of pollution, I'd have marveled at having a form of transportation that doesn't poop in the streets.
And I'd agree with the idea of turning off the ringer of one's home phone when one is entertaining. If I've invited a couple to dinner at my place, why in the world would I want to speak to that old friend who found my phone number after 10 years and decided to chat. I can call him back tomorrow, on receiving the message, and perhaps he'll not be drunk at that time, so even better.
It seems there's nothing so far that Mr. Rogov and I disagree on, and he does use wonderful words to express it, so it's good to have a companion of his intellect on these boards.
As far as servers being servants, there are many social norms in the U.S. that do suggest there is a class system in place, so I presume that balex's reference was a joke. Still, there are times that patrons cross just about any line you can place in front of them, and it is a lot to expect that servers will continue to be humble no matter how belittling is the manner of the guest. It's one of those things that's very difficult to accept, even when one is well-mannered, so it's understandable that such is a touchy subject.
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If one were to follow the model that the customer is always right, at least according to some things I've read in various threads, one would be able to assume that, since there are probably quite a few customers at my restaurant who would be much happier if we sold slabs of prime rib for $2 instead of $22, then we should just go ahead and lower the price. But of course, that would be a terrible idea, unless your perfect business model is one that loses money hand over fist. There are lots of ways to make people happy and lose money at it, and only a few ways to make everyone generally satisfied and turn a profit.
And I also agree that some adults are much more disruptive than some children. However, it is sad that it's so rare for me to see parents respond appropriately when their child begins screaming - the correct response being to snatch up the child and take him outside until he can settle down - that I am overwhelmed with thankfulness every time I do see this happen.
The one behavior mentioned here that doesn't really bother me is breastfeeding in restaurants. When I see a woman breastfeeding at my table, I simply look her straight in the eye and take her order, as if she weren't doing anything especially remarkable, and then when my male co-workers giggle and point, I slap them and tell them to shut up. Babies have to eat when they have to eat, and they sure can't make any noise when they have something in their mouths, so I don't see anything offensive there.
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I find it really amazing that this subject has aroused so much discussion. I was trying to think about why there could be disagreement over whether cell phone usage in public is rude, and I toyed with the possibility that perhaps because I've been on the wrong end of so much cell phone rudeness, I am too sensitive to it.
Once, a friend of mine asked me to do him a large favor. He was having trouble with his car and wanted to take it to a dealership for maintenance, and this dealership was about a half hour away from where we live. At his request, I followed him in my car, driving behind him to make sure no essential parts fell off the car, making sure that he would not need any roadside assistance. When we got to the dealership, I waited for him to make arrangements for the work to be done, and then I drove him back to the complex where we lived. Upon getting into my passenger seat, he pulled out his cell phone and called a friend of his in Pittsburgh, said hello and told his friend what he was doing, then proceeded to catch up on goings-on, having a long conversation with his friend.
Frankly, I was dumbstruck. Here I was doing him a favor, and he was very clearly letting me know that I'm a good enough friend to ask a favor of, but not good enough to entertain him with my conversation on the ride back. Now, I know he didn't mean to be rude, but I was astounded that he simply didn't know what an affront this was, being somewhat younger than I am and growing up in some sort of strange culture where people apparantly ignore everything else the moment they feel like using their cell phones.
I still have not managed to tell him that this upset me, because I just cannot think of a polite way to educate someone about this matter of etiquette. The way I did respond, however, was to become conveniently unavailable when he wanted to ask the ensuing favor of a ride to fetch his car when it was finished.
But it occurs to me that, because I work with the public and see a large slice of human behavior, the percentage of people who know how to use cell phones politely is much, much smaller than the percentage who do not. And so, the only effective way of dealing with this that we have at my restaurant is to ban both polite and impolite people from using cell phones. Perhaps those of you who are unconvinced that this is the best course of action can come to where I work and see the boorish behavior I'm talking about for yourselves, because I'm sure you'd be convinced within a day if you saw what I've seen.
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... er... I was wondering... what's the point of tipping? If it's not a means of offering encouragement for the waiter and the rest of the team, what purpose does it serve?
Agreed. It's a bad system, and we should get rid of it.
But many have the belief that it is a system for encouraging good service, in spite of the fact that there are other professions that provide good service with a simple, guaranteed hourly wage, and in spite of European systems where service charges are applied, and good service is still had. So we will not be rid of it soon.
Until such time as we do pay servers in a manner that's more civilized, we have to accept the one that we do have. And that means that servers must accept the fact that some people think a tip of 10% is good, some people think a tip of $1 per person dining is more than adequate, regardless of the total of the bill, and some people think that servers are paid a normal wage, so a 15% tip is outrageously high.
It's really not a good state of affairs, given that, at my restaurant, a server can end up paying for the privilege of waiting on someone who is rude, and who decides to leave no tip whatsoever, simply because the restaurant has a policy of not offering free refills on freshly-squeezed lemonade. Customers like this freedom to stiff the server, as a protest against the restaurant's policies, even if the server has no choice in the policy and is only making $2.13 an hour. That's one example of a recent stiff for me, and another is the gentleman who stiffed me because I informed his girlfriend that cell phone use is not allowed in the dining room. Another patron stiffed me a few months ago because I charged her for the mango that she added to her salad, also a restaurant policy. So I basically paid a charge of 2% of their bill out of the tips I received on other tables.
Yes, it's a hard job and a hard life, and I choose to accept it, because it all evens out. Maybe not daily, but certainly weekly, because I have guests who tip more than 20% when they realize I've gone the extra mile. I accept that one out of possibly 200 guests will find a reason not to tip me at all, and I will pay out of my own pocket to wait on them. Everyone still gets great service, at every table I greet.
Fair? No. A way of making a living? Yes. And a way to develop a very thick skin as well. If anyone's interested in changing the system, I'll sign any petition to the government that you care to write up.
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A server could be your social inferior in the sense that, if you snapped your fingers at a co-worker and told him to get you more Diet Coke, he'd just laugh at you, but if you do it to a server, she'll wait to get back to the server station to laugh at you and tell her co-workers what an ass you are, while getting your Diet Coke. Otherwise, people are people. Servers are doing a job that needs to be done, and they can make your meal more or less enjoyable.
As far as auto-grats or service charges, I think they are a good idea, but of course it depends on the type of clientelle for a particular establishment. As mentioned before, European countries use service charges, and it doesn't seem to cause service to suffer. And I'd also point out that the origin of the term "tip" doesn't actually relate to the urban legend involving to ensure proper service. That's just a fallacy.
You'd definitely agree with auto-grats if you'd seen what I've seen, such as a party of 7, with a bill of about $100 at a lower-end restaurant, who paid their bill and then smiled, looking straight into the eye of one of my servers (I was manager at the time) and placed a $5 bill on the table, stating loudly, "There's yer teee-yup!" I mean, this guy was really proud to be leaving his very nice server a less than 5% tip, so there is a place for this sort of thing. Not everyone goes by the same scale, and the higher the volume, the more you will see uneducated behavior.
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So basically, if people chat discreetly, then phones are no problem...?
Concerning your crack down...What about the incidents where people shout at each other face to face... Can I suggest that you introduce a no talking policy???
If people chatted quietly, there wouldn't be a problem with allowing them to use cell phones, but if we chose to enforce the rule for some and not for others, we would definitely be accused of discriminating. No question about it. We would probably end up with charges of racism or sexism or some kind of ism. For the same reason, we must uniformly use the autograt added to parties of 5 or more. You cannot ever pre-judge a table and decide which ones look like they're better tippers. Any policy has to be enforced uniformly, every single time.
And we do send managers out to tables that are talking in a disruptive fashion as well. No need to forbid talking in general, but if you're bothering the next table over, knock it off, please.
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So what happened? Was Silly Chicken Dish served to the dishwashers?
Silly Chicken Dish was fed to the garbage can, because while I'd normally try to eat any mistakes like that, or split them with another waiter, we were way too busy to be able to even take a bite of anything. And there wasn't a convenient place for me to stash it, either. I think she should have paid for it, but we took it off her bill.
Another faux pas on the part of guests involves what we in the industry call "camping." I don't want to rush anyone out the door or anything, but there is really no reason to stay at a table for more than an hour, or two, or three, after one has finished consuming everything in his or her meal. Mostly, it's just rude to the server, who pays rent on those tables and is unable to make money on another turn of guests, but sometimes it can be rude to other guests who are waiting at the door, impatiently, since they were told you'd be relinquishing that table in 30 minutes, but you didn't.
Monday I had a table of campers, a man and a woman who were really cuddly and ordered nothing but water and one entree to split, then stayed for 5 hours. In that time, I refilled their waters at least 15 times, and of course I was treated to a lovely display of a game of "footsie" plus a less than 20% tip on their tiny bill. When my shift was over, the gentleman called me over on my way out the door and told me that he and the woman had talked themselves into one glass of wine, to share, and I told him that I was oh so sorry that I'd no longer be waiting on him, since I was done for the day. I simultaneously felt relieved for myself, and sad for the server taking over my section.
Do you think he'd have gotten the hint if I'd brought him a bag of marshmallows to toast?
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Actually, the reason why we've had to crack down on cell phones is because we had an incident a couple of weeks ago where a gentleman, or a not-so-gentle man rather, called his ex-girlfriend, or someone who he knew would scream obscenities at him, at any rate, and while she was giving her tirade about what a no-good, worthless piece of excrement he was, he turned up the volume loud enough that everyone in the dining room was treated to a stream of profanity.
And generally people tend to yack louder on the phone than the normal level of polite conversation at a table.
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My fellow diners do not, however. They will try the food and complain about it to the rest of us at the table, but when the server asks, "How is everything?" they remain silent. Is that the polite thing to do? Say nothing and never go back? If so, perhaps servers shouldn't ask that question anymore.
The same topic was discussed in another thread, about whether guests have a responsibility to point out flaws in the food or service to management, rather than simply leave and never come back. I don't think a guest has a responsibility to help a restaurant improve itself, but if you have a complaint about a dish, the obvious advantage to complaining is that you can get a dish you like better instead.
As Mr. Rogov mentioned, however, it is unacceptable to eat all or most of a dish and then complain, hoping to have the price of that dish removed from your bill.
Another point that I found questionable happened last week at the restaurant where I work. A lady had ordered a dish that is no longer on our menu, and she asked for it with its specific name, but she really had meant to order another dish instead, also an item that is no longer on the menu. Both of these items originally had silly-sounding names, and with changes on the menu since then, we no longer have things that sound so cutesy. Anyway, when the dish arrived, she looked at it and said, "That's not what I ordered. I ordered Silly-Sounding Chicken Dish."
So of course, I told her that this, in fact, was Silly-Sounding Chicken Dish, but she explained that she'd meant to order Slightly Less Silly-Sounding Chicken Dish, and could I go back and get that for her instead? Well, yes I can, but that means that this plate of food will go to waste because of an error on this woman's part, because there is no way we're going to get another order for Silly-Sounding Chicken Dish so that we can re-serve it. If I had been the customer, I would have been polite enough to realize that food should not be thrown away because I couldn't remember which Silly Chicken Dish I wanted, so I would have just eaten my mistake.
But that's just me, I guess.
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A very good and nearly complete list, Mr. Rogov. You have excellent manners and as I am, you seem to be very sensitive to the etiquette breaches committed by others.
There has been a new development at my place of employment regarding cell phone usage. We've always had a policy of not allowing cell phones to be used in the dining room, this policy being written on our menus, on a metal plaque next to the front door and on a placard near the host stand. But now, I am actually allowed to insist that guests not use their cell phones at my tables, asking them to take their conversations to the lobby or the lounge instead.
I am absolutely overjoyed at this improvement, and you can be guaranteed that I'll be enforcing this policy without prejudice toward men or women, rich or poor, black or white, or purple for that matter. The reason I'm so thrilled with it is that it rids me of my biggest pet peeve: The guest who continues yammering into his phone while holding up one finger to me, insisting that I stand there and wait for him to be finished before he'll give me a beverage order. I hate that, and I find it very insulting to assume that one's cell phone conversation is so much more important than whatever I have to do at that moment.
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Oh, dear. Sorry. Double post due to a glitch on my computer.
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Another annoyance, and equally a pleasure and a sign of good service when it is got right, is whether the server remembers who is having what. I hate it when the food appears with the question "Who is having medium rare?" etc.
In restaurant terms, this is referred to as the "auctioning" method of serving food, and the alternative is called "pivot points." Pivot points are far preferable to auctioning, and they're fairly easy to implement, the only difficulty being minor confusion over which chair is seat #1 at a round table.
In my opinion, any restaurant classy enough not to have the words "Shack" or "Pit" in the name of the establishment is also classy enough to use pivot points instead of auctioning.
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This is an interesting report. I would guess, based on it, that you work for a mid-level chain restaurant? And that the goals of the chain/secret shopper is not wholly to provide quality service (checking back), though that is part of it, but to provide uniform service (the precise timing required) from store to store and to maximize customer spending (pushing a specific appetizer, reciting the specials list immediately).
Well, it's sort of a nicer chain, but the secret shopper thing is a royal pain, as Daddy-A described. I've waited on secret shoppers who were pleasant, simply out to have a good time and looking for anything that would seriously inhibit a nice experience for the guest. And I've waited on secret shoppers who thought it was a game to see how many mistakes they could point out, playing a game of "Gotcha!" against someone who falls into a category of people they don't like. Or they simply don't get what the corporation is looking for, scanning the server for any mention of "specials," when in fact, she's unable to even use that word.
Some of the requirements, like mentioning an appetizer, suggesting a specific one and offering to fetch it right away, do have a purpose. I assume, sometimes, that someone may arrive in a state of semi-starvation, or at least a period of low blood sugar, and offering to get him something right this moment could be a godsend. We have 2 whole appetizers available, with sometimes a third available as "an addition to the menu" so mentioning something specific allows the guest to focus quickly on whether they want something to nosh on or not, but asking if the guest wants "an appetizer?" prompts them to scour our menu, which is one whole page - you'd be surprised how long it takes people to read something so short - and have a moment of confusion. With only 2 appetizers, I do find it's much quicker to ask if they want to start off with smoked salmon or spinach dip than it would be to wait for the guests to read that themselves. And then, presumably, I can head off dealing with someone falling into a diabetic coma because I didn't offer them something right away.
And immediate quality check can be useful, too, but you folks couldn't possibly guess some of the situations I've seen where it is. You see, if you like to have your steak cooked extra, extra well-done, you can tell just by looking at it, the moment it's plopped in front of you and without cutting into it, whether it's properly had the living daylights cooked out of it, making it dry as a bone. So I can be there immediately to remove the offending steak, with its slight remnants of juiciness, and whisk it back to the kitchen to have it burned beyond recognition.
I don't wait on the classiest element of the population, but I try to do my job well, anyway.
Apology accepted, Jackal. And you're entirely correct about the economy pushing more folks into serving jobs. My restaurant is now fully-staffed, and that's the first time I've ever seen that happen. God help us.
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I'd be curious to know what kind of establishment FoodTutor works in that she's not only required to tell customers her name, the "recommended" appetizer, and launch into the specials before the customers have even unfolded their napkins. I imagine a tired server (FT or someone else) rattling off, "hi-my-name-is-food-tutor-and-i'll-be-your-server-would-you-like-to-start-off-with-some-buffalo-wings-and-our-specials-are..." in about 20 seconds flat.
Well, it's more upscale than buffalo wings, but it is pretty casual as well. It's a chain of 50 restaurants that is known for both having excellent prime rib and having super speedy service. Really, really fast service.
And my greet doesn't sound quite like that, actually. I'm not allowed to say "and I'll be your server" because that's superfluous, and it really sounds dumb, anyway. I say, "My name is. . ." and then I'm supposed to ask if I can get them a beverage, but I usually offer something to drink. Beverage sounds a little strange to me.
And then, this is the worst part. I can't say "Our specials today are. . ." even if the guest asks what the "specials" are. We don't have specials, because, of course, all of our entrees are special.
We do, however, have "additions to our menu for the day."And then sometimes people stop me in the middle of it and say they'll just have the grilled chicken salad, because they always have the grilled chicken salad.
Yup. It's really hard to be smiley and fun over and over again, all day long. Knowing that Jackal thinks I'm "begging" doesn't make it any better, either.
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I find it very interesting to note that many of the things that irk diners on this thread are items on the checklist provided to secret shoppers. If a server doesn't do those things, it can pop up as a hideous black mark on the report from the shop, and there will certainly be some explaining to do, with the server possibly being suspended or fired. Here are a few required where I work:
I have to say my name.
I have to suggest a specific appetizer.
I have to say the specials, and I even have to try to launch into them before it gets too late in the initial greet, since if I wait for the secret shopper to interrupt me and ask, "What are your specials?" that will show up as a big deficit, since the shopper will write, "TheFoodTutor didn't tell me the specials until I asked." (this really happened to me
)I have to do a quality check within 2 minutes, and my boss tells me that it's even best to do it immediately, or as soon after the entrees hit the table as possible, since shoppers have a nasty habit of turning 2 minutes into 8 when they're remembering back and filling out the report.
And when I worked at places that offered ground pepper for salads, it was mandatory that it be immediate as well.
While I personally prefer unobtrusive, efficient service, the majority opinion seems to be the opposite. So the reason servers are too chatty is because this behavior is generally rewarded with better tips.
I was at lunch last week when my server asked me about my employment, and when I told him where I work, he kindly provided me with the information that he'd not only worked there, but that he'd been fired by a manager that I particularly like. Too much information, thank you.
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John R. Hendrie, CEO Hospitality Performance, Inc.
sounds like he is not only a curmudgeon and CEO, but knows the business quite well!
Does he? He didn't sound like it to me.
Crushed pepper and cracked pepper are two different things, and he confuses them in the space of a pretty short article. If you offer crushed pepper flakes, you'd bring them in a little dish on the side with a demitasse spoon, so that the guest can pepper his own food. If you offer cracked pepper, you use a peppermill, and it is, contrary to many people's opinions, correct to offer the cracked pepper immediately on placing a salad in front of the guest.
That's simply a standard of service, and it is not indicative of a decline in etiquette.
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The Clermont Lounge. Best bar--EVER!
Yes, Clermont is very cool. Blondie is probably the coolest stripper in the world.
Lambfries said he enjoyed a cigarette with you, and you refrained from punching him in the face and reminding him that he shouldn't be smoking, after having a heart attack a couple years ago. The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long, after all.
Thank you for visiting our fair city, and we both enjoyed meeting you again. I'm so glad you had an enjoyable experience.
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I very much enjoyed the dinner, and the company was very fun, particularly at my table. Lots of nice professionals, many very enthusiastic about food, and of course many members of Les Dames. This was a pleasant fact for me, since I'd just worked an event for the benefit of Les Dames last month at a bed and breakfast called Seren-be. It makes it much easier to talk with strangers when you realize that you were probably all in the same place, eating the same food and meeting the same people recently.
Tony looked very handsome, and he was quite nice about making the rounds of the tables. I stood up to greet him by our table, and he gave me 3 little air kisses by my cheeks. It's probably the first time I've blushed in a decade. Later, I managed to get him to write a personal autograph to the staff where I work, on the back of the printed menu.
One of the passed apps was foie gras on a piece of brioche with possibly a fig on top of it. I couldn't understand what the server offering it to me said, and it sounded like he wasn't sure how to pronounce what he was serving. And I didn't get to examine it further because I had to pop the whole thing in my mouth, as I was rapidly running out of hands, and I needed my glass of champagne.
Really, it was one of the most fun evenings I've had in a long time. Lambfries will kill me for saying this, but he's with Bourdain right now, so he can give a report when he gets back as well. Since posting is a little like pulling teeth for him, he might take a little while, though.
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I predict this thread will get a nice post-Thanksgiving boost.
That reminds me of the Thanksgiving when I was heating gravy directly on my stove, in a lovely blue casserole dish, given to me by my mother years earlier. I had seen her use it in the oven, and it hadn't occurred to me that it couldn't be used on the stovetop, so I was truly surprised when I turned away from it for a second and heard it explode behind my back.
No one was hurt, though I did lose all my gravy and that very nice dish. My mother happened to be visiting that day from out of town, and she saw what happened and said to me, "You did that to make me feel better, didn't you?" because she is usually the one who has all the terrible kitchen mishaps.
Oh well.
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I think I'll take your suggestions and figure out something to just bring. I'll definitely make a sugar-free dessert for my uncle, otherwise he won't get anything, and try to figure out a really great side dish or dishes that can travel for 3 hours in the car. And, of course, those Jello Jigglers. I think there's a recipe for those in the Les Halles cookbook.
I like the idea of jello shots, but my best suggestion would be to bring a pumpkin cheesecake, with nutella incorporated into the graham crust. This sort of thing is absolutely irresistible at this time of year, particularly when people are expecting to have plain old pumpkin pie, maybe an apple pie garnished with Cool Whip or something that's really not that stellar in the dessert realm.
I could look up a recipe for you, but there are many to be found on the internet. Not a difficult thing to make at all, and you can never have too many desserts.
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His bill came to $40.40, and he left $40.50 and shot out the door. I'm inclined to think that he wanted an excuse to stiff me, and I gave him every opportunity to have a fully satisfactory experience. And these people, who want an excuse to stiff a server, thereby getting a discount on their meals, do exist, and it's part of why we have this tipping system in this country.
That's a strong argument for eliminating, not keeping, the tipping system. And it certainly sounds like that man was a total asshole for stiffing you after all you had done for and offered to him.
I couldn't agree with you more, since I really don't think tipping is the best way to pay servers. Another good argument is found when you consider that good, polite diners subsidize the dinners of nasty, rude diners by tipping well to cover for others tipping badly. Really, it should be the other way around, don't you think? Rude diners should be charged an "asshole tax" to be applied toward the bills of the pleasant diners. On my island, all of the restaurants will charge this way.
But, here on this big island, it turns out that impolite people outnumber polite ones, except for at places like eGullet, of course. The impolite ones have a veto-proof majority, in real life, so changing the system is a difficult proposition.
What a shame.
Foibles & fallacies: the demon customer
in Restaurant Life
Posted
I'm not bothered by questions at all, actually. I'll answer whatever question you want to ask, including "What kind of pasta is in the risotto?" Heh.
But, what does bother me is this:
"I'll be right back with some more water for you, ma'am. Is there anything else I can bring you right now?"
"Uh, can I have some more water?"
Arrrrgh.