Likewise. I’m also put off by waitresses touching me. Who the hell told them they could do that?
I am reminded of Steve Martin in The Muppet Movie. “Would you like to sniff ze cap?”
Y’all are making my point for me. For every person who finds ‘No worries’ offensive or insincere another finds it innocuous. Same goes for Sir or Ma’am.
It’s the servers job to work the crowd. To know who’s going to prefer which. Can they always get it right? Obviously not, but an experienced server knows not to use one of those phrases until they’ve interacted with you a bit and gotten a feel for you.
As for touching you or calling you Hon or Dear, yeah, that’s not cool, maybe in a diner but even then it’s a little iffy.
As for sounding insincere when they say, ‘no worries’, or, ‘have a nice evening’, or ‘it’d be my pleasure’, or, ‘certainly’, well, that’s more a function of exactly how often they’ve had to say it that day, week, month.
And again, the problem is often that the manager has a preferred phrase they want used. Overuse ends up sounding insincere. Myself I would change it up so it sounded as close to sincere as possible. And regardless of how it sounded I always, always meant it sincerely.
I saw what you did there.
(if we say her name 3 times will she appear in this thread??)
Who?
A lot of people followed the link from the OP to this story, but it is part of a regular feature called “You’re the Boss” which is a place for small business owners to talk about how they do things. People who don’t regularly read the NYT probably missed that point. He was asked to write about how he runs things and he did.
Also, a smart small business owner would take an opportunity to talk up his business and try to convey to the thousands of readers what’s special about his/her place. The author of this article is trying to say that he has standards and if you come to his place, it will be a special experience.
A place doesn’t have to be insanely expensive to have a high standard of service and a place with high standards of service doesn’t have to come off as pretentious. I enjoy all kinds of dining experiences, the one thing they have in common is that the place has heart and the staff give a shit.
If you notice one of his rules is that people eating alone are to be treated as much as valued guest as a larger party. That alone made me love the list. I love a place that you can sit down have a nice meal and read a book without feeling like a social reject.
Pretty much ANY place does that, especially the lower scale places.
Originally Posted by manila
I saw what you did there.
(if we say her name 3 times will she appear in this thread??)
Back in March this year we had a thread on tipping. As these are always interesting on these boards I pulled up a chair and opened the popcorn. The thread developed as expected ( lots for, many against) until on page 5 post 247 a new poster arrived and from there on the thread truly slipped into the realms of the twilight zone…
…And never surfaced again until it ended after another 12 pages with a banned poster and many strange ocurrences. A true classic.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=509580&highlight=springs1
I’ve been to a small handful of high-end restaurants. At one of them the only reason I realized my napkin had slipped off of my lap was because the waitress set a new one (not the old one that had fallen to the floor - a NEW one) on the table next to my plate. That’s a far cry from the average restaurant where you have to chase someone down to get a new fork even though the clatter echoed. This list is obviously created for restaurants of the former variety than the latter.
That said, I was happy to see that Waterrant has jumped on this list. My personal favorites:
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Never use the same glass for a second drink. When the dishwasher’s on his marijuana break and there are no clean glasses to be found, you better believe we reuse that glass. Or somebody else’s! A quick rinse in the slop sink and you’re good to go.
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Make sure the glasses are clean. Inspect them before placing them on the table. That’s because the lipstick some chicks smear on their mouths has the staying power of grout sealant.
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Do not pop a champagne cork. Remove it quietly, gracefully. The less noise the better. Agreed. But if the customer’s a real pain in the ass aim for their eye.
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Never touch a customer. No excuses. Do not do it. Do not brush them, move them, wipe them or dust them. So what do you do if that three martini cougar offers you a handjob?
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Do not drink alcohol on the job, even if invited by the guests. “Not when I’m on duty” will suffice. Oh give me a fucking break. Without alcohol waiters would be killing restaurant managers and hostesses every day.
Or if someone faints. And without going to such extremes, this is one of those things which have a lot to do with personal preference. With most americans, the general rule will be “no touching,” but if, say, you’re taking their coats and your hand brushes their jacket, please do not drop to the floor and grovel, as it will make the coats dirty.
I see this happening in some of the chains I go to, and I believe that it’s actually encouraged by the management. Also, kneeling to take an order is supposed to generate bigger tips, on average. Personally, I don’t want one of the restaurant staff to sit down at my table unless I invite him or her, nor do I want someone to kneel to take my order. I have, on occasion, asked a staffer to sit down if they have the time, but I always leave them a face-saving excuse.
I used to go to a restaurant in London (vegetarian Bangladeshi place) where the owner - who did front of house - would take your order if you were lucky, if he was in the mood and above all if you made your mind up what you wanted very, very promptly.
A moment’s hesitation on your part and he would just sigh exasperatedly, rip some pages out of his notebook, and throw them plus a pen on your table, and say "write out your own order"and storm off.
Despite this we went there all the time, because the food was absolutely mouthwatering, the prices staggeringly low and the amusement factor of laughing at the owner’s antics was high.
I ate at a Chinese restaurant in London that was legendary for the rudeness of their staff. I’m surprised they didn’t actually address the customers as “Imperialist round-eye capitalist running dogs” when demanding “you order now!”
The food was delicious and the appalling service was, ironically, part of the experience.
That’s her touching you–perfectly OK.
There’s a mom and pop pizza place here that has such poor service, you will not escape it in under two hours… for pizza. You’ll be forgotten, your pizza will not be what you ordered, and you’ll have to harass someone to get silverware and napkins (at all). That said, their pizza is excellent, and their delivery is prompt and correct. We’ve sworn off dining in.
I hate that kind of stuff. A kneeling server just makes me feel awkward and embarrassed - tip not going up for that. All I want from a server is what I want from a cashier - expedite my giving you my money for your product, and don’t try to be my new best friend.
I disagree wholeheartedly. There’s no reason he couldn’t have made his point in the title. And how people perceive what is essentially an ad in a paper is entirely the writer’s fault.
Would you also prefer that he use bold text on important words, so that readers don’t miss important points? Or perhaps more use of footnotes to make sure the reader doesn’t misunderstand anything? (1)
Someone has to be an incredibly lazy reader to say that a writer who puts something in the first 30 words of his article, really ought to have put that thing in the first six words of his article.
In fact, I fail to see what negligence a writer has committed if a reader cannot comprehend plain English in the first sentence of a short article. I would submit that such a reader could not be completely trusted to read a headline accurately, either. Now, we all skim during reading, and may not read things accurately, which isn’t a sin or sign of stupidity. As we skim, we are taking a shortcut that diverts comprehension. But when misunderstandings arise, it’s due to our mistake as readers, and not the writer’s fault for insufficiently holding our hand while we were being a little bit lazy.
(1) Even though I used question marks to end two sentences, those are rhetorical questions.size=“1”[/SIZE]
(2) Rhetorical means that an answer isn’t really expected.
Your reply would have been more effective if you had bolded certain words or maybe used footnotes.
Part II is up, please read the opening paragraph: 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part 2) - The New York Times