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pRinav MARN 1990
737-5190
32839 Northwestern Hwy.
Tiffany Plaza
Bet. 14 Mile Rd. St Middlebelt Rd.
Farmington Hills
Some Waitperson 'Don'ts'
That Can Spoil A Meal
DANNY RASKIN
Local Columnist
he essence of fine
dining — as in any
great experience — is
often in the expectation of
something special," writes
Charles Bernstein in the Na-
tion's Restaurant News. "But
frequently the actuality falls
far below our standards.
"Perhaps our expectations
are simply too high when we
dine out," says Bernstein.
"No matter how many times
we might have been burned,
we anticipate that this time
everything will be almost
perfect and don't allow for
flaws with the food or ser-
vice?'
"Yet," he writes, "there are
some things we feel simply
should not happen or should
happen another way. We'd bet
that others agree.
"Perhaps what occurs is
simply a power struggle for
control, with the waiter or
waitress in effect vying with
the customer from the begin-
ning. It would be far better to
at least have the customer
feel an illusion of control.
"It all starts when a person
arrives at a restaurant, expec-
ting an ideal or at least a half-
decent location and is
somehow seated next to the
kitchen or in the path of all
kinds of traffic. Worse still,
the restaurant sometimes
refuses to change the location
no matter how politely one
asks and no matter how many
empty tables abound in other
areas.
"There is the propensity
of the restaurant to offer
so many daily specials that
they overshadow the actual
menu. If there are 17 menu
items, there may be 20
specials.
"This is most disconcerting
— even more so when the
waiter or waitress tries to
read, or recite from memory,
an endless array of specials,
sometimes succeeding all too
well. One is generally hard-
pressed to remember an ap-
petizer special and two entree
specials in any specific detail
from the whole list.
"If the server is an aspiring
actor or actress, he or she
could enhance an acting
career with the oral
dramatizations of the specials
. . . often a well-rehearsed,
almost flawless performance.
"How about the situation
where the server can readily
see that the customer is
engaged in a conversation
and barges in with 'Sorry to
interrupt, sir, but would you
like to hear the specials now?'
Whatever the answer, the
customer is not happy about
the interruption.
"Then there is the silly
practice of managers and
servers alike constantly ask-
ing, 'Is everything OK?' or
`We trust that the food and
service are satisfactory.'
Perhaps this is just another
way of bucking for a big tip.
But no doubt these questions
are asked with the best of
intentions.
of
surveys
"Actual
customers may make some
sort of sense. But if a
restaurant manager has to
depend on patrons to tell him
if the food is tasty, something
is wrong somewhere. The
manager should inherently
know by tasting the food even
if taste preferences do vary
individually.
most
"Furthermore,
customers are reluctant to
say anything even if they are
chafing at some grievances
involving the restaurant. The
typical response will be,
`Everything is fine.' The
manager learns nothing but
in some cases succeeds in
subtly annoying the
customer.
"Another bugaboo is that
water is not served because of
a (non-existent) water shor-
tage. 'Everyone must save
water,' the slogan goes. If the
customer cl^ ,=!,n't specifically
ask for it, he or she won't get
it.
"Then there is the server
who tries to push the most ex-
pensive liquor or the most ex-
pensive dessert rather than
the one the customer wants.
Instead, the server em-
phasizes the attributes of the
most expensive item, much to
the detriment of the
customer. This overmerchan-
dising differs from the perfect-
ly acceptable suggestive mer-
chandising, 'Would you care
for dessert?'
"Sometimes the problem is
more basic. A waiter is simp-
ly surly or glib — or complete-
ly lacking in flexibility. It can
drive a customer up a wall
when a request to leave off
the sauce receives this
answer, 'This is the way it's
served, and we can't vary it.'
"Maybe the meal is served
too fast or too slow. How about
the server who maintains a
fast pace throughout the
meal, seeing that all the
courses are served in rapid se-
quence. But when the
customer wants to order cof-
fee or pay the bill, the server
is nowhere to be seen for the
next 10 minutes.
"Then there is the credit
card that drives customers
crazy with separate spaces for
the captain's and waiter's
tips. Most people are com-
pletely befuddled, although
the intent is to obtain a
higher overall tip. The discer-
ning customer simply writes
in a tip for the waiter, and it
may even be less than 10 per-
cent because of annoyance
with the complex credit-card
forms.
"A restaurateur can never
please everyone, but he or she
surely can try a lot harder.
When we search for explana-
tions of declining customer
It all starts when a
person arrives at a
restaurant,
expecting an ideal
or at least a half-
decent location
and is somehow
seated next to the
' kitchen.
counts at many restaurants,
these gripes and resultant
customer dissatisfaction are
high on the list.
"Restaurateurs must en-
courage their staffs to outdo
themselves in pleasing the
customer and to equal or sur-
pass expectations. The reward
would be happy customers
and repeat business. Disillu-
sioned customers are not in-
clined to return."
TAKE A TIP . . . The next
time you order a drink at a
place you don't know, mix it
yourself . . . Too many clips
are done behind the bar and
you wind up getting watered
bar booze instead of the good
stuff ordered and being paid
for . . . Also don't be ashamed
to check your tab, unless you
like being clipped that way
too.
DRIVING HIS car across
the country, Sam Kovens
made it a practice to stop and
eat at spots where big trucks
were parked in front . . .
"Those truck drivers;' he told
his wife Selma, "know these
roads in their sleep — and
they've learned by experience
where the best food can be
gotten . . . At one place,
however, the lead proved a bit ,
false . . . Despite the presence
of four monster trucks in the
parking space, the food serv-
ed inside was quite bad . . . A