🚀 go-pugleaf

schlossm@netcom.com (Steven Schlossman) writes:

>I tip based generally on service, not quality of food.
>If the waiter/waitress is pleasant, entertaining they do well by me.

I've never understood the desire for "entertaining" service.  I go to
restaurants to be with friends and to enjoy good food.  The adjective
I would use to describe excellent service is "unobtrusive."  Ideally,
the food and drink should magically be there at just the point in time
when I would have started to wonder about it.

I guess there is some level of human interaction inherent in the
process that heighten the experience if done correctly, but I do not
enjoy the kind of feigned familiarity that seems to be confused with
good service at a lot of restaurants.  I know that the waiter or
waitress is not there to make friends with me; it just cheapens things
for them to pretend otherwise, and wastes time for both of us.  People
who are "regulars" at some place do make friends with some of the
staff, but that's an entirely different phenomenon that cannot be
rushed.

I want to be made to feel welcome, but I don't want to feel as if I'm
being made to feel welcome.  I think that the best waiters and
waitresses understand the difference.
-- 
Paul Callahan 
callahan@biffvm.cs.jhu.edu