Comments on: Don’t Ask! (Restaurant Peeve # Whatever)

By: sally

sally — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:11:54 +0000

I work in a very fast paced French Bistro where tables come and go very quickly. When a guest leaves a cash payment they almost always wait until I come to pick it up and say goodbye to them before they leave. And they will tell me if they want change or not. I have never once in my 5 years of working at a restaurant had anyone hand me cash and not let me know what to do with it. Also, in such a fast paced environment coffee service is the most difficult and pain in the ass thing aside from cheese presentations (where we lug the cheese cart over and describe 10 cheeses in detail and then cut them all tableside). When you have a million other things to do it is stupid to put together an entire set-up for cream, sugar and the works. Also, some people want milk. We serve cream by default but I ask people so that I know if they want milk- skim or half and half or regular cream. AND we serve regular sugar by default and I ask so that I know if they want substitutes. So, it is silly to say that we should just bring out a bunch of stuff that people may or may not need just because. And it is really just plain rude to not clean up after yourself at a fast food restaurant. Fast food chains do not employ bussers. There is no one who’s job it is to clean the tables after lazy, selfish people who just don’t feel like walking over to the trash can. Do you order your hamburger and then expect them to deliver it to the table for you?

By: Amelia

Amelia — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:45:23 +0000

Mr. Koeppel, please allow me, as a server, to explain to you the reason behind asking you your preferences regarding coffee and tea. There are two reasons, the first being if you do not want milk or cream we do not want to waste it by pouring it, letting it sit untouched at your table and then tossing it out, my my, that would be wasteful wouldn’t it? Secondly, if you drink black coffee do you really want a sugar caddy and creamer cluttering up your table as you sit and talk to your friends for the next hour after your meal?

By: Fredric Koeppel

Fredric Koeppel — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:34:05 +0000

Ian, I know what you mean. The kids behind the counter are doing their job, making minimum wage or maybe (if lucky) a bit more, passing you the food and ringing it up, so why should they get a tip? The answer is: They shouldn’t, anymore than the kid at Starbucks who pulls the lever (or whatever), hands you your double cinnamon soy latte and takes your money deserves a tip. Yet there’s the tip jar. One hates to be churlish, but it’s tip to stop the tip madness. Tips go to people, like waiters, who provide skilled and sometimes complicated services.

By: ian lemmonds

ian lemmonds — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:12:59 +0000

What about tipping when there is no service? If you order take-away service and pay with a card, the receipt still has the spot for a tip on it. I usually just write $2.00 on it, but I often wonder if it’s ridiculous to do so.

By: Fredric Koeppel

Fredric Koeppel — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 22:47:45 +0000

Now, now, RT, don’t start filching the silverware from restaurants, though I agree that if you’re dropping hundred of dollars on a meal and wine, the coffee could be complimentary. I mean, really …..
Restaurateurs will disagree, of course.

By: RT

RT — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 21:20:54 +0000

My peeve, having had the means to go to some really nice places the past few years: charging for coffee. I’m not talking an average meal at an average place. I’m talking prix fixe menus at 4 star establishments. When the bill comes there are two big items: the food, which will total over 200 bucks and the wine, which usually clears 100. Then added on at the bottom, 2 coffees at 5 bucks a pop. It seems like this is going out of your way to nickel and dime. If I spend 300 (or 500) dollars on a prix fixe meal, at least throw in the coffee for free. It’s tacky and makes me want to steal the silverware in return so I can feel like I got my money’s worth.

By: Fredric Koeppel

Fredric Koeppel — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:26:05 +0000

Benito, that’s a wonderful story, thanks for relating it.

You know, another example of the diminishment of service is the way that Americans are made to feel guilty if they don’t bus their trays and clean up after themselves in fast-food restaurants. I mean, people at these places actually are paid to do that.

By: Benito

Benito — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 03:16:32 +0000

At some point in my childhood, I was gripped with Anglophilia and decided that I was going to be tea drinker. While I still prefer a well-made cup of tea to a cup of coffee, I didn’t have anyone to guide me at that age. My parents drank a lot of iced tea but not coffee, and I was the oddball getting up at the crack of dawn to read the paper and sip a cup of Earl Grey with a pinch of sugar.

One night we were downtown for something and had dessert at Cafe Expresso, and I ordered hot tea, which came with the cubes of sugar and silver pitcher of cream and odds and ends. Wow, I thought, I bet all of this tastes good together. And it probably would have if I didn’t squeeze a slice of lemon into the cup after adding the cream.

At the tender age of 12 I learned an important lesson about curdling. Between polite Southern upbringing and a misguided desire to maintain a stiff upper lip, I actually drank the foul concoction and didn’t complain to anyone.

By: Terry Hughes

Terry Hughes — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:08:05 +0000

Seriously, you must have been inspired by that Stanley Fish article recently in the NYT.

What’s irritating about the trend is that they charge so much for everything and give you bupkas when you really stop to think about it.

How I remember those days when the guy at the gas station came out smiling in his sharp uniform with a special hat (every profession and club had a special hat back then, not to mention a uniform, much like Muslims and Jews today), and he cheerfully and without compulsion checked your oil and tries as he pumped the gas. Oh yes, and cleaned your windshield. All at no extra cost.

Even though blacks were oppressed and women who WEREN’T Muslims, Jews or Hispanic teenagers were expected to be baby machines, I do long for those happy days when we rolled our hoops and got our money’s worth…

By: Fredric Koeppel

Fredric Koeppel — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:04:54 +0000

Yes, my childhood was exactly like that! How did you know?