Within Reason or Out of the Question? Rules for Restaurant Employees

100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do, from the New York Times, November 2009.

Never will you ever find a more thorough list of no-nos for restaurant employees. 

This list is for the nit-pickers, the fine-dining frequenters, the self-proclaimed VIPs to cite all the reasons why they had a bad service at dinner the other night.  

As someone who works in a restaurant, there are a few things on this list of musts that I find unrealistic and verging on ass-kissing.

“97. If a guest goes gaga over a particular dish, get the recipe for him or her.”

What’s the point for them to come back to the restaurant?  

Ask me what is in the dish, I will tell you every ingredient.  But to get the chef to recite the exact recipe and cooking method to me to scribble down so that I can pass this on to a customer?  Fat chance. 

“23. If someone likes a wine, steam the label off the bottle and give it to the guest with the bill. It has the year, the vintner, the importer, etc.”

Now this. Is. Ass-kissing.  

Look, there are a lot of people who believe that paying and tipping means they are entitled to anything they want, including treating restaurant staff like they are below them, or expecting that unreasonable demands be met.  Trust me, it is difficult enough to maintain professional and composed when people are not treating you with respect. For people like this, I don’t even want to say goodbye to you when you leave the restaurant.  I do anyway.  But I am sure as hell not going to steam the label off your wine for you. 

Publicizing Restaurant Cleanliness

According to this article, in New York City, restaurants will…

soon will share some common ground — a letter-based A, B or C — grading system aimed at informing diners about cleanliness and food safety.

And it has some restaurateurs worried that restaurants that earn a B or a C will go out of business as diners flock to the competitor with an A in the window.

Um, well, yeah.

This grading system is not a bad thing.

If you have to question and worry as to whether or not your restaurant and its kitchen is A-grade quality, then it is not A-grade quality.

David Chang says,

“It is our goal always to get an A.  If we don’t get an A, we fail.”

This publicizing of restaurant cleanliness is not a bad thing, and it is not a new thing.  I remember being in Toronto a few months back and noticing that all restaurants have a mandatory sign posted on the front, indicating if after inspection, the restaurant was a “Pass”, “Conditional Pass” or “Closed” in terms of cleanliness and food safety.

Café Romy on Midnight Poutine

An introduction to one of my favourite lunch spots downtown Montreal; click here.