I have stated here before that I am not a “food snob,” for the most part.  I find joy in so many foods and little, hole-in-the-wall joints that my food snob card would have been revoked years ago, but, being a chef, I can also be a pain in the ass to dine out with.  I have a tendency to pick apart all parts of a meal.  While I can find joy in diner food or a 20 course dinner, and I can also tear them apart, if allowed to do so.  My wife has become a professional at reigning me in, before I ruin both of our dinners, and has done so on many, many occasions.  I am just has hard on the service as I am on the food, though I fully understand and make allowances for the fact that  “crab shack” service is quite different from “French Laundry” service just like I view diner food differently from “haute cuisine.   Unfortunately, over the years, I have seen a serious decline in “service” in restaurants and the expectation, on the servers part, of 15-20% tips no matter what kind of service they give.  As someone intimately familiar with this business, I fully understand that there are things beyond a server’s control, and I always make allowances for those happenstances.  When this happens what I look for is how the server handles the situation and how is it fixed.  Usually, what ensues is the blame game, where the server blames everyone but himself, in order to salvage his tip, or, in worse case scenarios, blames the customer himself.  Another favorite is to ignore the issue all together, hoping that the customer won’t bring it up.  Managers often don’t make matters any better.  They too are poorly trained on what service is all about, and their first reaction to any problem is to comp part or all of the meal.  While that might be all fine with some people, I find this a poor, impersonal fix that means as much as that fake, pasted on smile.  I know this sounds pretty cynical, but that’s me.  My cynicism and pessimism drive my wife crazy, but I call them like I see them, and it’s my belief that the art of serving is slowly dying.  Luckily, just recently, my faith has been restored.

This past Sunday, while driving back from a weekend in Chicago, we stopped just north of Milwaukee for dinner at Maggiano’s Little Italy.  While the place may not serve truly “authentic” Italian fare, the food they serve is solid Americanized Italian.  It may not rank up there with the greatest meals I have ever eaten, but for what it is, I find it to be pretty darn good.  The fried calamari is never rubbery or tough, the pasta always cooked al dente and they season everything properly.  While I have never been “blown away” by the meals I’ve eaten there, I have always enjoyed everything I’ve had, and enjoyed it enough to have held our Rehearsal Dinner at one of their locations.  Unfortunately, the service on this Sunday, couldn’t match the level of the food.  After being sat, one waiter took our beverage order, delivered it and disappeared.  Much later another waiter came over, apologized and took our orders.  Soon after that the first waiter appeared to take our orders and we had to tell him we already had ordered.  Finally our food arrived.  The spaghetti and meatball for our daughter, the appetizer and the salad for Wanda and me.  Have I mentioned how I hate when places bring  courses together or bring the next course before you are finished with the first?  At this point we are still waiting for my daughter’s drink and bread service.  Waiter number 2 shows up and we ask for the drink.  Few minutes later, waiter number 1 returns and we ask for bread service and my daughter’s drink again.  Bread and drink finally arrives and we finish our app and salad.

At this point, waiter number 1 returns and starts to remove everything from the table.  I mention that we still want the bread, butter, silverware, etc. for our entrees, to which I get a blank stare.  He then mumbles something and heads off to the kitchen.  Of course our entrees have not been ordered.  At some point the GM gets wind of our situation and strolls over.  I expect the excuses to start and the standard “Let me buy you dessert.”  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  She left to check on our entrees and when she returned with entrees in hand, she saw that our 2 1/2 year old was starting to get antsy at having to sit so long.  The GM then proceeded to take our daughter and give her a “tour” of the kitchen.  While there, Genevieve met the chef, “helped” in the pantry, received a few cookies and was given a tall chef hat to wear.  Wanda and I were allowed to eat our long awaited entrees without having to spend time trying to keep Genevieve occupied.  Once back with Genevieve, Angela continued to help keep Genevieve occupied so that Wanda and I could enjoy our desserts, which were on the house.

During the entire exchange, Angela never offered any excuses.  She apologized for the missteps and the inconvenience it had caused.  She also honed in on the fact that our daughter had had enough sitting (we would have never eaten there with her in tow if we had known dinner would take so long) and had offered to entertain her so that we would have a chance to eat in peace, at least for a few minutes.  Her recovery of the situation has ensured that we will be back far more than just offhandedly tossing us a couple of free desserts.  Angela, didn’t have to do what she did, but she is someone who truly understands service and knows that sometimes it means going above and beyond, by doing the little things and she has proven to me, that although service is a dying art form, its not quite dead yet.

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