Brownies: Butter vs. MargarineOn Fri, 12 Aug 2005 12:56:10 -0500, Melba's Jammin' ~ ~(snippage) buy ~ ~ ~OK. ~No, I just say not to complain to me about it if you do and the brownies ~don't turn...
In a way, it might hurt the business if the restaurants had to increase salaries to make up for the absence of tips. Up go the prices, and now some place become unaffordable, at least in the eyes of some customers.
What you said about motivation is true - I wish it worked. But unfortunately, many restaurants are run by people so young that they've never seen a truly send waiter at work. The result is that there's nobody to emulate. So, you end up with "Hi, guys, my name's Buffy and I'll be your waitress tonight".
There's a place here (Dentico's, in Rochester NY) that's got a really outstanding waiter. For all intents and purposes, he's running his own business within the restaurant. You don't make reservations at Dentico's - you make them to eat with Andy, a retired Kodak chemist who grew up in Rome, paying for college by working in restaurants. The restaurant's nothing fancy - one of many "family Italian" places in this city. But, this waiter makes everything perfect, every time, no matter how you like to eat. He knows exactly how to work with the kitchen so that no matter what your "eating speed", everything arrives when it's supposed to. It's not unusual for customers to lean over to the next table and ask "Is this guy always this good???" He gets serious tips.
He endeared himself to my ex and I when my son was about 7 years old. Andy asked what vegetable he wanted with dinner. My son, who was usually a good eater, said "No thanks". Andy says "It's against the rules to sell a dessert to a kid who doesn't have a vegetable. I could get into a lot of trouble". two servings of the stuff, and having no dessert. :-)
