How many times have I heard this and how many times have I experienced it myself? Too damn many... on both counts. It's no secret that inept service can easily ruin an otherwise positive dining experience. (One Saturday night last winter, I had a waitress that was so miserable that I was depressed well into Sunday...talk about bad karma.) But there's a very simple solution, folks, one that works every time. Here's what you do to kiss Debbie Downer and Sammy Stoner goodbye... forever:
When you call to make a reservation, very politely and humbly inform the reservationist that you've "had some really bad service experiences lately" and "could you please put us with your best (or at least a good) server?" In the trade, this is called a "call party" or "call table" and reservationists get them every day...request a certain server and you get a certain server. The good servers love it and the reservationists don't care...to them it's one more keyboard entry or one more scribble in the book.
Think about it. If I do it, and you do it, and everybody starts to do it, the good servers will get their due, and the not-so-good might just pick up their game to get in the game.
We all like to recommend a great restaurant to our friends. I get just as excited--sometimes more so--when I can turn them onto a lights-out server as well. -- George Mahe
