The Insatiable Critic’s Restaurant Peeves; Readers weigh in too
Last week in my newsletter Fork Play I complained about constant intrusions at dinner, waiters, maitre d’s, hosts wanting to know, “Are you enjoying everything?” At South Gate the bread man sidles up, asking, “How are you tonight?” The bread man? Puleeze. Make this guy the maitre d’. He’s got too much personality for bread. Has no one told him he just succinctly tells the choices, serves and fades into the background? I asked readers to email me their pet peeves.
Kirsten Nobman lists her three biggest pet peeves:
1. When servers refill your wine glass after you've only taken 2 sips! I always tell the server I will pour my own wine.
2. When servers clear plates before the rest of the table is finished dining. It's an American thing, but it's downright rude.
3. When you don't receive new flatware between courses. I don't want my dirty fork back!!
Penny Pollack, Dining Editor at Chicago Magazine responds:
I hate flavored butters. Comes under my blueberry bagel rant. If I want blueberries baked in something, I eat a muffin. If I want butter on my bread, that's all I want: fabulous pure sweet creamy butter. Not herbed butter, not oil-infused butter, not butter rolled in kosher salt or flecked with Italian parsley. Please pass the butter means just that.
Authors and wine columnists Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg sent a list:
1. Seeing TVs anyplace that's not a sports bar, but especially in otherwise upscale restaurants.
2. Being called "guys" (as in "Hi guys" or "How are you guys doing?") by an invariably 20-something waitperson we've never even met before
3. The over-pouring of bottled water, especially in larger groups where the focus is on conversation so you might not even notice until you see how many bottles of unordered water end up on your check -- and see how many full glasses of water are left on the table.
4. Bringing to the table an open bottle of wine that you'd ordered by the glass, and then not even bothering to let you taste it first before they pour.
5. Wine served at the improper temperature
6. Too-sweet desserts (more common in the 1990s) or too-salty desserts (more common today)
7. Being brought 7 petit fours for your table of 8
Zarela Martinez writes:
I hate overpouring of wine and I resent that they always serve the man more. We've stopped that by telling the server that we'll pour our own wine and it works.
Jamie Gillis, her companion adds, Just thought I'd expound a bit on why I no longer let servers pour my wine: I want to feel more as if I am home with my own servants. I don't want to be infantilized by them telling me to "enjoy" or asking me "Is everything ok?" And I don't want them running over to pour wine--I find it intrusive even when done by the best of them. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson: "That server is best who serves least."
Maurizio de Rosa, Italian Wine Specialist at Southern Wine & Spirits emails:
When I go to a restaurant with a confirmed reservation, but am not allowed to sit unless every member of my party has arrived.
And when I am waiting for a reserved table and such table is evidently not ready, I should be offered a drink as a gesture of apology. That seldom happens.
Restaurant publicist Steven Hall:
Hates when runners give lengthy descriptions of the food as they place it on the table, and you have to wait to start eating as they go through the dishes ordered person by person.
Susan Toepfer, editor of Quick & Simple:
Hates waiters who take away one plate before others have finished.
I might add…How about grabbing the bottle out of your hand so they can pour after they’ve neglected your table for a course or two? Or taking your glass away when there’s still an ounce or two of icy diluted cocktail you’re having such fun sipping?
Email me your pet peeves. It never hurts to have restaurateurs who might care know what their serving crews are up to.
Visit Gael Greene's web site at www.insatiablecritic.com.
About Gael Greene
Photo: Steven Richter
In her role as restaurant critic of New York Magazine (1968 to January 2002) Detroit-born Gael Greene helped change the way New Yorkers (and many Americans) think about food.
"Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ice Cream But Were Too Fat To Ask," "The Mafia Guide to Dining Out." and " Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen" were early pieces. In more recent years her annual roundup of New York City's dining favorites, Ask Gael, was a gourmand's collectible for many years and she continues to write a weekly Ask Gael column for NYM. Earlier she worked at the New York Post.
As co-founder with James Beard and a continuing force behind Citymeals-on-Wheels as board chair, Ms. Greene has made a significant impact on the city of New York. Citymeals, the largest public/private partnership in the country, has raised $200 million in its twenty-six-year history to help feed the city's frail elderly shut-ins.
Ms. Greene's memoir, "Insatiable, Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess" was published April, 2006. Earlier non-fiction books include "Delicious Sex, A Gourmet Guide for Women and the Men Who Want to Love Them Better" and "BITE: A New York Restaurant Strategy." Her two novels Blue skies, No Candy" and "Doctor Love" were NY Times best sellers.
Gael Greene
Articles used with permission of Gael Greene, Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. Steven Richter's photographs may not be used without permission.
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