CRITIC'S CHOICE
It's not easy being the friend of a restaurant critic.
Not only do you get called upon to sit smiling through dinners that are less than enthralling or to be polite to servers who dump their dissatisfaction with their employers all over your dinner, but you don't even get to select what you want to eat. A professional critic will do his/her own picking from the menu, assigning dishes to guests and making it clear only a bite or two can be consumed before a plate must be passed to the person doing the evaluating -- i.e., the critic.
As if that's not rotten luck enough, a friend called last night to tell me of another hazard associated with restaurant critic friendship: the loss of ordering skills.
"I'm so used to you doing all the ordering," my pal said, "that when we went out with friends to dinner the other night, I practically forgot that I had to order."
"Use it or lose it," her husband added when I asked him about the lazy-eye-on-menu experience. "If you're not using your ordering skills, it's like an animal who doesn't use its tail --gradually, it disappears."
So used to my domineering ways with a menu my friend is, that she stumbled and couldn't work the menu. I felt pretty awful hearing her story. But not so awful that I failed to remind her of her next review date with me. She's too valuable a dining companion for me to lose.
cheers,
Andy
8.1.07
Not only do you get called upon to sit smiling through dinners that are less than enthralling or to be polite to servers who dump their dissatisfaction with their employers all over your dinner, but you don't even get to select what you want to eat. A professional critic will do his/her own picking from the menu, assigning dishes to guests and making it clear only a bite or two can be consumed before a plate must be passed to the person doing the evaluating -- i.e., the critic.
As if that's not rotten luck enough, a friend called last night to tell me of another hazard associated with restaurant critic friendship: the loss of ordering skills.
"I'm so used to you doing all the ordering," my pal said, "that when we went out with friends to dinner the other night, I practically forgot that I had to order."
"Use it or lose it," her husband added when I asked him about the lazy-eye-on-menu experience. "If you're not using your ordering skills, it's like an animal who doesn't use its tail --gradually, it disappears."
So used to my domineering ways with a menu my friend is, that she stumbled and couldn't work the menu. I felt pretty awful hearing her story. But not so awful that I failed to remind her of her next review date with me. She's too valuable a dining companion for me to lose.
cheers,
Andy
8.1.07
posted by Andrea Clurfeld at 1:12 PM
3 Comments:
I once spoke to a friend of yours who says he enjoys trying the items you pick out because they are things he would never think to eat and its expanded his experiences. He also says you are polite to waiters and waitresses who are rude and incompetent. If this is true, I think you should tell them the score and maybe solve some of the serving issues instead of letting them go. IMHO.
I do tell them score - in my columns.
While I'm working, though, I don't think it proper to either berate or overly correct a server. What I need to do is see how a server is trained, how he/she responds to a problem, how graceful under pressure he/she can be. In other words, I need to assess the service that exists and report on that service - that way, managers can correct what they want to correct. And they might not see things the way I do at all. Nor may you - the readers.
A couple of times, when service was so, so bad that it was not just impeding dinner, but obstructing it, I have taken appropriate steps. But I won't treat rudeness with rudeness, though I will be completely straightforward and let the server know exactly what's necessary in order to set dinner right.
Now, as far as the fellow you met up with who claims he has dined out with me: I have to wonder if this person actually knows me or is getting second-hand info. (Or ninth-hand info!) My dining companions are trusted friends who know better than to speak about our dining experiences. A couple of folks have been indiscreet, and I no longer take them on reviews.
thanks for writing,
Andy
8.3.07
Hi Andy,
Just a note for your readers that
we have saved the best for last!
Those blueberry bushes we have
been waiting for are now ripe for
picking! We also have luscious
blackberries, and lots and lots
of tomatoes! It continues to be
a great summer at Earth Friendly
Organic Farm.
Roz Ressner
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