I’ll leave Steve to outline the story:

http://waiterrant.net/?p=1573

My fellow WordPress blogger, Jonathan Turley has posted the story, a story that places like Waiter’s Rant have already covered:

http://waiterrant.net/?p=1564

http://jonathanturley.org/2009/11/19/lehigh-students-arrested-for-failing-to-leave-tip/#comment-92031

There are some interesting comments on both sites. I’ve added my own at the bottom on the Turley blog which are still awaiting moderation which has to do with the difference between gratuities, tips, service charges and autograts (which is a bit arcane).

My thoughts on this? From my admittedly biased view of this, I think that the students were acting like spoiled rich students with a sense of entitlement (not to say that they didn’t have cause for complaint). IF, and this is a big IF, they turned down getting part or all of their meal comped by the manager, and then turned around an refused to pay the autograt, their passive-aggressive behavior merited some sort of consequence (“No I don’t WANT you to take $30 off off for the bad service. WHAT??!! You expect me to pay $16 for service I didn’t receive??!!!) Hopefully they’ll learn that it’s not always a zero sum game in life.

Now we turn to the idiot management and restaurant employees. Starting with the poor service, continuing with allegedly poor food quality, proceeding to a management that couldn’t communicate their remorse in not providing decent service and ending with the arrest of the participants, the restaurant violated just about every tenent of customer service possible. Having been on the other side of arrogant, entitled and unreasonable guests, I can understand how this could have spiralled downward. Yes, I’m calling out these students as “unreasonable” even though they might have gotten the worst service imaginable (if it’s true tha tthey were offered comps on their bill). And yet, if the management sent hostile, non-apologetic, defensive and passive-aggressive signals themselves when offering said discounts, they deserve the huge hit in business and the national scorn that they’re facing now.

Hopefully both parties have learned something from this. Perhaps the students will get the message that sometimes you accept an accomodation, not necessarly “stand on principles” when it’s counter-productive to their own interests and the owners of the pub will have a better shot at success in their next restaurant after they are forced out of business with this one.  

From Yelp.com. Photo credited to Daniel H.

BTW, for those confused as to how a $16 tip on a $74 bill goes from 18% to 22%, Max, who responded to this story in a different blog seems to have nailed it down:

“Please note that other sources state the owner said “some” of the food was comped. I suspect that their bill was $105 ($89 + $16 gratuity), then when the customers complained, the idiot bartender comped them $16 dollars worth of food instead of removing the gratuity. This would reduce the bill to $89 ($73 + $16 gratuity), which would still look like they were being forced to give a tip. So they paid the $73 as was stated in the news story, and fought the rest”.

The thing is, most POS systems don’t let the service charge ‘track” purchases. In other words, when you add the service charge, it takes a snapshot of the bill and computes the service charge at that point. It doesn’t change, even if the server has forgotten to ring something in and has to add it after the service charge has been added (which means that the percentage would actually fall in relation to the bill). The only thing a manager can do is remove the service charge and start again. If the bartender comped the amount of the service charge from the food portion of the bill, the service charge would remain the same. This is where the students should have said, “It’s a wash” and just paid the darn bill. Instead, they “stood on principle” even though legally, they were still on the hook for the service charge. Not reasonable in my opinion. If they really wanted to stand on principle, they should have called the manager over, said that they wanted to pay the whole bill but have the service charge itself removed.

Just my 2¢.

I am now officially ahead of Waiter Rant in the Technorati rankings! Technorati is one of the most influential blog tracking sites.

I used to be ranked about 110,000 1,110,000th overall while Waiter Rant was ranked about 40,000th. Now I’m at 25924th and Waiter Rant is  52836th. Plus, my authority has jumped from around 7 all the way to 134 whereas Waiter Rant’s authority has sunk from over 400 down to 116th.

Woot!

HOWEVER…

Let me say that Technorati has recently revamped both their rankings and their authority. I’m absolutely sure that this is a totally artificial change in status for both of us. I’m also quite sure that this doesn’t accurately reflect the popularity of our respective blogs, the universe will soon compensate for it and Waiter Rant will soon leave me in the dust.

So, I guess I have to get it while the gettin’s good.

I’m glad to have the Technorati green arrow up rather than the red arrow down. The former means that the blog is on the ascent, while the latter means that the blog is in decline.

I have to say that Waiter Rant is the gold standard in waiter blogs and Steve deserves all of the acclaim that he can get.

I am grateful for the continued support of the blog and I appreciate all of the readers who come here. I have 46,422 hits since the inception of the blog back in April. I’m hovering around 4,000 hits a week, hitting a tick over 3900 two weeks ago. Last month, the blog went over 12,000 hits per month for the first time.

I hope that you will continue to visit and hopefully, you’ll continue to find this a helpful resource, whether you’re a waiter, a guest or someone simply interested in cuisine in general.

Thanks everyone.

But how about my dog?

(the fact that the sign isn’t real doesn’t make it any less funny)

Nashville judge strikes down TN guns-in-bars law

Sponsor says next bill won’t be vague

By Clay Carey and Michael Cass • THE TENNESSEAN • November 21, 2009

“A Davidson County judge ruled Tennessee’s controversial guns-in-bars law unconstitutional at a Friday hearing, prompting the state senator who sponsored the legislation to say he will push the issue again when lawmakers return in a few months.

Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman said the law, enacted earlier this year over the veto of Gov. Phil Bredesen is “fraught with ambiguity.”

She ruled after an hour of arguments in a lawsuit brought by a group of plaintiffs, many of them restaurant owners. More than 257,000 people have handgun carry permits in Tennessee”.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091121/NEWS0201/911210330/Nashville+judge+strikes+down+TN+guns-in-bars+law

Randy Rayburn, owner of Sunset Grill, right, reads a news report about Friday’s court ruling to his staff, including Steven Newvahner, left, during a staff meeting. Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ruled a law that allows handguns in restaurants is unconstitutional.
JAE S. LEE / THE TENNESSEAN

I’m glad that this ruling has taken place, mainly because I don’t think that guns and alcohol mix well. And, as I’ve said before, if this were really more about public safety and the ability of a guest to defend himself against the bad guys, and less about ramming a pro-gun agenda down the throats of the public, they wouldn’t have written the law to demand that restaurants post a no-guns policy instead of posting a “guns allowed here” sign. Instead of advertising to the bad guys that no guns could be concealed carry and thereby potentially targeting that restaurant for bad deeds, they should have let restaurants advertise that “guns are allowed here”. this would give the public the choice to go to a restaurant where their right to carry a handgun was honored where they could feel safe (since apparently lots of handgun owners feel like they’re constantly under threat). I think the writers of the law thought that a restaurant would be insane to post a no-guns sign because it would make them a target, but restaurant owners and GMs (including the one that I work for) showed far more courage than lawmakers ever gave them credit for and a majority of restaurants have posted such signs.

I’m sure they will go back and tighten up this law (and frankly, I hope it fails again, but that’s just my personal opinion). but if they do, I hope that lawmakers will reconsider the insane backwards logic of making restaurants opt-out instead of opting-in.

Cooking Under Cover: One Pot Wonders — A Treasury of Soups, Stews, Braises, and Casseroles

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (September 21, 1998)

ISBN-10: 0395935210

ISBN-13: 978-0395935217

This book is exactly what it pretends to be – a compendium of soups, stews, braises and casseroles. It’s nice to have all of those categories in one place instead of having to plow through many different cookbooks to find what you need.

You won’t find cutting edge cuisine here. There is some variety with different cuisines, but most of the recipes are what you’d expect – stick-to-the-rib savory dishes that even your grandmother would enjoy. You have dishes like Chinese style Tea Smoked Scallops as well as Nana’s Chicken Fricassee. But you also have some semi-exotic dishes such as Choueroute Garni (Braised Alsatian Sauerkraut & Pork) and Pot Stickers with Cabbage, Scallions & Carrots.

I really like this volume because it’s well-spoken and well-thought out. It will help you expand your thinking when you need to deliver a family-style one pot meal (it would be particularly useful for offering an addition to either the Thanksgiving or holiday table).

As this book might be difficult to find locally, I’ve included a link where multiple copies can be bought (I have no connection to the vendor).

http://tinyurl.com/ya64bnl

Amazon also has it as well.

BTW, Amazon is selling the paperback edition printed by Houghton Mifflin but I have the original hardback edition published by Chapters Publishing Ltd, a small Vermont publisher. If you can get the hardback for a price similar to the softback, I’d spring for it. It’s got a good heft and feel to it.

Photo courtesy of Bed, Bath and Beyond.

We’ve discussed vegetarianism (with admittedly broad strokes). Now we discuss how we at non-vegetarian restaurants accomodate those with vegetarian needs.

The first think that a waiter should do is have a strategy in his or her back pocket. Most restaurants can accomodate vegetarians even if they don’t explicitly provide for them on the menu. I’m sure that most vegetarians are tired of having to choose a salad as their only menu choice, so it’s a good idea for the waiter to find out from the Chef what options the waiter has to accomodate the vegetarian diner. Most restaurants don’t train for this specific point, so the clever waiter will know the ins and outs of the ingredients that the kitchen uses, and be able to advise the guest about options that might not be readily apparent. For instance, if the house marinara doesn’t include chicken stock, you can use it to build a nice vegan-approved pasta. Not every vegetarian might think of this since some restaurant marinaras have some chicken stock. And this brings up an important point – don’t just assume that something does or doesn’t have some sort of animal product just because it usually does or doesn’t. For instance, some vegetables might actually have been cooked in chicken stock or a soup might have started with a roux, which has butter as the main ingredient even if it’s advertised as a vegetable soup like a “vegetable gumbo”. Even “vegetable soups” are often chicken or beef stock-based. So, if you don’t know for sure, ask the Chef.

If you find out which things actually have absolutely no animal products, this means that it’s good for vegans as well as any other type of vegetarian. However, you will find other products that vegetarians who eat dairy and eggs can enjoy as well. For instance, the Chef might be able to quickly knock off a pasta primavera (a cream-based vegetable pasta) for many vegetarians, but not for vegans. Or the Chef might have an alternative pasta primavera that avoids dairy by using soy milk or by just making an olive oil based sauce.

Obviously, a go-to is creating a vegetable plate out of side dishes. These are often times boring plates that are tolerated by vegetarians as a “last resort” sort of thing. anything that you or your Chef can do to avoid just putting three globs of veggies on a plate will set you apart from the average restaurant. Find your Chef in a quiet moment and ask them what they would suggest as a go-to plate in the event that you have to serve a vegetarian. Tell them that you’d like to have something a notch above the average to offer. Perhaps you could play on greed by pointing out that you can get a premium price for a premium product.

One key is identifying the level of vegetarianism of the guest. Don’t assume anything. Be specific about what a guest will or will not tolerate. Sometimes you have to dig for the info. I’ve even had some “vegetarians” say that they didn’t mind that the soup had chicken stock. And I mentioned in my first post the guest who claimed to be a vegetarian and didn’t seem to even eat seafood based on her comments but,  as it turned out, was fine with seafood. You have to ask direct questions.

Yes, it’s a bit of a pain-in-the-ass to consider all of this. Yes, the Chef isn’t particularly happy to get out of the routine because anything that the kitchen has to do that doesn’t follow a set recipe has a risk of not being very good as well as throwing a little sand into the well-oiled gears that the kitchen runs on.

But think of the benefits to you and the restaurant. If you can accomodate a vegetarian in a group of diners, you send the signal that the restaurant is a quality establishment that is geared toward customer service and has a kitchen that is better than the usual cookie-cutter operation. Even if you work at Chili’s or a fancy steakhouse, you have options that you might not have considered. And by asking your Chef in advance what he or she can provide off-menu, you might be doing them a favor by getting them to have something in their back pocket as well, something that they can go-to without having to build it on the fly in the middle of the rush.  

Yes, there’s a downside to this. It might send the signal to non-vegetarians that if the Chef can do that for their friend, they can put together special dishes for them, or this gives them license to modify dishes however they want. That is certainly a risk. Plus, you don’t want to be an annoyance to the Chef.

But I think the upsides to accommodating vegetarians outweighs the inconveniences. I think it’s good policy for any restaurant to take as good care of their vegetarian clientele as they do their regular guests. If the waiter anticipates the vegetarian guest, it’s not nearly the hassle if it’s just dropped on them in the middle of the rush. The smart waiter will be prepared and won’t be thrown for a loop in the middle of the rush.

From mid-summer:

By Jason Farago| Posted Jul 15, 09 6:14 AM CDT

“(Newser) – Just a year ago, 25% of the country’s highest-grossing restaurants were in Las Vegas—where diners ran up $15,000 checks and tipped waiters with wads of C-notes. But now restaurants are closing, new construction languishes half-finished, and more than 5,000 food industry workers have lost their jobs. “It was gold, and suddenly it became fool’s gold,” one restaurateur tells the New York Times”.

Read rest of the article here:

http://www.newser.com/story/64417/in-recession-vegas-eateries-cant-beat-odds.html

Vegetarians fall into different categories.

The strictest is the vegan movement. Partly political, partly dietary and partly a moral system, this food philosophy forbids the consumption of any animal products, animal by-products and food processed with animal products (the use of fish bladders or egg whites in the fining of wine, for instance). A true vegan extends this into other areas of life such as the wearing of leather or the avoidance of things like soap, perfumes and other products that might either utilize animal products or are a by-product of animal testing.

As strict as this sounds, there are still shades of veganism. While honey is an animal by-product, some vegans accept its use. Some vegans absolutely have to be sure that there are no animal by-products in anything that they consume or use - others don’t necessarily have to examine every point in the production of a food item because there are some food products that have incidental contact with an animal by-product and sometimes it’s just impossible to assure that no such by-products have been used. There is a sub-set of the vegan movement that promotes the exclusive consumption of only raw foods.

Some vegans are very militant – others are more into it simply as a healthy lifestyle choice.

All vegans are vegetarians, but not everyone who calls themselves “vegetarians” are vegetarians. However, many “true vegetarians” don’t consider themselves vegans, which is as much a political movement as it is a lifestyle choice. They simply avoid any animal product or by-product.

A “true vegetarian” doesn’t eat meat in any form. However, a “true vegetarian” might consume honey. It gets a little trickier when it comes to poultry “by-products” like dairy and eggs. There are lacto-ovo vegetarians who eat both dairy and eggs. there are lacto-vegetarians who eat dairy but eschew eggs (because, let’s face it, eggs are “meat”, right?) Obviously, an ovo-vegetarian will eat eggs but not dairy.

Then you have “pescetarians”. They aren’t true vegetarians for obvious reasons. Fish is meat. However, many of them consider themselves vegetarians who “happen to eat fish”.

There are “vegetarians” who don’t eat red meat but will eat chicken or pork. It is fairly rare for these folks to actually call themselves vegetarians, but I’ve actually seen it on the rare occasion. 

These various ideas about what makes one a vegetarian can make things tricky for the waiter.

In the next post, we’ll talk about what you should do as a waiter to try to accomodate vegetarians of all stripes in your restaurant.

Waiters are often confronted with the issue of vegetarianism.

I’m sure the term “issue” would be considered a pejorative term by vegetarians of all stripes. And I sympathize. But it’s the “all stripes” part that makes it an “issue”.

So, let’s stipulate that I’m not calling vegetarianism itself the issue, only the different ways that people categorize themselves as vegetarians and how restaurants that don’t primarily cater to vegetarians accomodate those that have different needs than what the menu was designed for.

This was brought home to me just last night.

I had a guest who said that she was vegetarian and wondered if we had something other than seafood or meat as an appetizer. We have a side dish that we can prepare that would work great in that context. The thing is, there’s cheese on it. So I asked her, “Is cheese a problem”? She said no. So I mentioned this special side dish that we can do and that I’ve incorporated into my normal spiel. I also asked if she’d simply like a small plate of freshly steamed or grilled vegetables. She said that she would get back to me.

What was her final choice?

Crab cake.

Yes, my head literally supn 360 degrees on my shoulders and driblets of pea soup starting dotting the walls.

In the next post, we’ll explore the different levels of vegetarianism.

After that, we’ll talk about ways that you as a waiter can help a vegetarian of any stripe receive at least an acceptable meal.

So stay tuned kids – excitement will ensue.

Thanks to www.deviantart.com for this nice image.