From the category archives:

Inside Restaurants

Service 101: So You Want Your Own Restaurant

August 28, 2010
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Eating at a great restaurant is like encountering sirens at sea: though thoroughly beguiling, a magnificent dining experience can make you do foolish things.  Legions of enthusiastic food lovers have crashed their budget on the rocks with an impossibly expensive…

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Service 101: Finding My Religion

August 18, 2010
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Ever since I took on the job of Service Guru I’ve been doing a lot of work. Beyond the obvious stuff—learning the menu, getting to know the employees and the customers, and coming up with business strategies—I’ve been doing…

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Steven Slater: Avenging Service Hero

August 12, 2010

“It seems like something here has resonated with a few people. And that’s kinda neat.” –Steven Slater

There are monsters among us.

Every day we witness bitter, demanding, resentful trolls—so mired in their own misery—release their dyspeptic nature on…

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Service 101: A Brief History of Tipping

August 2, 2010
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Though tipping the waiter may feel like something that’s always been part of the dining experience in America, the fact is, the act of tipping is a borrowed custom from Europe.

According to Michael Lynn, a professor…

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Service 101: When Gratuity is Included

July 29, 2010
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If a diner is unhappy with service at a restaurant they can voice their concern to the management or leave less tip for their waiter. As I mentioned recently about a recent poll on CNN’s food blog, Eatocracy.com, 49 percent…

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Service 101: Service Not Included

July 14, 2010
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One thing is for sure, if you’ve ever paid a restaurant tab you have are more than likely to have a strong opinion about tipping. Maybe you always tip 20% of the total bill. Maybe you think a 15%…

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On Brooks Cherries, Learning, and the Perfect Lemon Wedge

June 17, 2010
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In the ancient tradition of master and student, the student will always get the crap beat out of them. All the abuse aggressive teaching ends the moment the student masters the knowledge they’ve been struggling to learn. Military basic training…

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On Becoming a Service Guru

June 9, 2010
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Things are about to start tasting a whole lot different around here.

I’m pushing aside the canned tomatoes and Italian fettucini, and stocking my larder with bottles of fish sauce and dried rice noodles! Why? Because after…

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Summer Reading: Great Food and Writing Books (and some fluff)

June 5, 2010
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I was lucky enough to get in a lot of reading while I was on vacation. Though much of my reading was crammed into the last two days of my trip, I was able to plow through three books in…

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Fava Bean Puree and Spaghetti

May 18, 2010
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Fava beans are a lot like life: it takes a lot of work to get to the really good parts.

First there’s a pod to deal with. Peel back the zipper-string that keeps the pod sealed tight, open up…

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