The Importance of Earnest Service

Jordan L. Richman writes to chide me and other restaurant writers for not criticizing service often enough in print.

He reminds me that mistakes are frequently made on restaurant checks and suggests that diners shouldn’t be embarrassed to look for errors before paying up. (“This past weekend at a very upscale restaurant,” he says, “our $161 hand-written bill came out for $313.”)

What really seems to bother Richman about restaurant services, though, is the vagueness and discontinuity he frequently encounters. “Do you enjoy going to an expensive restaurant and having one person so graciously take your order and then have it delivered by someone else--who asks, ‘Who has the veal?’ Where did the order-taker disappear to? Should he/she not serve us? . . . Or how do you like it when you order dessert and a busboy delivers it and asks (if you ordered) decaf? . . . Service people are supposed to know the orders.”

Here Richman makes some valid points but at the same time seems not to understand precisely how the service at most local restaurants of any size is set up. A waiter’s job is to take initial orders, answer questions about the menu and translate special requests to the kitchen. When an order is ready to be served, though, busy restaurants usually turn that job over to a so-called “runner”--whose job is to deliver the food to the table as quickly as possible, to see that you get it while it’s hot. The idea is that the waiter who took your order will quite possibly be taking somebody else’s order when your food is ready or attending to other customers’ needs. Thus, the task of delivering food is given to somebody else.

By the same token, the relatively simple task of taking coffee orders and serving coffee is usually entrusted to the busboy. A good, busy waiter has better things to do.

A good runner is very fast, incidentally, and usually unobtrusive--which is probably why a good many restaurant customers don’t even realize that runners exist. Of course, no server should have to ask, “Who has the veal?” When the order is written, each dish should be keyed to a position at the table. A good runner never has to ask.

THEY COME TO BURY THE CAESAR: There was a flurry of activity in and around this column a few months back about the Caesar salad. There is one last piece of correspondence I’d like to pass along.

It comes from Cliff Reston and Rich Oppenheim of Sherman Oaks, who ventured not long ago to the Caesar Hotel in Tijuana, where Caesar Cardini invented the thing. This is what they encountered: “The egg was raw, not coddled. The lemons looked suspiciously like limes. There were no anchovies. The captain tossed and served the salad from a stainless-steel bowl and accompanied (it) with tasteless stale garlic bread. (And) the salad, in puddles of dressing, was simply awful.” They conclude, “Maybe it is better to wax nostalgic over once great recipes than to track them down and eat them.” It should be noted that the Cardini family has not had an interest in the Tijuana Caesar’s for several years.

AFFAIRS TO REMEMBER: On Friday the 13th, L’Orangerie in West Hollywood will present a special multicourse prix fixe dinner (with the exact prix as yet unfixed) cooked by six young chefs from Relais & Chateaux inns around France. Among them will be such noted cuisiniers as Pascal Tingaud of the Auberge de Conde in La-Ferte-sous-Jouarre, Didier Clement of the Lion d’Or in Romorantin, Gerard Passedat of Le Petit Nice in Marseille and Christian Ravinel of Le Moulin de l’Abbaye in Brantome. . . .Mark Carter, owner/chef of Duplex in the Los Feliz area, will teach a one-day UCLA Extension course, entitled “American Breakfasts and Brunches,” on Saturday at his restaurant. Call (213) 206-8120 for details. . . .City of Angels Brewing Company in Santa Monica presents a reservation-only Celebration of Pacific Coast beers on the 14th and 15th. Featured will be 45 beers on tap, plus food from the Brewing Company’s kitchen at $40 per person. . . . And Chez Melange in Redondo Beach hosts its annual “For Our Children” Food & Wine Tasting next Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. benefiting four children’s charities and featuring food from more than 40 restaurants and wines from a like number of wineries. Tickets are sold in advance only, and are $60 per person. . . .