How's the Service?

To continue with critical thoughts on the Fresno dining scene, we must look beyond the food. Service can often make or break a restaurant faster than poor quality or average food. I think Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart put it best, “most people know it when they see it.” In this context, I’m referring to poor service.

So why am I so critical? As background, I evaluated service staff as a “secret diner” for several restaurants over a period of 5 years and worked a front-of-house job by choice in my 30’s, not as some part time job in my teens. As for wine service and expertise, I have consulted on restaurant wine lists and worked in tasting rooms in Napa and Sonoma. Lastly, my formal cooking experience comes by way of Italy, cooking formally in kitchens throughout Tuscany, Puglia, and Liguria. Make no mistake - being a server, cook, and sommelier is demanding work and deserves healthy respect.

Let’s start with making a simple reservation, an aspect of the total service experience. I take issue with restaurants that accept reservations and then regularly delay your seating. La Paella in Fresno (rest in peace), was famous for accepting a reservation that they would later give away to a VIP diner, especially after the move to North Fresno. Absolutely unacceptable. I think this type of preferential treatment was a major part of La Paella’s demise. Too bad, I liked the food.

Secondly, I believe service starts at the front door with a greeting and engaging customers directly. How many restaurants, in an effort to cut costs have cut their host station or structured their entryway to not accommodate a host station? As examples, Yalla Yalla and Mad Duck have no host station. So, what does a customer do when they walk in? Stand and wait? Go to the bar? Look around and stare at the people sitting down? If you want to be a great restaurant instead of a sandwich shop, burger joint, or a casual (read cost-cutting or counter-type) eatery, you need to have a station to greet customers at the front door, no exceptions. Let me put it another way, T.G.I. Friday’s has a host station, therefore, any great, even good restaurant in Fresno should have one.

Lastly, as for basic flaws in service, I believe in giving a few examples. If your server has ever done the following, you did not receive proper service:

1. Sitting down next to you in the booth to take your order or dropping to one knee in front of the table in order to use it as a desk to write down your order.
2. Starting up a full conversation with a member of your party as if the restaurant was their living room only to forget that they should clear your plates or take your order.
3. Stacking plates on their arms like they were trained at a 24-hour diner, truck stop, or traveling circus act only to spill a bit of juice from a plate on your lap or forget what dish went where.
4. Clearing plates from guests who have finished their dinners, while other guests are still in the process of finishing theirs.
5. Allowing the busser rather than the server to do all the work. If the server merely took your order and picked up the check to say “Thank you”, then you got an Order Taker, not a Server. Tip the busser next time in cash, the server will get the point.
6. Congregating in areas with other servers in plain sight and talking amongst themselves instead of doing their job…Taking Care of YOU!

If Fresno wants to have a great dining scene, it needs to embrace high quality service standards, not electronic pagers, servers in street clothes, or gimmicky circus presentations. For the record, I despise being given an electronic pager at any restaurant. No restaurant with electronic pagers will ever be anything more than a glorified Vegas buffet line without the Disney turnstile.

Deep inside, most people know what casual or sloppy service is versus professionally trained service. There are plenty of good examples of career service professionals in Fresno. As a reminder, it is customary to tip for quality service. Well trained and enthusiastic servers deserve a generous tip. If you don’t like or want to tip for service, move to New Zealand or France.