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My business partner is 69 and still knows more than the kiddos we hire as additional programmers on larger projects. His mental curiosity keeps is an inspiration.
Or how about “I don’t know if a website is worth the $$$ Because I can’t tell if I’m getting a lead from it or it’s because I belong to 20 organizations…”
IDK where he gets the idea of that list being “service” in the US. I’ve worked in the restaurant industry and frankly in any industry there is a simply how it’s done that is one’s JOB.
Yes of course it is, and good service does this invisibly.
However, I was commenting on folks who were saying they wanted specifics like bringing a printed menu to them and the orders taken by someone standing by - so expanding the list of things that happen in a service situation as a list of things demanded vs possible changes (by tech for example) that a restaurant may make because of today’s needs and economy is simply part of a much bigger picture. More things will happen in the future decimating this list, but who is to say that in the future more amenities will not be added to the ‘luxury’ of dining out?
I am not dismissive about waiting, and I respect service folks. What I was trying to do in my post was show that there were many things in the restaurant service that could also be ‘no contact’ and that they do not always contribute to the ‘experience’… surely asking the waiter for another round of drinks could be done with a pushbutton on the table rather than imperiously waving your hand, for instance.
All I am saying is that of the 40 tasks involved in getting you your meal some could be done in a different way and not be considered less of the dining experience.
Only if you like dealing with robots. I don’t. When I get in my 90s I might have to tolerate them, but I’m not being paid to take my order. I prefer the human contact when I’m spending the money to eat out, and invisible service that shows up when needed, as someone else mentioned.
Fortunately, when I was a waiter, I was trained by a Czech head waiter who had been trained at a major Swiss hotel. It was back when Alaska ferries all had dining rooms (most now only have cafeterias).
Passengers in those days could choose the cafeteria or the dining room. Our first goal, he said, was to make sure that once someone ate in the dining room they would return for the rest of their 2 or 3 day voyage. The second goal was to upsell when we could.
He told us that table service is a performance art, and the way to get people to return is to make them feel special. He taught us the art of pouring wine (and within a week, the limited wine list), and all of the little service touches to build that feeling. And he marched us all to a uniform store near the ferry terminal (in Seattle at that time) to get velvet bow ties and shirt ruffles to improve the look of the horrid waiter jackets the ferry provided.
By the end of the summer (it was a seasonal job) I got pretty good at it. We were all lucky that the Chief Cook on the ship had been hired away from the best hotel in town. From him, I learned all kinds of things about cooking that Mom and Grandma hadn’t taught me, helped me buy good cooking knives and taught me how to sharpen them. As an inexperienced waiter, he saved me from many mistakes.
And I made VERY good money that summer, and when I later tended bar, I found that many of the same skills were useful. You get better tips when you put on a show mixing drinks, too.
