Restaur-not

I love restaurants.  I love eating great food.  I love great company.


I hate obnoxious patrons.


You know what I mean?  The restaurant goers who don't acknowledge the wait staff, don't say thank you when they bring the food or something for which they had asked, don't tip 15-20% when the service was normal to great, and harass the staff.  These people aren't your servants, they are people just like the rest of us trying to make a living.  Their "living" just happens to be waiting on you at a restaurant.  They aren't clones or robots or scum, so don't treat them as such.


Ok, so you're probably wondering what set off this rant.  Last night I ate at a wonderfully cute Italian restaurant in Ravenswood called Spacca Napoli.  It is relatively priced and serves antipasto and true Italian style pizza - thin crust with fresh toppings and sparse sauce and cheese.  My friend introduced it to me and we spent a wonderful two and a half hours eating pan fried zucchini and mozzarella, arugula and basil pizza while drinking a delicious Italian red wine.  Our waitress was friendly, helpful, and fun, and she did a great job of leaving us alone while we ate and only coming around every so often to check in on us.  We didn't feel rushed or pressured, and we enjoyed our evening.


Much to our surprise, when we thought we should be receiving our check, our waitress brought us samples of Italian dessert wine and mini canolli (btw, fun fast of today: canolli is already plural!  There is no "s" in italian.  the singular?  canollo.) We were utterly delighted and when we asked why she was being so nice, she proceeded to explain that she was thanking us for being such amazingly polite and enjoyable customers.  Apparently the table next to us had a, as she said after apologizing for the use of slang, "dego," who thought he was hot shit and a know all.  She asked how his dinner was (as waitstaff always does) and he said "You want the honest answer?" and proceeded to ask, snidely, if she's ever been to Naples, Italy, because that is where REAL pizza comes from.  She responded that she had actually, which took all the wind out of his sails, and he ended up leaving her a $2 tip as a result.  She was appalled and really appreciated us and our bubbly, happy demeanor even more.  As a thank you, we had dessert on the house.  


So, next time....remember to be nice to your wait staff.  You might not get free food, but you certainly won't get decaf instead of regular coffee, spit in your soup, extra salt on your steak, or super slow service just to annoy you.  Plus, just like you enjoy being treated well, so do they.  Happy eating!