Omnivore - The art of reading a table
How waiters are being trained to respond to customer cues.
- Courtesy of Stevan Sheets
- Even these guys are teaching waiters to read tables
The Wall Street Journal posted a story commenting on a new phenomenon in the food industry: ===training waiters to actually interact with customers instead of spouting off scripted monologues.===
Obviously, this isn’t a new idea. The best restaurants have been teaching employees to respond to customer cues all along. But now, higher-end commercial restaurants, like Cheesecake Factory, are adopting such tactics. Hell, even super-cheap, greasy chains like Denny’s and T.G.I Friday’s are hopping on board. So what, exactly, are they teaching waiters to do?
Called “having eyes” for a table, or “feeling” or “reading” the table by restaurant workers, it’s how the best waiters know what type of service you prefer before you tell them. From fine dining to inexpensive chains, restaurants are working to make service more individualized as the standard script (‘I’m so-and-so and I will be your server tonight”) is sounding dated.
Hallelujah! We were convinced that we were going to have to hear ===that insufferable question (“have you dined with us before?”) followed by some prepackaged speech=== every time we set foot inside a less-than-phenomenal restaurant. Now, it seems like the dining industry may be taking on a more unscripted attitude.