I just read the comments section of the article on slate.  It just reinforces the idea that Americans (at least they write like Americans) know the ass-end of sensible service.  Not that a Brit. won't tell you that Americans don't have good service, because hell, you're lucky to get shit from an English waiter unless you're at the Savoy (perhaps Britons were not born to be slaves! as Waller said), but the comments made me pine  when I've been in Paris and had a good French waiter (the majority of the time).  Those guys take no shit, are very efficient and very decent about everything if you approach them in the right way.  And they're perfectly unobtrusive.  It's like an art form.   And the thing is, (or at least it seems to me) there's less of a underlying "class" thing with service in France then there seems to be in America.  Overt democracy is at odds with a customer/waiter relationship because as I see it, every market transaction in by nature ripe with antagonism.

I confess that my memory only covers Spanish waiters who did not seem especially different...I thought the comments seemed more evocative of the bottom-line mentality everywhere in the U.S. v. Hitchens's interest in thoroughly enjoying his meal.  Thus, I found the comments irritating. *Shrug*

I also find higher-end trendy places too dark.

As an oenophile (a big word meaning 'wino'), I was immediately attracted to the title of this thread.  Here in Japan, bad service sticks out as bad as an American president with an Ivy League education unable to speak educated English.  Moreover, you don't tip here, no matter how good the service is.

Last edited by gentleman amateur (2008-05-30 10:03:15)