DINING OUT/FOOD TALK

We have been home for almost 2 weeks, back into the swing of things, and once again frequenting some of our favorite lunch and dinner haunts.
We have said it before but want to re-iterate, how a restaurant makes the top of our list (you may have your own criteria, let us know, what you think that is consistently important from your top restaurants, and remember these can be top notch fine dining or corner diner):
**friendly, knowledgeable service is a must (we are not talking about the sugary waitperson, or the one that becomes too familiar with you by telling you their daily live's woes and tribulations). Most customers are also not interested in hearing the staff talk loudly amongst themselves about what they did last night, who broke up with whom etc., but at the same time watching a half dozen waitstaff hanging out in a cluster in the corner, with arms folded, just staring into the dining room, makes me feel like I am under the gun and ready for an interrogation. There is a happy medium.
**Be professional, remember our name, and even what we like to eat and or drink - Jose Luis likes gingerale and I like unsweetened ice tea at lunch, while at dinner he will usually have cranberry juice with a lime or mineral water and I may start with a Martini and then a glass of wine. And when taking our order, please don't lean on the chair, sit at the empty chair next to us or squat down next to the table, unless we are at "Ed Debevic's" in Chicago, where that is part of the atmosphere and the owner's "shtick".
**Be knowledgable, know your food product. Often this is the shortcomings of management in not teaching the staff the delicate nuances of a dish, the preparaton of the sauce, whether the soup of the day is vegetarian or beef based, but sometimes it is the negligence of the floor staff to either not care or not want to be educated, so the more the staff knows in advance, without having to run to the kitchen everytime a customer asks a question, the better.
**Winelist...it is almost an impossibility with most of today's wine lists to have the waitstaff/bartender be a wine connoisseur, and they are not expected to be the six figure sommelier that some of the high end Vegas restaurants employ. But some basic knowledge about the wines, a recommendation of 3-4 reds and whites in every price range and the ability to open a bottle of wine correctly, pour the right amount (please don't fill our white wine glasses to the top unless I ordered just a glass, because by the time I get to my last sip it will have become quite warm.) A number of years ago we went to a very high end restaurant, aand impressing my parents Jose Luis ordered a lovely bottle of champagne. When the waiter presented the bottle to Jose Luis, in the same breath he asked a passing server for a wine opener, and attempted to open the bottle, till another waiter stopped him, apologized and opened the champagne correctly- huge faux pas for this extremely expensive restaurant. Due to the suggestion of a customer we also invested in a small vinotheque to house 4 bottles of each of our red wines, so that they can be presented at true room temperature, not Florida's 82 degrees room temp. And with so many options, why not offer more than just 1 white and 1 red house wine, you can use an inexpensive vinovac system that pumps out the air, and maintains the bottles consistency for 4-5 days.
**cleanliness, "puhleeze", we work in this environment and know how easy it is to keep clean, and we see how easy it is for some restaurants to get overwhelmed and forget that they are dealing with food. Keep not only your dining room clean (check out the corners for dirt, the shelves for week old dust, sticky menus, dust on fans, fingerprints on windows), but assign somebody to check on the bathroom throughout the night. Clean silverware, glasses and dishes are a must, with today's 24 hour lasting wax enveloped lipsticks it becomes quite a task to rid the glass rim of any residue, but just keep an eye on it. And clean uniforms is a must, we encourage our staff to leave an extra top at the restaurant in case a wine or food spill mars their clothing. Being served by a waiter, whose shirt has become half untucked, pants slowly making their way south, body odor, which as they lean across you becomes prevalent, dirty fingernails, food stains on their wrinkled shirt and hair hanging every which way , are all things that make us lose our appetite. We have 2 waitstaff that have tatoos, interesting colored, but clean hair and most of our staff , both male and female, have earrings, but the bottom line is that they all look sharp.
**value - we have had horrible $5 hamburgers and fantastic $30 rack of lamb, and at the opposite end we have had incredible real turkey, just cut off the bird $7 Club sandwiches and horrible $35 Veal chop. We just want to feel that the money we pay, whether it is $10 a head or $110 per person, was well spent.
**quality, kind of goes hand in hand with the above. I would rather get a smaller portion of grouper give me a 6 OZ filet instead of 8 OZ, but make it real. The same goes for a filet of beef, have it be buttery and so tender that I could (if I so wished) cut it with a fork (of course I never would). And don't serve frozen pre-cut veggies, the flavor has been ice blasted out of them a long time ago and no amount of herbs de provence or salt and pepper can come to the rescue.
**Salt and Pepper shakers, please have them wiped down daily and refilled, it looks so unkempt if they are half full, and I wonder whether the chef has not seasoned his dishes sufficiently, making his guests pile on pounds of salt.
**presentation. During the past months we have ordered dessert at a number of restaurants low, mid ranged and high end and invariably we have been served dessert on a small bread plate, no decoration, no appeal. The chef may think that naked is better and that the taste and look of the dessert speaks for itself, but it takes little to serve the course on an appropriate plate and takes little to place the food in such a way and decorate it, even if it has to be with that ubiquitous parsley.
For dessert a little drizzle of sauce, a figurine, a swirl here makes the dish look like it is worth $7 or $9.
Oh there are a dozen more things we look out for, and some are just personal pet peeves or wishful thinking, and we will discuss the rest, augmenting them with some of yours in the coming weeks. Overall I think that we can speak for the majority of the dining public, we just want a nice experience, and if you "wow" us that much the better. The restaurant's diners are the best P.R./Marketers you could ever wish for with those having a great experience telling dozens of their friends, and so forth and so forth, or they could be your worst nightmare (some not justified).
Here are just 2 of some of our favorite ultra-casual lunch spots and why
*Chattaways on 4th Street S. - we give credit where credit is due, their longevity is amazing, sitting outside amongst Jill and Warren's hundred's of trees, bushes, flowers and plants transports us to a different place, and if it is raining cats and dogs, make yourself comfortable inside in the quaint, smallish english type tea room. While perched amongst the Blue China, dozens of tea sets and pictures of the British Royal family, in this laid back, relaxed atmosphere, Lucky, an affable, friendly and efficient young man has been serving us our turkey sandwich (me) and a house salad and nice 5 OZ cheeseburger (Jose Luis), for quite some time . Prices are reasonable and the food is served without too much brouhaha or embellishments, fries for the burgers and sandwiches and saltines with the salad. Simplicity is sometimes best
*Munch's on 4th Street S. -although we had driven by this breakfast/lunch place a hundred times since we arrived in St. Pete, 7 months ago, we only ventured in, for the first time, this past month and have been back for both breakfast and lunch numerous times. Larry, the owner, whose family started Munch's 50 years ago has been there everytime to greet us and Ruth, who recently celebrated her 25 year anniversary as a waitress (kudos to you) has been taking care of us, and case in point, after just 2 visits already knows I like mayonaise with my fries (it is a Dutch thing). The Texas Hash or homefries with eggs for breakfast transport you to a bygone era of lunch counters and diners, and lunch provides all the basic elements from sandwiches to burgers and a couple of surprise specials like fried catfish or roasted chicken. Prices are reasonable, service is efficient and swift, and they have a book exchange area, where you can pick up the latest releases, and some older, well worn paperbacks for $1, what else would we want.