Is Your Server Worth The Tip?
By Marisa D'Vari

     Recently, I filed an article for the San Francisco Chronicle in which I discussed the practice of tipping restaurant staff, most pointedly with regard to wine service. However, in the course of extensively researching and interviewing the topic, I discovered several key things:

1. People are willing to pay a bonus premium for good service.

2. More people (at least, on the Internet forums I consulted) are surprisingly sensitive to service.

3. Many feel that their service is not as good as they would like.

For example, in one response to a tipping-related forum, an individual said that in an idea world he'd slap thirty one-dollar bills on the table and tell the server he/she would get it all if service was excellent. But for every faux pas, a dollar would be removed. Yikes!

Do you feel you get good service? Would you like to discover how the Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS) considers good service?

Here are some ways you can see if your server is worth the tip.

1. Are your wine glasses fresh, clean, and free of odor? By definition, a quality restaurant should have the staff polish the glasses by hand. If there's a spot, the server messed up. Detract a point.

2. The wine list - is it clean, current, and easy to read? The sommelier/waiter is responsible for this as well.

3. According to the CMS, nothing but the stem of the glass should touch the table. This means that there should be a little coaster for the cork, an underliner for the bottle of wine, etc.

However, the CMS is a British-based operation, and formality here is a bit different. At the Jean-Georges in NYC the young server was very careful to put an underliner under the bottle as she had been trained, but I've rarely seen it in a "casual" (but pricey) café since.

4. Is your wine, red, white, or sparkling, served at the correct temperature? Sometimes it's hard for a consumer to tell. A friend had a foreign client who always sends champagne back, saying it's not chilled enough.

A sidebar at the end of this article details the appropriate serving temperatures. Does your server take your order from the right?

Does he/she move in clockwise fashion? In the UK, it is appropriate to serve the ladies first (oldest to youngest) even if this means going around the table in a clockwise fashion several times. If the table holds more than eight, however, this is not required.

5. Does your server show you the wine in his/her right hand, pronounce the name, producer, and year?

6. Does your server give you a small taste and stand back while you inspect it and give him/her a nod of approval?

7. Is your server prepared to answer questions about the wine, or promise to get someone who can answer your questions?

8. Are the wine glasses at your table lined up above the knife?

9. Does the server wipe the lip of the newly opened bottle with a serviette, then wipe the inside? Though this is a demand of the CMA program, I've actually not seen it done in any U.S. based restaurant.

10. As the server pours for the first guest, does he/she show the guest the label for a moment before pouring?

11. Does the server wipe the lip of the bottle after each guest?

12. Does the server overfill the glass? This is a huge issue with wine people who love to swirl and sniff. Most servers develop a scene of where to stop pouring (i.e. were the bowl is at its zenith and begins to close in a bit).

13. If a second bottle of the same wine is ordered, does the server give the host a separate glass for the taste?

14. If room is needed on the table, does the server ask if he/she can remove the tray with the cork?

15. For champagne service, is the ice bucket covered with a neatly folded serviette?

16. Does the server open the champagne with a silent hiss instead of a loud pop?
17. Does the server pour the champagne in a single stream (two pours are okay).

18. When decanting with the (now old-fashioned) basket and candle service, does the waiter present the unopened bottle in the basket, repeat the name, producer, and year, carefully decant over the open flame so as to catch all sentiment, then continue the standard service, careful to put the empty bottle on the table with an underliner, and after pouring put the decanter on the table with an underliner.

19. Note what the server does with the screwcap. If it is left on the table, it is a mistake. The CMS recommends they go into the server's pocket.

Print this article out and take it with you during your next trip to a five star restaurant.

See if the server is up to snuff.

At the same time, be generous.

The students who know correct service, as defined by the CMS, are all hoping to receive their Master of Wine one day and have spent time and money investing in learning.

If a server isn't interested in the program, and if the restaurant wine director isn't CMS trained, they may simply be unaware of what correct service is.

But you do!

Correct Temperatures for Beverage Service
Mineral water 43-47F or 6-8C
Sweet white wine 43-47F or 6-8C
Dry Sherry/Madeira 43-47F or 6-8C
Champagne/sparklers 43-50F or 6-10C
Light White/Rose wine 45-50F or 7-10C
Draught/bottled Lager beer 48-52F or 12-14C
Tawny Port/Sweet Sherries 54-61F or 12-16CMedium bodied reds 55-64F or 13C
Full bodied/aged reds 59-64F or 15-18C
Brown ales/Stouts 59-64F or 15-18C
Sweet Madeira/Vintage Port 64-68F or 18-20C