Instead of sticking my neck out and answering your question, I'll just raise another. Servers in Portland GET minimum wage, but back East where Richman is writing from, don't they still get something like $3 an hour? What effect do you think that has? Any?

I'm your loathsome demographic, the kind that eats basically exclusively close-in and N. when I eat out.

95% of the service I get in this city is just fine. For all the tired bitching about lazy hipsters taking their 20% for granted, I never see it. Servers are nice, service is prompt and the food I order is the food I get. I do think Richman (your summary of Richman, anyway) makes a good point: part of the service critics can do for the readership is to point out bad service when it happens. At the very least, it will encourage managers to keep the pressure on the front of the house to know that they aren't just conduits for orders between patrons and cooks - they are there to provide a service beyond that.

I generally never have a problem tacking on the 20%. My bigger problem lies with the pressure to expand the definition of what is tipworthy beyond table service, or a buck or two for takeout, or 5 bucks for a pizza delivery.

There are an awful lot of times in Portland where I feel like I'm basically just paying more money for the exact same product. For example, I eat lunch at downtown's Koi Fusion a lot, and they have a shitty debit card reader. When the thing finally works, they ask me point blank, "do you want to put on a tip?"

Like you and damn near everyone, I spent a fair number of years in the service industry, so I don't expect the world, but I do expect that a tip ought to mean some value added in some way. If I'm ordering something from you and two seconds later you're putting it in a bag and handing it to me, you shouldn't be expecting a tip.

Similar take: I have tempered expectations of service. There's a low threshold for me to consider it bad; if someone's generally pleasant, I consider it fine. This is borne out of working in restaurants for years and also hating dining with people who place disproportionate emphasis on a waiter's temperament as a be-all of the entire dining experience. If the food's good, I'm good. If something's fucked up and you handle it, I'm also good.

Bad service happens for a few reasons in Portland. One, in my experience, many food servers (myself included at times) simply mirror the relative shittiness of the clientele. We are sensitive and moody and have a hard time shaking off the impact of entitled, asshole customers. Yes, that's part of the job but we all know certain places have worse clientele than others.

But more so, prick owners are to blame, or need to be. When an owner's a jerk-ass, staff dissatisfaction is palpable no matter their disposition and how much they try and mask it. I excuse less-than-average service when I see this. I never go back if I see an owner berate a server in public. That's fucked.

Oh also to be clear, I think servers are pretty damn nice in Portland.

@Reymont, I've waited tables/tended bar in New York and Oregon, and I don't know that the motivation to work for my tips changed drastically. Maybe I'm greedier than most, but the knowledge that I was getting a slightly less depressing paycheck every couple weeks didn't change the fact that I wanted to earn 20% on a bill.

@CC, I hope I didn't overstate my position; It's rare that I get BAD service, but it's equally rare that it's anything to write home about. I don't think that ignorable service is anything new--or anything I'm particularly worried about--but I do think that there's been an uptick in the kind of higher-scale restaurant in which ambivalence is part of the aesthetic. Again, I can point to plenty of less buttoned-up, moderate-to-expensive restaurants that balance the casual with the professional, but they might be the exception that proves the rule.

And yes, those kind of debit card machines are uncomfortable. Talking about money often is.

@Tpain

I went to Gruner last night, and our server was awesome - he knew everything about the drinks and food, he was polite and funny and knew when to swoop in and when to stay away, and he was tipped accordingly. To answer your question more squarely then, I definitely don't want "meh, I'm just here to take your order" service at a high-end restaurant. There ARE a number of places where that happens and I'll admit that when I'm tacking on the extra 15-20$, I'm mentally grumbling about how little the server did for it, other than have the good fortune to get hired at a place with high food and drink prices.

Thus, if you'd be targeting THAT, I'm all about it.

Bonus Spazz Peeve, and apologies if you're using it this way: "Ambivalent" means being pulled in opposite directions, aka "I'm of two minds about this." A lot of people use "ambivalent" as "apathetic"/"meh" and JUST NO.

@ComCol I love Gruner's service...they seem to have really taken the time to learn a pretty atypical wine list.

And yes, you're right...lazy commenting on my part. I meant apathy, and I beg your forgiveness.

IT IS YOURS.

Am I reading it wrong? He's angry that the owner will "get away with" an accusation of sexual harassment. But the accusation would have never been known but for him and her if he hadn't published it. I get why he'd be pissed off, but not the extreme levels of public butthurt we're seeing here.

That said, I enjoyed the shit out of this.

@Boyasunder Exactly. His being pissed off that she didn't allow for his side of the story, when all she did was email him, pales in comparison with printing a story in a national magazine that accuses her of making the whole thing up to avoid a negative review. It's ridiculous logic, and I hope that it leads to someone throwing a subject-appropriate drink in his face (that's a Treme reference).

The only terrible service I've really gotten in Portland was at some bar in the NW where I was with a group of people for my friend Gus's going away party. Other than our party (8ish people), the bar was pretty empty. My friend Matt politely asked the server "I don't drink, but I'd like to buy a drink for my friend Gus. What is your favorite drink, and could you send one to him?" She literally said "I don't have time to play that game. Let me know when you decide on something." Then walked away. It was appalling.

Other than that I usually have pretty great service!

meh... servers are lazy asses. Spain has the right idea, let the restaurant pay them a living wage and raise the prices 20%. Also, socialism is evil.

I tip. I tip well when warranted. And like shit when warranted. I also skip completely, or just carry cash, for "un-tipworthy" carts and whatnot.

@Tony, oh yeah, I totally forgot about his baseless accusation that she lied. I guess that showed her! Bullshit in private leads to libel in public! Suck on that, lady.

It's definitely an odd, rant-y article, but given the small world of food culture, I can see why Richman wouldn't want the possibility of a stealth campaign out there around his name. If he publishes a negative review without mentioning the issue, he would unfairly have to worry about something like that getting started in retaliation. If he knows he didn't do what he's accused of, the only possible explanations are a) it did happen and someone else did it, b) it didn't happen and the server made it up, or c) it didn't happen and the owner made it up.

Perhaps it's the thorough way that Richman sets up the character of the owner in the article, but by the time you get to the e-mail, it's not hard to believe that C is possible, although my guess is that B is probably what actually happened.

Interesting. Your link takes us to page 3 of the article, though, which was a bit confusing at first.