House Rules

Posted on April 2, 2008 06:00 by Michael Stern
Categories: Editorial | Travel Notes

Price's-warning

I like to think of myself as a free spirit, but I love restaurants with rules. You've got to figure that a place that insists on correct customer behavior is also a place where the cooking and serving of the food is done according to a honed method that works. The trick for us travelers, of course, is that we are frequently ignorant about the right way to do things. Asking for a Chicago hot dog with ketchup, for example, or being unprepared to place your order when it comes your turn at the Frontier in Albuquerque: both are serious breaches of etiquette. That is why I am particularly fond of eateries where the way to do things is spelled out precisely. Like at Keaton's in North Carolina, where an electric banner-light display on the wall flashes "NO PROFANITY … KEEP NOISE TO A MINIMUM," and where a hand-penned sign warns, "IF YOUR WAITER OR WAITRESS TAKES YOUR ORDER AND GIVES YOU A BOOTH OR TABLE NUMBER AND YOU MOVE AND DON'T TELL ANYONE, THERE WILL BE A DELAY IN YOUR FOOD ORDER."

 Pat's how-to

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