No "five-second rule" at The French Laundry

What it sounds like when a server drops bread at French Laundry:

"....he dropped the toast meant to accompany my foie gras course, meaning that I had to wait a couple of minutes while he retrieved the fallen slice and went downstairs to bring me a new piece.

Ladies and gentlemen, the sound that poor young man made when that toasted piece of heaven hit the immaculate carpet was akin to the soft keening sigh one might make upon discovering that one's pet Siamese had passed from this earthly realm to the next."

From:

http://www.gentlemenwhodine.com/2007/04 ... one_k.html

Reminds me of the server who dropped one of a half-dozen artichoke fritters at Sola the other day. He pretended not to notice, I called him on it, he said "oh." End of story, unfortunately.

Dude's got it spot on. When I was at the Laundry, my wife and I were brought a course of lobster with a candied piece of fennel precariously balanced on top. When the food runner set down our plates, my piece of fennel fell off the lobster and cracked....my food runner immediately went to grab the plate and said, "I'm so sorry, I'll take this back." I was like no, it's totally cool...you could literally see the food runner's face go from utter freaked out constipation to Sean Penn Spiccoli laid back in the blink of an eye...

He then said, "Thanks for being cool. I was in vegas last night and didn't get much sleep, my hand was a little shaky." I laughed and said, "Yeah, I bet Keller would have beat you if you came back with the plate." He gave me a knowing look, and said, "Yeah, he's tough."