jesteinf wrote:I don't think we should go on and on discussing one person who works at a restaurant. Just doesn't seem cool to me.

Probably no one wants to ask this, but: why not? I'm not anti-Paul. On balance, even though I would like to have felt more sense of choice in the matter of yea or nay on the tasting menu, I felt he enhanced our overall experience, and I never suspected he had anything but our interests at heart in his strong recommendation of it. But like him or not, there's no doubt he is part and parcel of the S and S experience. He has a big personality. If you have him as a waiter, it's almost impossible to describe your experience there without referring to him, unless you're one of those people who thinks a restaurant is only about the food.

Clearly your server is an integral part of your dining experience. I just don't think an endless stream of "I like Paul because" and "I don't like Paul because" posts does anything for a reader trying to learn more about the restaurant. Clearly this a a great forum for discussing food. As for evaluating the personality of an employee of a restaurant...I don't think that's what anyone is here for.

I would rather see the discussion move on.

Jeez, what if his mom was reading this?

I agree (as indeed I posted before). There's enough information for someone to make a judgement about whether the restaurant is for them or not, but getting down to the nitty-gritty about one individual on an internet forum is getting kind of creepy, or Truman Show-ish, or something. I'm glad it isn't me getting talked about publicly like this (I just have my usual half-dozen stalkers, who keep it to themselves). Let's move on.

Mike G wrote:... I can think of half a dozen restaurants many people like which just rubbed me the wrong way (Spring, etc.) ...

Haha, I guess I'm not the only one. I hate to continue this discussion, but when I visited Spring last ... well, spring, we had a server who was the biggest overactor I've ever met. We couldn't help it - we were cracking jokes about it all night.

Funny thing was, it was for a meetup, and I was dining with a group of strangers. It was definitely an ice-breaker.

That being said, I find that if the service is over-the-top (as it was there), it's distracting almost to the point of not being able to concentrate on the food (and I thought the food at Spring was fairly decent).

I recently visited Sweets & Savories as well last weekend - I will post a write up about that shortly.

jesteinf wrote:As for evaluating the personality of an employee of a restaurant...I don't think that's what anyone is here for.

Perhaps not -- but you made the point yourself that the service is an integral part of the dining experience. I can understand if you're making the point that in this particular instance, the best some of us can do is to "agree to disagree." It is also probably better if we speak of servers in generalities, and/or without using names. I understand with a restaurant like S&S, their head server is quite ubiquitous, and even not saying his name, it'd be pretty easy to know who you're talking about. Nonetheless, it's still a matter of politeness to a certain degree to not point out individuals by name ---- although, generally more so when you have some thing negative to say about them.

I know that when we went to the restaurant, I mentioned LTH, and our said waiter was familar with the board, and gave *me* the impression that he does read it from time to time. That being said, anything being said about someone should be said in such a matter that you would not be afraid to tell (or write about it) to their face.

I am dining tonight at S&S and I hope I get Paul. I prefer that my server have opinions, strong opinions. I often solicit opinions of my server, and consider part of the job of being a truly professional waiter to guide me to an enjoyable experience.

On the other hand, I would not necessarily follow his suggestions, since it is my stomach and tastebuds I wish to amuse and satisfy. But I am quite happy to have a tiny bit of tension, conflict and difference of opinion with my meal.

Wait staff are people that are working for you, at least for a brief time. Sometime they need to be managed. Much better to have a smart, focused, but slightly idiosyncratic individual who requires a bit of management, in my world anyway (seems to me that sometime describes some of us here - I believe it does apply to me at least). So long as the food is good, of course.

dicksond wrote:I am dining tonight at S&S and I hope I get Paul.

Wouldn't saying "I hope I get Paul" also count as "too much talk about Paul"? I thought we weren't supposed to do that.

This thread has been stale for a while, so I thought I would reinvigorate it. I've been going to S&S regularly for about a year now and they have never failed to deliver on a great experience. Every night they have the 3-course, $29 prix fixe option, which is a phenomenal value. They're BYOB all the time, so you can bring in great wine and have some excellent food.

I was there last night with some out-of-town friends and the place was on top of their game as usual. Starters included zucchini and pea risotto, caprese salad, and arugula salad, all of which were excellent. The main courses included steak frites, which was a monster NY strip cooked perfectly medium rare. I had the S&S kobe burger with pate and truffle mayo, also cooked perfectly medium rare. Our friends had the butter poached lobster risotto and the fresh oregon salmon, both of which they loved. Dessert included the milk chocolate walnut pie, fresh peach pie, and blueberry cobbler, all of which were great.

Sweets & Savories
1534 w. Fullerton
Chicago, IL
773-281-6778
http://sweetsandsavoriesrestaurant.com/

Not sure why, but there are two long Sweets and Savories threads.

I missed that other one. I'll move my comments to the other one, since it's more current.

turkob wrote:Not sure why, but there are two long Sweets and Savories threads.

I think one is a remnant from the great "Michael War" of 2008.