A little diplomacy.......

A Second Helpings reader alerted me to this post in the New York Time's Diners' Journal blog.

It seems that there has been an ongoing struggle between some servers, restaurant kitchens and diners when it comes to the whole small plates concept.

Apparently, some restaurants want diners to give their entire order at once, while some customers want to first order a few plates and then see how the appetite is going as the meal progresses before ordering more ......Restaurant critic Frank Bruni weighs in and says its all about diplomacy. He says "a little diplomacy goes a long way."

I'm on Frank's side here. I try to be very understanding in restaurants - in fact, I think I'm a lot more forgiving than most customers. But I can't handle rudeness or brusque behavior.

Last week, a group of friends and I were celebrating a birthday at Pomodoro on Union Street in Wilmington. A friend ordered a mixed drink and didn't like the taste of the soda. The bartender, while trying, I guess, to be helpful, also managed to be insulting. When she questioned if she was really getting club soda, he told her she could come behind the bar and watch him spray it "from the gun."

Then, he wouldn't leave the table until she was "happy." It started to border on badgering. Ugh. Now, really, was that necessary?

While our waiter Carmen was wonderful, the earlier incident left a few people at the table with a bad taste in their mouths.