The food is spectacular, the wine a perfect choice. The table is the one you would choose again and again, and the night has a special flair. Your guest is your No. 1 friend, or your wife on an anniversary, or a first date that is going well.

And what will you remember beyond the personal moments? How you were served. “Your table is ready” begins a dining experience where, at the end of the night, service is king.

“I remember the restaurants that give me good service, and also the ones that give me bad service - but then I try to forget those and not go back,” says Mission Viejo resident Mary Lonich, who dines out several nights a week. “I’m actually willing to sacrifice good food for good service. I can overlook a marginal menu if the service is outstanding.”

“If the food is mediocre, a good server can mask that,” agrees Robert Nieto, a waiter at a new upscale South Coast Metro steakhouse who has worked at some of the best restaurants in Orange County. “If the service is great and the guest is having a wonderful experience, they can overlook the food. However, if a great meal comes out of the kitchen and you have bad service, that's impossible to mask.”

Cindy Crater, who spent several years overseeing banquets and special events for a popular Orange County restaurant group before moving to San Francisco, notes that with so many consumers watching food-oriented TV shows and so many restaurants serving quality food, it's the service that can make a restaurant stand out from the crowd.

“The restaurant business has really changed in the last five years. Restaurants are dealing with customers who are more food savvy than ever before,” explains Crater. “People are really familiar with what quality food should look and taste like, so the only things a restaurant can offer that sets it apart are the atmosphere, and especially the service. It's hard to wow people with ingredients, but you can wow them with service.”

DEFINING GOOD SERVICE

How do you define good restaurant service? According to those who provide it, service is all in the details.

“Good service really does mean attention to details,” says Jennifer Burnett, who spent nearly 20 years as a waitress at restaurants in both Orange County and Los Angeles. “That means noticing everything, and anticipating guests’ needs before they even know they have a need. It's like an auto mechanic who can sit in a car, listen to the engine, and tell you what service needs to be performed.”

“Service starts in the first 30 seconds I come to the table,” explains Nieto. “Does the customer want to be left alone, or do they want to be entertained or educated? I have to decide how assertive to be. To me, good service is also table maintenance: making sure the proper forks and knives are there, keeping the table clean, making sure they have water in their glass or an appropriate amount of wine. A waiter should also be stealth-like. Customers should not even know he's there. Many times I'll bring something to the table and the customer won't even know it.”

With corporate groups and special event dining, Crater says service is extremely important.

“These guests are usually well traveled and are used to fine dining,” she says. “The service should be relaxed and efficient, and also warm and engaging. You need to make sure the group is having a good time. They have so many places to choose from, and if the service stands out, it helps to bring the groups back.”

One restaurateur who puts service at the forefront of the overall dining experience is Charlie Trotter, owner of the renowned Charlie Trotter’s restaurant in Chicago, where an evening out has been described as a transcendent dining experience. Charlie Trotter's was named America’s Best Restaurant by Wine Spectator magazine, and the James Beard Foundation awarded Charlie Trotter's the Outstanding Restaurant Award in 2000 - the equivalent of an Oscar for Best Picture.

In the book “Lessons in Service from Charlie Trotter,” by Edmund Lawler (published by Ten Speed Press), Lawler states that an evening at Charlie Trotter's “is essentially an accumulation of little things done right,” which springs from Trotter's service philosophy: “How would I like to be treated if I were the guest?” The answer is “like royalty,” but providing royal service takes a kingdom full of heroic servers who not only understand that philosophy, but embody it.

To be a good server at Charlie Trotter’s, Lawler writes that “it takes a sense of empathy, a sense of precision, a sense of anticipation, a sense of humor, a sense of clairvoyance, and a sense of priority.”

Perhaps Charlie Trotter's server Jason Platt sums it up best: “I view service as giving more than what is expected - especially in a friendly, non-obtrusive, and non-pretentious way. By using our sixth sense, knowledge, and creativity, we can guide a guest toward an extraordinary experience.”

SECRETS TO GOOD SERVICE

Ever return to a restaurant after a few months and have a server not only remember your name but hand you your favorite drink? Seems like magic, but that's one of the tricks to exceptional service.

“I used to carry a ledger, and I’d take notes about customers,” recalls Nieto. “I had one customer who ordered Grey Goose with an olive and a twist, and he left me a great tip. I wrote his name in my ledger. A year later he came in with his wife, I looked him up to see when his last visit was, went to his table and greeted him by name and offered him Grey Goose with a twist. They loved that; it made them feel special. It's all about going above and beyond the call of duty.”

And how about servers who properly place the correct meals in front of a large group of diners without having to ask who gets what?

“We have maps of every table that shows us where everyone is seated,” says Ray Aguirre, a service captain at an upscale Anaheim restaurant. “We have tickets with numbers on them, so for a party of eight, we identify who is at each position and who orders what, and we circle the numbers where the ladies are seated, which helps us serve the ladies first, then the men.”

At Aguirre’s restaurant, a captain is assigned to a section of a dining room and oversees up to 15 tables and a team of waiters, which helps ensure that the entire dining experience runs smoothly. Aguirre says that he knows he's doing his job well when he never even talks to his guests because every need is anticipated.

“Once someone has to ask for something, you're not on top of your game.”  

WINE SERVICE

In most upscale restaurants, wine has become an essential component of the dining experience.

“Wine service is extremely important,” says Christie Dufault, a wine instructor at the Culinary Institute of America's Napa Valley campus. “What we're seeing in the United States is a raising of the bar - there's a much higher expectation now for wine service. Where there was once only one sommelier at a restaurant, now you'll find a team of wine servers. It's meeting a demand.”

Dufault says that one of the goals of good wine service is to bring the wine out as soon as possible.

“When guests sit down to dinner and you give them a glass of wine, it immediately puts guests at ease,” she says. “You also need to use decent stemware, and make sure the wine is served at the proper temperature. If it's too cold or too warm, that's not good wine service. You also need to replenish wine as tactfully as possible - be attentive without being intrusive. You don't want to over-pour wine, and you don't want to pour too little so that you have to keep coming back to the table.”

IT TAKES A TEAM

With the abundance of fine restaurants in Orange County, and the fierce competition for clients, customers should not only expect good service, they should demand it. And when you do get good service, Nieto suggests remembering that it takes a team to make that service happen.

“A server is only as good as his support staff - the busboys, the wine manager, the food runners, and the management,” says Nieto.

When all those elements come together, so does the service, and yet the public face of service belongs to one person: the waiter.

“The best compliment I can get is for someone to say that I provided them with the best service they ever had,” says Nieto. “I take pride in what I do. If the customer is happy, I'm happy. It's that simple.”

And don’t forget the tip.

Christopher Trela is a regular contributor to Churm Publishing, Inc.