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How do you think restaurants should treat their customers with respect to gender?
Comments?
%26quot;TO Jenny Moon, the whole business of giving menus to women before men, taking orders from women before men and clearing women’s plates first just didn’t make sense, not in the East Village in 2008.
So, as she readied Apiary for its recent opening there, she and other managers told servers not to sweat that sort of thing. And they made sure the restaurant’s order-tracking software followed suit.
At most upscale restaurants such software lets servers note both the position at a table to which a dish is going and whether the diner is female, so the food’s couriers can plot to present dishes in a gender-conscious sequence.
For instance, servers at some restaurants can electronically punch in “L” for “lady.” But Apiary installed its software without that option. Maybe a gentleman’s dish would be set down ahead of his female companion’s. Would anyone really care?
Yes, as Ms. Moon said she learned when reading a customer comment card one night. “Serve ladies first!” it said.
Ms. Moon, one of Apiary’s principal owners, wasn’t moved to change the software. But she did tell servers that they could and should start considering gender, at least sometimes.
“Read the table,” she told them, “and if it seems like they would appreciate ladies being served first, just do it.”
Whole article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining…
Although the goal in many public places and in much of public life is to treat men and women equally, most upscale restaurants haven’t reached that point.
Old Gender Roles With Your Dinner? ?
That is what is great about a free market. A restaurant is not required to serve ladies first. Nor is anyone offended by serving males first required to visit the establishment.
So this AKA feminist states:
%26quot;Read the table,” she told them, “and if it seems like they would appreciate ladies being served first, just do it.”
So she approves that the servers must prejudge people. That is even sicker than the original question.
Old Gender Roles With Your Dinner? ?
Wow do they really do that? How bizarely extreme to have a whole computer option for it! When I eat out with friends, it all just sort of gets plonked down at once - but next time I will watch more carefully. Very interesting :-)
do they give the ladies menus witout prices
ive seen that i didnt like it but i didnt say anything
it made me feel special
No ladies first. Let them wait their turn in restaurants and stand up on the bus and train like everybody else.
Lol! Really? How ridiculous. I couldn't care whether I get my meal before or after my partner (so long as they arrive at roughly the same time so we can eat together). When we eat out mine certainly doesn't always come first.
There needs to be an end to the 'serve ladies first'. End it now. Serve whoever's dinner is ready first, first. I am hoping that this old rule dies out soon.
I don't care who gets their food first, as long as we can eat! What happened to the sense of priorities at this joint?
In answering your question : I would say that a restaurant should serve it's customers, without taking gender into consideration. Once gender pops up in the busboy's mind or the customer's minds, then the accusations of bias arise.
Yawn. Why are your questions always boring? And what's the point in asking a 250 line question where your actual question is just two lines?
Edit : TD's for saying that restaurants shouldn't consider gender? NICE ! :-D
Well, it's hard to get bent out of shape over this.
As Miss Manners often says, the ways one is used to have a charm to them; violating them is jarring.
Myself, I wouldn't notice, and didn't even realize there was a thing about serving females first.
But, until the oldest generation is gone, there probably are a lot of people who care.
Social life is different -- the little meaningless gestures are just that: meaningless.
Noticing people's sex in the business world is the problem. (The example is social, since most people dine out to socialize; that is, the customers are engaged in social behavior, though the servers are doingbusiness.)
I don't think enough people care about that nowadays, with perhaps the exceptions of seniors. And maybe I'm being ageist, but a brand new restaurant in the East Village doesn't seem like it's going to be a cluster spot for seniors. I think they should stick to their guns. Unless we actively take steps to get rid of this %26quot;ladies first%26quot; mentality, it won't go away.
I really don't care who is served first, but I do not want to order wine and have it given to my husband for tasting and %26quot;approval%26quot;. I do not want to receive a menu without prices on it.
I also have noticed that I get better service with my guy rather than a girlfriend if I am at a new place. I am a VERY generous tipper... especially if I go in somewhere alone (I know they need the tips)... it's sad that people would shoot themselves in the foot by treating me like they've already assumed I'm a bad tipper.
