Frank Bruni’s rant yesterday about waiter words he hates brought a knowing smile to our face, as well generating as a lot of buzz in the ol’ blogosphere. Having put in our time behind a white apron as well as an editor’s desk, the topic was all too familiar.
Bruni is right, of course, but hopefully he’ll cut waiters a little slack. Clumsy politeness beats the outright hostility bubbling just under the surface of a lot of food-service types, especially when they have to weather all different kinds of manners from their customers (would you like the baked potato or French fries with that, a**hole?).
Locally, the staff at 7x7 has also been swapping loathsome language in their apparently cavernous office. The collection of words the staffers hate really got us going, as it was a favorite game among a certain set of former roommates. Bits and Bites:
From the non-food team, crusty and moist were top picks (which really eliminates any discussion of Chad’s bread at Tartine). Nestled, perched and über are out—our executive editor Chris has all but banned them. And panties really seems to upset Ben, our design director, for some reason.I have a whole bevy of words that make me cringe when applied to food: Some (tasty, standout, delectable) are dullards; and some (tucked, sultry and sassy) are just grating. Worst-case-scenario sentence: At a restaurant perched atop Russian Hill and nestled between two bookstores, we tucked into a sultry dish of papardelle. Standouts also included the tasty sea bream and a sassy licorice parfait.
Frank Bruni’s rant yesterday about waiter words he hates brought a knowing smile to our face, as well generating as a lot of buzz in the ol’ blogosphere. Having put in our time behind a white apron as well as an editor’s desk, the topic was all too familiar.
Bruni is right, of course, but hopefully he’ll cut waiters a little slack. Clumsy politeness beats the outright hostility bubbling just under the surface of a lot of food-service types, especially when they have to weather all different kinds of manners from their customers (would you like the baked potato or French fries with that, a**hole?).
Locally, the staff at 7x7 has also been swapping loathsome language in their apparently cavernous office. The collection of words the staffers hate really got us going, as it was a favorite game among a certain set of former roommates. Bits and Bites:
Use Your Words [7x7]
