At Cioppino's Mediterranean Grill in Vancouver, restaurant critic Alexandra Gill demonstrates one of the many skills required for fine-dining service: When polishing the crystal, hold it by the stem to avoid breakage.
Restaurant critic Alexandra Gill decided to see what things were like on the other side of the table when she waitressed for a week at Vancouver's Cioppino's Mediterranean Grill.
"As The Globe and Mail's Vancouver restaurant critic, it's usually me on the other side of the table driving everyone crazy," she writes in "Some say I can be harsh on wait staff, an opinion that puzzles me since I often refrain from commenting on the service - unless it was exceptionally good or egregiously bad. Yet I firmly believe that one shouldn't dish out criticism unless one's willing to eat what's flung back, or at least try to understand it."
She was online earlier take your questions about her experience. Cioppino's head waiter, Patrick Malpass, joined her to talk about his decade in the service industry, patron dos and don'ts and more.
Alexandra Gill is a Vancouver-based restaurant critic for The Globe and Mail. Her column appears in the Life section on Wednesdays. She served as the Globe's Western Arts Correspondent from 2001 to 2007. In 2005, a collection of her feature articles were nominated for a National Newspaper Award.
Patrick Malpass has been head waiter at Cioppino's Mediterranean Grill for over 10 years. Before joining Cioppino's, he was partner in his own restaurant for three years.