Even before the late Mayor Bob O'Connor set out on his crusade to bring a third renaissance to Pittsburgh, our city's restaurants had undergone a major revamping. Pittsburgh diners can be thankful for the influx of talented chefs who are creating innovative menus and whose mantras are "fresh," "local" and "sustainable."

	Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette Click image for larger version. Related article What makes a good restaurant experience?

Memorable meals are served in every neighborhood of the city. Pittsburgh boasts a long list of creative chefs who serve high-quality food.

But service? Now that's another story.

Take, for example, the friends lunching at a South Hills restaurant when the waiter came out with a vacuum cleaner and began buzzing the carpet inches from their feet.

Or the waiter in black tie at a landmark Mount Washington restaurant who barked instructions to a colleague on the other side of the dining room.

Or the restaurant in a historic house on the Slopes in which the waiter didn't know how to use the computer and mistakenly punched in something the customer didn't order.

As Post-Gazette restaurant critic, I get more complaints about poor service at local restaurants than on just about any other subject on the regional dining scene (except, of course, the high price of wine on menus, but that's a story for another day). For this report, I also asked local readers to send in stories of their own experiences.

Vanessa Sterling of Regent Square reported an unpleasant Sunday night dinner with four friends at an upscale French restaurant in Fayette County. They all loved their meals and expected to spend a leisurely evening dining -- but not 3 1/2 hours! There were only a dozen people dining that night. While they were in one part of the dining room finishing dessert and coffee, the kitchen staff was in another area eating and setting tables for the next service shift.

Anita Wagner of Ross experienced a similar problem with a recent lunch at a Caribbean restaurant in Robinson.

"When a restaurant consistently takes 1 1/2 hours to serve a simple lunch to workers with a one-hour lunch break, that's more laid-back than I can take," she said. "It's a shame because the food is pretty good."

Kristen Haas of Allegheny West took her father to a riverfront restaurant to celebrate his birthday. After an interminable wait for a waitress to take their order, they waited 40 minutes for their appetizers. After 2 hours and 45 minutes there was still no entree. The waitress was never in evidence. When she finally appeared, it was to say that the kitchen had forgotten their order. No apology.

Although the manager offered them a free dinner, they decided to leave rather than suffer further unprofessional behavior from a clueless waitress.

A well-known restaurant professional in Pittsburgh was dining in Washington County with his wife. There was no salt on the table. He asked his server for salt. Thirteen minutes later the server still had not returned. He eventually got his salt after the owner recognized him.

Timing is probably the most difficult art that a professional waiter masters. Another reader recounted a special occasion dinner in an Italian restaurant where the salad and entree were brought to the table and left there while the couple were still eating their appetizer.

At a Downtown restaurant I ordered an appetizer and an entree. The entree was delivered first. When I reminded the waiter that I had also ordered an appetizer, his reply was, "I know, but it isn't ready yet."

Courses should not be rushed, but 30-minute intervals between courses are unacceptable.

The Zagat Survey, the popular dining guide that grades restaurants in 30 urban areas in the United States and Europe (but not Pittsburgh -- yet) on a scale of 0-30, gives separate scores for food, decor, and service. It is generally agreed that one mark of a great restaurant is great service. It should be the case that the highest-ranking kitchens will also rate good marks for service.

Kevin Joyce, president of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association and owner of The Carlton at One Mellon Center, Downtown, wouldn't talk specifically about what he's heard in general about the service at local restaurants.

But he did say, however, that "Pittsburgh restaurants are always striving to improve service.

"The Pennsylvania Restaurant Association recognizes that in order for a dining experience to be complete, restaurants must provide wonderful food, a great wine selection and friendly and polished service."

Every restaurant claims to have a training program for new waitstaff. But they vary greatly in length and intensity.

Major hotel and restaurant chains have corporate programs that are designed to produce a consistent level of professional service throughout the organization. Employees are paid while in training. There are manuals to be studied and written exams to pass after which the trainee will serve as an assistant to a veteran waiter before being given a section of the dining room.

In Pittsburgh, Lidia's in the Strip District, Eat'n Park and all the Big Burrito Group restaurants (Casbah, Soba, Kaya, Mad Mex, Umi and Eleven) also provide manuals and exams and pay employees while they are learning.

Sadly, this focus on professional training is frequently missing in small, independent restaurants.

Some restaurant owners interviewed acknowledged that the extent of training that their staff receives is the sanitation and food safety course required by the Allegheny County Health Department. The bottom line is that even though waitstaff can earn from $20 to $30 an hour in an upscale restaurant, the job is rarely recognized as a profession. (Restaurants pay waiters $2.83 an hour, and the remainder is from tips.)

The best service in Pittsburgh is unquestionably in restaurants where there is little turnover among waiters.

The Carlton, Downtown, for example, has waiters who have been serving there for 20 years. Though they still receive the base $2.83 an hour, the seasoned professionals bring in high tips and also receive health benefits and vacation time. Lidia's staff, which works a minimum of 32 hours a week, get benefits that include medical, dental and 401K plans and vacations.

One of the nicest aspects of Pittsburgh restaurant service is the friendliness of the staff and the wide variety of casual dining spots.

The casual atmosphere is great up to a point. But many diners get annoyed when a young waiter or waitress addresses them as "Hon" or asks "Are you guys done yet?"

Other objectionable "casual" behaviors are when waiters stick the plastic folder containing the bill halfway down the back side of their trousers, or when waiters serve wine by holding the glass by the rim with their fingers or pour wine to the brim of the glass, which leaves no room for the wine aromas to develop.

Then there are the waiters, eager to clear the table, who ask, "Are you still working on that?" Even worse are those who scoop up plates before you have finished.

This week I had lunch at a popular East End bistro. The waitress was cheerful and efficient but the shirt she was wearing was so dirty and spotted that I recoiled at the thought of her handling my food. Meanwhile, the owner was sitting at the bar, and I wondered how he could stand by and allow such unappetizing standards for his staff.

Most people I asked said that they tip servers even when the service is unacceptable. They tip more when the service is good. Twenty percent of the pre-tax bill seems to be the average.

(One gentleman who eats every meal in a restaurant told me that he had never experienced bad service. Then he let me in on his secret. He hands the server a $20 bill the moment he is seated! He also gives the server a normal tip at the end of the evening.)

Still, I have heard horror stories from waitstaff about customers who leave no tips at all. Waiters have to pay income taxes based on 15 percent of the checks they tally. It's particularly not fair when the customer stiffs the waiter on tips when he's unhappy with the food, not the service.

What can be done to raise the level of service in Pittsburgh? The answer lies in providing the kind of professional training that is beyond the means of small dining establishments.

A vocational program of some sort could be offered that would result in a corps of servers fully trained to provide the kind of service our fine restaurants deserve. The graduates of such a program would join a work force that earns multiples of the minimum wage.

Every good meal is made even better by great service. It's time to redd up the service in Pittsburgh restaurants.

Marks of good service

Measuring good service is subjective, but we list some things to expect from a server.