Customer Reviews

Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Phoebe Damrosch is an impeccably educated English major who fancied herself an artist and loathed the thought of taking a job as a drone in a publishing industry to ensure a steady paycheck. She writes, "eventually I had to accept that I wasn't working in restaurants to support my art like most of my co-workers; I was posing as an artist to justify my work as a waiter." When she failed to find solid work utilizing her degree, Damrosch joined a hellish underground bootcamp to score a job in one of New York's most elite restaurants (a place at which a party could easily drop $20,000 on dinner, and the service captains made six digit salaries).

During her year working at Per Se, Damrosch memorized the life stories of the ingredients in every dish in the restaurant, became well-versed on the architecture visible from the restaurant's windows, and learned to anticipate the needs of her guests before the guests themselves voiced them. She worked eight to ten hour shifts on her feet, juggling the needs of her tables and the whims of her guests while appearing calm and composed. She was one of the only female captains the elite circle of NYC 4-star restaurants.

Service Included is a secret window into the world of ultra-high-end hospitality, and a foodie's delight. It is not, however, an "eavesdropping" tale. Damrosch would have done well to title her memoir more accurately, because it stands on its own as a glimpse inside an unusual and elite profession. Her memoir is also unique among restaurant confessionals, because she's reporting from the front of the house, not the kitchen. The allows her to provide the reader reservations at the best seat in the house for their vicarious experience at Per Se.

Service Included suffers from a lack of clear direction. For the most part, it is a "year inside a restaurant," with a twist of romance, but in one strange passage, the author launches into a diatribe against "gun-toting, pro-life, pro-death, gas-guzzling, warmongering, monolingual, homophobic, wiretapped, Bible-thumping, genetic-engineering, stem-cell-harboring, abstinent creationist" fans of President Bush. This occurs out of context in the middle of an otherwise excellent passage about the family connections among a restaurant's wait staff, and never again does Damrosch discuss politics at length.

The cynical reader might even suspect that Damrosh selected "a year in high-end hospitality" as her first professional writing exercise. She certainly joined and left the industry as if it were an experiment, a chapter in her life accomplished. With fodder for her first book deal, Damrosch submitted her resignation and walked away from her restaurant reputation.

The author is apparently a trustfunder dabbling in various "careers." While the descriptions of the intracacies of working at Per Se were interesting, I kept waiting for more interesting tidbits, such as outlandish celebrity behaviors. The author teases us a little, with comments about how many people throw up in the restaurant, but she refuses to really "dish." She does, however, come up with a truly disgusting story one of her regulars told her. It seemed weird and out of place, like she realized the book was getting dull and decided to shake things up. It was very bizarre.

The food descriptions were good, but the relationship with the sommalier was truly tedious to read about.

I love books about the restaurant industry, but I would advise skipping this one. The one question she never answered was how she managed to pay the student loans her pricey education must have incurred, while meandering from job to job. Yes, I know Per Se probably pays well, but Brooklyn barista jobs do not.

I also would have liked a little more information on how Keller's new policy of paying the servers a straight hourly wage rather than tips worked out. Was she the only one who left? This is a huge issue for servers (and the people who tip them),yet she barely addressed it other than to say it was instituted. The author may have thought we were more interested in her personal relationships. I, for one, was not.

Another annoyingly overrated memoir, about as badly written (and in some cases very similar to) Gael Greene's "insatiable," but from the other side of the table. The only reason to read this book is for a handful of interesting details about the food and service at Per Se; otherwise, this "tell all" tells nothing. The story of the relationship with her sommelier is beyond boring, and she's impenetrably "discreet" with her recollections of customers and the other staff at Per Se -- she doesn't have the courage or wit to name, spill, or dish. (Oh Truman, where are you when we need you?). The "tips" for diners at the end of each chapter are just ridiculous (Do customers at Per Se really "make faces" when the server recites the evening's specials?): If you want truly useful dining-out tips, read the engaging and informative "Turning the Tables" by Steven Shaw instead.

The premise of this book seems to be a Kitchen Confidential for the front of the house- the polish and precision of a multiple starred restaurant set against the foil of real people- the employees, the filthy rich public and foodies. The story starts off promising with lots of detail about the insane dedication of the staff and their training gives glimpses into why some people eat to live and others live to eat, and that Per Se is a restaurant for the latter crowd. Phoebe Damarosch's writing is agile enough, and this a quick read with some fun and interesting talking points that will likely stick with the reader for a long time to come: how to woo a food critic, a job in the service industry can be a satisfying and well-paid career choice and you won't be the first or last guest to throw up on the polished bronze floor at Per Se. The story looses it's way in the last half of the book with a tag-along on the author's romance that doesn't reach a conclusion- did they stay together, is he really just a cheating bastard, did they move to a larger apartment, did they get a dachshund or a bulldog? The Famous Chef himself makes only a cameo appearance, and the anecdotes about the clientele are limp- man celebrating his 80th birthday falls asleep at the table, an engagement ring with a Faberge Egg, a couple that snorts cocaine in between courses, Per Se groupies that want to hang out with the wait staff. The best dishy comments come when you least expect it and make you wish for more- Thomas Keller's own food philosophy.

Someone gave me this book because I've been to Per Se several times and thought it would be fun to learn more about the restaurant that I love and was once lucky enough to tour the kitchen during dinner hours.

While this book at first is nominally about Per Se and Thomas Keller's restaurants, it's really about the author. And she is not at all interesting. One waits for just one juicy detail about any of the millionaires and billionaires who enter through those beautiful sliding doors at the Time Warner Center, but none arrive. Instead we get a portrait of a pouting woman who constantly laments how she's single.

We also get a few excruciatingly lame jokes future servers said during their training using feathers, some story about cheese and a cow named Agatha that would barely elicit a polite smile if told at a cocktail party, and a few late chapters mostly stationed in a 24-hour diner as if this book were meant to be some type of ironic drama that tries so desperately hard to juxtopose the refined cuisine of Per Se with overcooked oatmeal. If these are the "four-star secrets of an eavesdropping waiter," I shudder to think what's left in her head after these "secrets" trickled out -- it has got to be blander than the diner's oatmeal.

I also noticed this book is also slightly out of date. It feels like the middle third is all about making sure New York Time's food critic Frank Bruni gave Per Se a four star rating. While I'm sure it was crucial at the time, that's very old news now and in hindsight has a feeling of inevitability. Michelin's three-star rating has been out for years, which to many carries more weight anyway. Per Se has done away with the five-course menu she keeps mentioning throughout the book. Details like this make it feel like she is only distantly related to the restaurant now.

The few stories she does include about her adventures as a captain are maudlin and uninteresting. They're too focused on the author -- how she felt when the marriage proposal was unexpectedly weird, or her humiliation when she misheard "pie" for "pot". This isn't eavesdropping, it's grandstanding.

If you're that desperate to learn more about Per Se, truly the best way is to wait on the phone for hours on end and eat there. That way, you can get the real dish by asking current servers their thoughts. And you can get a pretty good meal out of it, too.

I'm not usually inclined to go write a review about something I bought, but since Service Included requires a decent amount of time to read, I figured I could save some people some time by writing this brief blurb.

That is to say, you should pass on this book. Perhaps the first half will hold your interest as thats where the bulk of the info on Per Se is - and that's what anyone who buys this book is looking for. But gradually the book becomes about the life of this random author with a NYC life as anonymous and ordinary as those lived by the "suits" walking into office buildings on Madison Avenue - the very people she loves to jab presumably for being so boring. The story devolves into a journey of personal discovery in her love life with some guy, who seems, by my measure, to be an arrogant tool. I kept on thinking, "who cares?" Love of this variety happens every night in bars all over this town.

In the end, you close the book and feel like the author just sat you down to talk about herself; the story about the restaurant, Keller, food, hospitality, is a mere detail in her self-absorbed mellow drama. Fine for a diary, painful for a book marketed to the public.

Recommendation is 1) not to get this 2) if youve already purchased it, read the first quarter, maybe the first half, and move on to another book.

In the same way that it is inconceivable to most people how even the richest foodie could justify spending five-digits for a high-end dinner for two or four at a place like Per Se, it is equally unfathomable how an account of working as a server/captain at such a pricey culinary temple could be as mundane as this. . . and still have gathered such high praise in certain circles.

Outside of a handful of incidents specific to the type of restaurant where customers can run up a $20,000 tab, this highly-touted celebrity eatery tell-all (which, publicity to the contrary, is bereft of any recognizable names or juicy dish of any kind), could have been written by virtually any food server working in a place above the level of a greasy spoon or a fast food outlet.

Yes, the servers' knowledge of menu, employee dress codes and level of training may have been far more stringent, but other than that, the author may as well have been reporting about a stint at Olive Garden: Employees don't always get along with each other, some customers can be a pain, and every once in a while a customer says or does something absolutely jaw-dropping. (In this case, that incident is so jarringly out of synch with rest of the book's flat tone it should have been left out entirely.) As a behind-the-scenes restaurant expose, there's simply nothing new here.

What might have made, at best, an interesting magazine article has been padded out with needlessly elongated anecdotes (three whole chapters are devoted to staff's preparation for arrival of a food critic), endless details of the author's personal life (which are doubtless far more fascinating to her than to anyone interested in the inner workings of a four-star restaurant) and even insulting code-of-conduct tips directed at perspective diners. One can only hope the author was a better waitress than she is a writer; discerning readers are certainly ill-served here.

Like a lot of people, I expected something different from this book than what it delivers. I've worked in the restaurant industry, and so I know there can be a lot of drama behind the kitchen doors. For this, I don't blame the author entirely; the marketing department at her publisher is probably a better target.

What Damrosch was attempting was as difficult as balancing five bowls of soup on one arm. Part behind-the-swinging door tell all, part romantic tale, part foodie book, part memoir, etc. The biggest issue is that while it reads well and I found it entertaining, the narrative itself is somewhat uneven.

On the up side, I did learn a lot about the training of a high-end waiter, and Damrosch did a good job in developing scenes. I enjoyed her descriptions of the food, and the overall feeling of Per Se. The parts about Frank Bruni's multiple meals, the whole "single cow" cheese incident and other anecdotes were well drawn. I liked her, and I wanted to see her succeed in figuring her life out.

On the down side, I was disappointed that there's nothing truly salacious in the narrative, and I didn't feel that I learned anything about Thomas Keller (although I was surprised to learn he was doing dishes one night). I wanted more about the diners. Who are these people spending hundreds of dollars on dinner? I wanted more behind-the-scenes stuff. After Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, there's a lot of interest in the sexy underbelly of the restaurant industry. But there was really none of that. (Maybe Per Se doesn't hire those people?) Her build-up to the arrival of the New York Times review felt a little forced. I didn't really feel there was any climax to the story.

I'm agnostic about her "tips;" I thought they were pretty obvious, but maybe they were revelations to some people.

The romance seems to get other reviewers, and I can see their point. It is not a heart-stopping romantic tale, they didn't run away to Paris or anything dramatic. But then getting the balance of romance in a book like this is pretty hard to get right. Even experienced writers don't always get this right; I thought Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl was too intimate, while Judith Jones' Tenth Muse could have used a lot more romantic tension, for instance.

I would recommend this book, with the caution that it is not a big tell all. I think Damrosch is a talented writer, and I enjoyed her style and voice, even if I felt that the book has some flaws. I would pick up her next title.

The recent hit movie NO RESERVATIONS whetted my appetite for a fastmoving, romance-based book about life in a busy, four star restaurant in a big, glittering city, and a friend recommended SERVICE INCLUDED, by Phoebe Damrosch, adding that from what he heard, Miss Damrosch had actually lived the life that Catherine Zeta-Jones had acted out in the movie I so loved, except at a slightly different level--as a busboy, then a waiter, then the captain of a chic New York eatery called the "Per Se," established by one of the world's leading super chefs, Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame.

I decided to give the book a try. Immediately I enjoyed Damrosch's admission that whereas usually in New York, artists take jobs as waiters to support themselves until their careers take off, but after awhile she realized that she was pretending to be an artist in order to keep working at the restaurant job she loved! She has an amusing turn of mind and the calm cool that a top restaurant captain must need. She takes you backstage, like Catherine Zeta-Jones, into the kitchens and back rooms of a busy topflight eating place, and she recounts details of the five encounters with New York Times critic Frank Bruni. As it turns out, he was there six times, but anonymously he sneaked in during the first weeks they were open. "Let's just say you worked out some of the kinks since then," he admits. At first I thought there might be a nice little romance developing between Captain Damrosch and Mr. Bruni, but alas no. Instead, waiting in the wings, handsome sommelier Andre, already dating a girl at the restaurant, plunges Captain Damrosch into the awkward role of the "other woman," a title she wears with culinary panache.

She doesn't really come across as having a scrap of guilt, and why should she? If Andre couldn't keep it in his pants, why should she be painted the scarlet woman of Per Se? And yet, she notes, some employees cute her dead. Luckily Per Se's clientele of celebrities and foodies never knew of the scandal rocking the place. Damrosch describes "family meal," a charming ritual in which the cooks serve up a meal out of the crumby or burnt parts of whatever they plan to serve up that night, served free to complaining waitstaff, who may whine about having to eat what amount to "pre-leftovers," but they fill their plates nevertheless!

She also gives enchanting tips, such as the fact that celebrities have bigger craniums thsn the average person. She advises, "Try 20 percent of more (for tipping). Two extra dollars mean very little to you, but they are a compliment to your server."

One of the tips I didn't quite follow. She advises diners not to tell the servers if they (the patrons) are allergic to anything, because the server will assume the diner is lying, not wanting to admit the truth that they actually don't like X or Y. Does this really happen a lot? She also says, please don't make faces or laugh out loud when the server recites a list of restaurant specials. At this I felt shame, for I've done this myself!

All in all, a satisfying, feel good romance set in an exciting niche market among glamorous, beautiful people with money.

I can see how this got published, it's a great idea for a book - in theory. Unfortunately, it's derivative and boring. There's barely any more about Per Se or Thomas Keller than you already know from reviews and magazine articles. There's more about the author's relationship (also boring) than anything else and even that narrative lacks an original voice. By parts, it's a poor imitation of most of the recent food-related bestsellers. If you do decide to read this book, you'll be reminded of why you liked Ruth Reichl, Anthony Bourdain, and yes, even Amanda Hesser better. For a much more interesting treatment of the same subject, try Shaw's 'Turning Tables'.