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The tipping point

Working for change in an otherwise dreary month

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 22nd, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Hard-working waitress Danka Donovalova runs (literally) tables at aptly named Barfly.
Last week, Lidové noviny reported — quite proudly — that three of every four Czech restaurant patrons now tip their server after a meal, usually “up to” 10 percent.
Young professionals are driving this trend. While foreigners generally heed the advice of guidebooks and tack on the minimum, Czech office drones — that is, the ones age 25–34 — willingly shell out a little more than average to reward an alert, pleasant, hard-working waiter or waitress.
Or at least that’s what Jaroslav Stárek, chairman of the Hotels and Restaurants Association, said in the article.
Behavior modification is often spurred by such a reward system. Unfortunately, many Prague restaurants employ a tip-sharing system, where wait staff pool their post-meal payoffs for distribution by a manager. So, at the end of an evening, even the slackers walk away with something for their lack of effort.
The evening before this particular Lidové noviny hit the stands, I watched a waitress at Barfly tackling two rooms of dinner guests by herself. She ran downstairs and back up, poured multiple beers, brought orders from the kitchen — everything. Tables included Italians speaking no Czech and very little English, picky Americans and a few Czechs, so it’s unlikely the reward for her relentless hustle amounted to much. Yet she kept at it, with surprising patience and an occasional honest smile. She even apologized for slight service delays.
Oh, and it was her first day on the job.
Maybe I mention this because it’s August, a notoriously slow news month. But the un-Czech behavior of this waitress deserves some recognition.
Now and then
Foresee yourself being in the mood for prized dishes from the Amazon, say about mid-October? If so, here’s a bit of good news: La Rotonde in the Radisson hosts Brazilian chef Alex Atala Oct. 14–21. Sometime that week, Atala — whose place in Sao Paolo, D.O.M., is rated as one of the world’s top 50 restaurants — and local boy Jiří Štift will collaborate on a gala dinner accompanied by fine Brazilian wines. Call 222 820 000 for further information.
Meanwhile, Guy Nuttall and his staff at Monsoon in Prague 6 returned from a “research trip” through several points in Asia with several additions to an already interesting menu. Their inspired fusion includes red curry of duck and lychee, cumin-coated beef tenderloin, dishes spiked with wasabi ginger butter and something they call Thai risotto.
As the dreary month comes to an end, Oliva, Alcron and other destination restaurants locked up for the duration will reopen.
Taking flight
It’s been quite some time since tourists hurled stale doughnuts in Café Imperial’s hallowed dining room. The oft-featured kavarna reopened recently after a lengthy renovation process. Let’s hope food service improves from its previous iteration, and the pastries remain stacked for use.
The dance club Misch Masch in Letná also reopened recently.
Final (slurred) words
Didn’t realize it until a recent bourbon tasting at Jáma, but just about every distillery in the commonwealth of Kentucky makes some sort of reference to the legendary Jim Beam. The tasting included whiskey from the Heaven Hill line, including Elijah Craig (credited with accidentally charring the inside of his barrels, turning distilled corn mash into the product we know today) and Evan Williams — both, as it turns out, distilled under the watchful eyes of Parker Beam. A few years ago, when I was speaking with Bill Samuels, president of Maker’s Mark, he blurted, “My godfather, Jim Beam.”  Like I said, slow news month.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (22/08/2007):

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