He clearly isn't referring to the restaurant's décor — the room is lavishly decorated but somewhat sterile — but to its warm and familial atmosphere: Mr. La Mantia spends most of his nights on the floor greeting diners and offering tableside descriptions of his dishes.
SERVICE Quick and friendly tableside service; responsive at sushi bar.
He was preparing for what had long been one of the dying acts in restaurant life: tableside service.
Tableside service is a ritual that dates back to French court life, said Karen Hess, a culinary historian.
(800) 663-8810 www.cooking.com ON A ROLL -- Save room and provide tableside service with the solid beech rolling Maître d' Carving Cart.
Restaurants across the city are seeing a resurgence of that ooh-and-ah-inducing ritual associated with both haute cuisine and a fresh bowl of guacamole: tableside service.
Her tableside service feels more like a cultural rebuke than a maternal favor, as if she thinks I'm utterly clueless.
The final test has three parts: theory, requiring vast knowledge of virtually every wine region in the world; tableside service, and lastly, the blind tasting.
At Centolire on Madison Avenue, Nora Jimenez, the general manager, said tableside service helps distinguish her restaurant from the hundreds of other Italian restaurants in Manhattan.
"Wow your special someone with tableside service, flowers and candlelight," declares an announcement on the White Castle Web site (whitecastle.com), "in a place made famous for late-night cravings".
Such tableside service has been criticized in this column as pretentious and intrusive, but La Catena's owner and host, Emilio Delija, and his charming staff prepare this rich, sharable dish with style and good taste.
