Arnon Grunberg

Wine

Milk

The Waldhotel in Davos is no Waldhaus in Sils-Maria, but the hotel is pleasant and comfortable with a nice swimming pool.
The food in the restaurant is good perhaps even very good, but the service reminds me of Fawlty Towers.
Yesterday a really charming waiter from Hungary spilled milk on me. Then he asked: “Do you actually drink milk in your coffee?”
“I don’t,” I said.
Then he responded: “This should not have happened, a really unnecessary accident, you don’t drink milk in your coffee.”

Tonight he asked: “Can I offer you some more bread?”
“Yes, please,” I said.
The bread never came.
Then I ordered some dessert wine.
“Consider it done,” my favorite Hungarian waiter said.
Ten minutes later a maître d’ arrived with a heavy wine list. “Here you will find all our dessert wines,” he said.
There were three dessert wines listed.
I ordered the first one.
But the dessert wine never came.
After another fifteen minutes I took the liberty to inquire, so I said to my waiter: “ I did order dessert wine and it never arrived.” “Right away,” he answered, “right away. And do you want some coffee as well? No milk in your coffee, am I right? No milk. No milk. No milk.” Then he walked away, no he ran away.
When he brought the check he said: ‘Please make sure that there are no items on the bill that I didn’t put on your table.”

Don’t get me wrong. This is beautiful. Yes, you should adjust your mindset but then you realize: Service is human, all too human.

discuss on facebook, 5 comments