Rant: servers and the ingrates behind them

Okay, this one's such an easy and obvious shot that we'll keep it as short as possible. Too many restaurants with dreams of glory have servers without grace. In countries like Spain where being a server is considered a perfectly noble career--and paid as such--most nice restaurants have servers who take not only pride in their work but ownership for your experience in their restaurant. As well they should; in most cases, we diners talk with nobody else at the restaurant. Portland stands well above many US cities in understanding this, and our servers often do quite well. But I have had some experiences here in supposedly excellent restaurants that still stand out as some of the worst I recall. How can one enjoy well-prepared food while an ill-prepared, uninformed person jostles and offends me? Let's be clear: I blame the management more than anyone for this state of affairs. Have you served and all your wines to your servers and discussed them? Have you made sure they have tried all the dishes? Have you shown them how the dishes are prepared? Do they know what substitutions, additions or subtractions make sense? Do you pay for quality servers and give them reason to stay? If not, why the hell not?

San Diego has awful service in general, and servers that rarely last a year, but Chez Loma on Coronado has the same excellent servers every time I go: a period now spanning ten years. They know the wines, the dishes, the preparation, and will comfortably ask the chef to come to your table in case of doubt. Imagine how that makes me feel as a diner. Why wouldn't you want me to feel that way at your restaurant?