Service Portland Style

Last night I took a friend visiting from California to the Doug Fir Room...we skipped the band and went into the bar. Great bread pudding, good blackberry cosmos, not too crowded at 11 p.m. No one came over so I went up to the bar and ordered from the bartender -- nice guy in kind of a laid-back, you're-lucky-I'm-your-bartender kind of way...It struck me once again that Portland has a "service style" that I keep bumping into...

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being amazing, 10 being L.A. "I'm doing you a big favor by serving you because I'm really an undiscovered star" un-service), Portland is a 6.

2. Service here is usually friendly, not over-the-top warm and connecting, but friendly in kind of an offhand way. There's kind of a "I'm waiting on you but I'm more than just this job, you know" attitude--kind of a hip, cool, insouciant friendliness...

3. Notable exception -- Britta at North Star Coffee Shop -- so cheerful and warm in a real and honest way, not fakey at all. And she is more than a coffee server; she's got a business making countertops from sustainable materials. Another exception -- Jake at Sesame Donuts in Raleigh Hills, SW Portland. (see Feb. 17 blog).

4. Way over on the more-cool-than-warm side was a recent night out at Montage. My daughter took me there as a must-do Portland experience. The service was slow, no surprise there. But it was the woman at the front desk (if this were a diner we'd call her the hostess...), would walk ahead and then crook her finger a la Queen Elizabeth at her mightiest to show people to their seats. Amazing! No smile, just a regal nod of the head and stroll back up to the front. I accidentally hailed the woman serving water, thinking she was the waitress (who must have been outside taking a cigarette break and stayed for the entire pack). All of a sudden, our waitperson flew over and huffily said she would take our order...It was kind of funny, actually....and I guess just part of the whole experience. (The food was just not good enough to balance out the indifferent service, but the cocktail--Stinky Kitty? Dirty Kitty? Kitty Litter?--was boffo...a few of those and you wouldn't care if the server ever showed up again!)