Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

People are accustomed to a restaurant's profit margins built into the prices of food and alcoholic beverages, with tap water always free. Millennium is providing an extra service by filtering the water. The guest's perception of the value of that water, however, is much greater if it's still technically free--even if its price is then built into the food or alcoholic beverages. A guest may not oppose an increase of $25 to $26 on a menu item, but they'll certainly notice a $1 charge for tap water.

There's a water cup on each side of the table, into which the ball is rinsed prior to every throw. At least, that's how we played it at Penn. The game's far more fun at a small house party or barbecue than at a bigger venue, especially a frat house with beer-soaked filthy floors.

That's really intense!

As both a former food service professional and current food writer, the restaurant business is one of the most difficult ones to get right. Our palates are all unique, affected by our upbringing and hundreds of other factors a restaurant staff couldn't possibly know or predict.

When a restaurant genuinely makes an error, like overcooks or undercooks something, it deserves the criticism it gets. If a burger that should have had no condiments comes fully loaded, that's a mistake. Unfortunately, when it comes to food, people's tastes can be impossible to sort out. And when it comes to restaurants, everyone's a critic--myself included.

To minimize mistakes and faulty lines of communication, if you know that you have a specific taste preference, tell your server. If they still make a mistake, that's the restaurant's fault. Waitstaff cannot be expected to be clairvoyant. Most of the time, they can hardly be expected to be competent, with hourly wages in some states that hover around $2. Many line cooks and prep cooks similarly hover right around the poverty line.

That said, I've had a very tough time lately finding the perfect flan.