Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

@phauxtoe Many good wine bars pour a small taste of the wines-by-the-glass that they are offering to let the customer see if they'd like to proceed with a full glass. It's a nice courtesy since the bottle is already open, so why not? And if the bottle is already open, the waiter has obviously already certified that it's not corked, so that's not the point of the taste.

And yes, in my experience as a former waiter in NYC, only wankers or guys trying to pose as big-wigs ask for the server's name. I used to politely ask back what their name was.

I used to work across the street from a Dean and Deluca in NYC, and every night at closing time, they would dump huge plastic bags of bread, pre-wrapped sandwiches and boxed salads. People would come out of the woodwork -- many of them very well-dressed to scoop up the goods. At first, I was kind of grossed out watching people pull bags from the dumpsters, but in reality, it's not that gross. Everything was from that day, had just been thrown out, and was still wrapped in plastic (or the bread was separated together in their own large bags). So, freeganism isn't necessarily just for vegans and it isn't as gross as rooting through a garbage can for a half-eaten burrito or something. It can be gourmet!