Putting emphasis on the dining room experience

Capable service personnel also try to tune into whether or not the meal occasion is the centerpiece of an evening out or a prelude to something else.

Looking for ways to entice customers to come in more often and spend more every time they do, restaurants nationwide have begun shifting their efforts away from menu innovation to instead focus on improving dining room service.

It's an area that, on this side of the Atlantic, has long needed professionalization, and recent media reports describe how dining out destinations at all price points have begun to invest in server training -- and retraining.

Of course, the best dining room professionals have always known how to "read" a table and then adjust their style of service accordingly.

For instance, some patrons dine out primarily to socialize; the food's just an ancillary part of the evening.

In such circumstances, a skilled server intrudes as little as possible, concentrating on unobtrusive service rather than friendly chatter.

Serious foodies, on the other hand, are probably interested in the what, how, and where of the meal they're enjoying. That class of patrons appreciates an informative approach, provided by a wait person who's able to offer details as to how the food has been sourced and prepared.

Capable service personnel also try to tune into whether or not the meal occasion is the centerpiece of an evening out or a prelude to something else -- a movie or concert, for instance -- to follow.

If the latter's the case, a first-rate table service professional will obligingly focus on moving things right along.

Developing these soft skills in their dining room personnel has become a major imperative for restaurant chains striving to establish a competitive advantage in an already-crowded industry.