Restaurant Bread and butter [General]

2007 Dec 3
Alright, maybe i'm whining without reason.. but i thought i'd mention one thing i wish restaurants would do better. When we get bread at restaurants, it comes with "pre-packaged butter" or in fancier places, the butter is not in those little packages, sometimes rolled up in little balls or something similar.

It's really rare that we get soft butter. The butter is always cold (probably just out of the fridge) and is a pain to spread on the bread (unless the bread is real hot, which we don't see that often anyways).

Is it too much to ask to get butter that is not too hard? If we are lucky enough to have a candle at our table, i usually warm up the butter that way.

I thought i'd share a restaurant pet peeve of mine on a monday morning.. feel free to use this thread to share others. :)

2007 Dec 3
That's actually my biggest restaurant peeve, and it happens so often. I guess it's just easier for the restaurant to store the butter in the fridge for the wait staff to serve?

2007 Dec 3
I like restaurants that do something something a little more interesting like a nice seasoned oil or a flavouvered butter.

2007 Dec 3
That's my pet peeve too! Usually in the higher-end restaurants you don't run into hard butter (Juniper always has soft butter).

2007 Dec 3
I'll have to remember the ol' candle trick.

I usually, and most often on airplanes, sneek a foiled pat between my arm and body. Not quite up in to the arm pit area, but close. This I do while I'm unfolding my napkin and preparing to eat.

Gotta remember to haul it out, secretly, or you can end up with a messy shirt !!

Other times I just hold one in my clenched hand. I've suprised my dates sometimes when they go to put their 'rock hard' butter on their bread. I'll just hold out my clenched hand and say "Tap it". After they tap it, I'll open up my hand. Ta da !! Ready to spread butter for my friend !!

Besides the candle, what else can we do with unpackaged pats or balls ?



2007 Dec 3
"Besides the candle, what else can we do with unpackaged pats or balls?"

Heat vision! Or you could mash it with a fork then spread the crumbs. I quite like cold butter that way. But I'm just glad when they give me butter. It's nice to have the *option* to dip into olive oil but I don't like being forced to. And the olive oil has to be very good and preferably not contaminated with balsamic vinegar. If the bread is excellent, vinegar can only make it worse.

I remember hearing that in Italy *nobody* ever dips bread into a plate of olive oil and balsamic. Can anyone confirm this?

2007 Dec 3
Yeah, as FF notes hard butter is quickly made soft with only the slightest effort. If you put a small amount on your plate and just work it with your knife for 30 or 40 seconds you can get it pretty soft.

2007 Dec 3
looks like i'm not the only one with that peeve :)