Striped Bass is one of those restaurants where the servers, after assurances of complete anonymity, say they are treated well. Any customer can tell when that's true, even customers who don't realize what they're noticing. When servers finish their side work, which takes about half an hour, a designated server, different each day, checks the side work. Everybody signs the side work sheet. Now waiters get their station assignments.
Restaurants organize service in many ways.
None of Neil's restaurants are pooled houses. He wants customers to know they have a server of their very own. Your server is not yours alone, of course, but no waiter ever waits on more than four tables at a time. Some servers have staff dinner. Brent Stanton makes his rounds with a napkin, checking each table, giving this or that one another wipe.