Joe Pollack has spent more than a half-century as a professional writer, dealing with a wide range of subjects. He moved to the Post-Dispatch in 1972 as drama and movie critic, and soon added restaurant writing and wine columns to his beat. After 23 years there, he considers himself partially retired, but continues writing about food, wine and travel and other things on a freelance basis. Just to confuse matters even further, the restaurant's press releases seem to prefer O, but use Eau, too, and business cards, coasters and the like also use both.
People tend to envy restaurant writers, but it's a lot easier role to envy than it is to fill.
Anyway, we were dining one evening, having given our orders, and as we relaxed over a drink, we realized we were being over-casually visited by a lot of people. Captains, hostesses, waiters and others came to the table. They refilled water glasses, offered more bread, offered more butter, volunteered to remove a plate, or two plates, asked if there was anything we needed. They were, however, wise enough, or well-trained enough, not to ask if we were enjoying our meals, a question that would have drawn a sharp answer since there was no food in front of us. No one was rude.