Proper beverage service in restaurants is a key element to the full enjoyment of a good meal. People obviously go to restaurants when they are thirsty and hungry, so it behooves the staff to satisfy those needs quickly. After all, the words "restaurant" and "restaurateur" derive from the French verb restaurer ("to restore"). A good dining establishment’s job is to restore (i.e., nourish) the hungry and thirsty body.

The first question usually asked when one sits down in a restaurant is: "Would you like to start with something to drink?" Lest I offend those opposed to alcohol consumption (who are easily recognized by the vigor of their retort: "No, we don’t drink!") when I ask the question, I also quickly list the range of available options and always include non-alcoholic possibilities. I then make sure that whatever has been ordered arrives in short order.

Even more important, I make sure whatever beverage is ordered is served properly: in the right glass or cup and at the appropriate temperature. Water needs to come in a good-sized (at least 8-oz.) tumbler with a good amount of ice, but not so much that the water is gone in one swallow leaving a glassful of ice. Some people drink copious amounts of water with their meals, others none. For the heavy water drinkers, refills should come quickly and regularly (or a small decanter left at the table for self-service). Coffee should arrive smelling and tasting fresh and steaming hot; cream and sugar should arrive before or with the coffee if needed, not served five minutes later when the coffee has cooled. Hot tea (a real pet peeve of mine, given my British mother) should ideally be brewed in a good-sized pot using almost-boiling water (NOT from the coffee machine!)—I get very annoyed when I am served a cup full of lukewarm water with a tea bag on the saucer. And seasoned tea drinkers often enjoy lemon or milk (not cream) in their tea.

Pints of draught beer look best when served with no more than a half-inch head that reaches to the top of the glass. Traditional lagers are best enjoyed good and cold (around 36 degrees); more complex ales, porters and stouts show off their best qualities about 45 degrees.

Given my passion for wine, nothing pains me more than to watch a bottle of wine served improperly, which happens all too often in good restaurants. First, there is the issue of appropriate glassware. Most restaurants serve all their wines in one type of glass (usually too small and filled to the brim). A good bottle of wine—white or red—deserves a glass with plenty of room (at least 10 ounces) to swirl in order to release all of its flavor nuances. This, of course, presupposes a staff that is trained not to pour past the half-way point of the glass. Substantial, full-flavored and complex red wines need even room so that all of its qualities can be fully appreciated—and there is plenty of relatively inexpensive specialty glassware on the market to bring out the best in all types of wine. Then there is the question of temperature, another area where most restaurants fail by keeping their white wines in a refrigerator (i.e., about 40 degrees) and their red wines at modern-day room temperature (over 70 degrees). White wines (and some light reds) show off their best closer to 52-55 degrees; good reds are best brought out of a 65-degree cellar and allowed to warm slightly during the "breathing" period prior to service. Finally, I am often embarrassed for my server as I watch him or her struggle to remove a cork with a traditional waiter’s corkscrew, when it is obvious that he or she has not been given adequate training in the use of this simple—but to the beginner, often confounding--tool.

Restaurant owners and managers must bear ultimate responsibility for insuring that their serving staff is shown the "right" way to serve all beverages. Distributor and winery or brewery representatives are more than happy to make themselves available for staff training, which only promotes their products even better. This makes sense for business, and even greater sense for the guest whose liquid needs are satisfied and restored by proper beverage service.