Perhaps the best strategy to insure star treatment is to treat the staff with appreciation. Regular customers at Village give Christmas bonuses. A couple of them even took all the waiters out to dinner at the Harvard Club.
Another time-tested method is to grease the maitre d’s palm. A tip at the beginning of the meal “is somewhere between great and gauche,” Lyle explained, “but it will certainly get their attention. I don’t know anybody who minds being tipped.”
