I have a PhD in smiling and nodding.

I will never cease to amaze me that seemingly normal, nice, intelligent people in everyday life become rude, demanding, idiots the second they walk through the doors to a restaurant. Every stress, every irritation from their day becomes your fault, they treat you with a disdain usually reserved for telemarketers who call during dinner. It doesn't matter how much you smile or how polite you are, you can do no right by them. These people come into restaurants looking for a fight. Their steak will never be cooked right, their food will always take too long, you will never be attentive enough. These are the tables you wish you could tell how you really feel about them. They can keep their five dollars, its not worth all the hoop jumping. You'll get someone else to wait on their table because obviously your mere presence is offensive to them. While you're at it, please stay at home and never go out in public again. Your parents clearly never taught you how to treat your fellow humans like... well, humans. Unfortunately, if we want to keep our jobs, and make our tips, we learn to grin and bear it. We smile a little bigger, kiss a little more ass, kill them with kindness. This is something I personally have had to learn to do in some of the toughest situations.
                 Having worked in a breakfast restaurant for the better part of my adult life, I have been fortunate enough to learn a very important lesson about human survival. Don't forget their toast. Like you, I also never realized the importance of warm bread. I still don't quite understand it's importance, but I do know that if you forget to bring it to the table, or bring it behind the other food, you might as well have dropped the food in their laps. I guess I'll start learning to balance bread baskets on my head. It will give me something to do during the long recovery period after the procedure to attach my third arm. I understand wanting what you ordered and wanting it to come out right, but let's try to maintain a little perspective here. I have very little tolerance for people who expect the impossible and then take it as a personal insult when you can't move mountains for them.