Best Server -- Female

If you can't imagine that the star server at a serious steakhouse such as Del Frisco's Double Eagle could be a grandmother, then you've never encountered the magnificent Wendy Berve. Five minutes after she's started working your table, you'll feel as though you're in the most capable hands in town; ten minutes more and you'll want her to be your grandmother, too. But make no mistake: Berve isn't your typical diner waitress sporting support hose and a bouffant hairdo. She's stylish while still oozing sweetness, and her decades of work as a restaurant manager -- from Josephina's in the late '60s to stints at Dudley's, Marlowe's, the Brokers and the Baywolf, among others -- shows. "I guess part of the deal is that I still really like it," she says. "I left for a while and did financial planning and real estate and sold computers, but I missed this. It still matters to me that people walk out happy." We do.