Spewing happy talk and fawning over socialites has long been mistaken for good service in Houston's top-end restaurants. (It's actually an institutionalized form of panhandling.) T'afia exemplifies a new and more enlightened approach to restaurant service. The waitstaff is unobtrusive, unassuming, yet helpful. Most important, they're extremely well informed about the food, its provenance and its preparation. It's nice to know that the carrots are cooked with ginger tonight, but at T'afia, the staffers can tell you the name of the local farmer who grew them, how long the farm has been certified organic and which day the carrots were picked. And they'll invite you to come back on Saturday morning when you can buy the same carrots at the farmers' market held every Saturday in the T'afia parking lot. Credit for the highly informed service goes in part to chef Monica Pope's concept; she serves local produce and artisanal food products because she's dedicated to changing the way Houstonians eat -- and she understands that it's her waitstaff who's doing the educational outreach.