I'm just back from Austria and I'm perplexed by the use of "sehr" (unless I misheard) in a situations where I'd expect "gern" to be used (e.g., when a waiter accepts an order). My (rather wild) guess is that it's an instance of "es freut mich sehr" being shortened to just the last word, but can anyone provide an authoritative answer?
It happened in this dialogues:
Gast: Entschuldigung, kann ich bestellen bitte?
Ober: Sehr!Gast: Ich möchte dies und das.
Ober: Sehr!