February 25, 2010
There is a forest behind that tree
Let me admit up front -- I had forgotten my coat.
It happens, sometimes, when I get distracted with my work and get so singularly focused on what I am doing that when the alarm rings to get me moving to a meeting, I have to scramble to re-enter the world and get out the door. I'll forget my coat, put my sweater on inside out, forget I parked the car in the garage where I always park it, what-have-you.
So, when I found myself standing outside a restaurant in 25 degree weather, it was clearly my own fault I was cold.
But I guess I was also shocked to find myself standing outside a restaurant, waiting to get in. Their posted hours indicated they would be open. A guy who was standing nearby had called shortly before to confirm when they would open and had been told the same time as posted, which was about 10 minutes before. There were people milling around -- warmly -- inside, looking at us like we were some kind of strange. After all, we were standing outside in the cold.
Now I'll concede that I have been indoctrinated in The Blackbird Way. Here is a place where the owner is known to drive people to the opera to make sure they get there on time, where the chef will gladly run food, run the dishwasher -- who cares what needs to be done, just get it done. And where guests have been known to show up at 3:00 in the afternoon and have a drink at the bar even though the place is clearly closed and the staff is getting ready for service, having family meal, conducting pre-shift meeting.
But I think, sometimes, there is this overboardness when it comes to "making sure the guest's experience is exactly how we want it." Like the kitchen staff that gets angry at the customer who orders well-done steak. Or the front of the house staff who stands around sniggering at the the guest who orders Diet Coke with their meal.
I dunno. At the end of the day, it's a business. Sure, we want people to experience our brilliance. But it is a business first and last and every which way in-between. I know, I know, I am gonna get lambasted for not understanding that the guest just don't know better and has to be educated. The chef is the one who knows how you like your steak, thank you very much.
But sometimes I think people tend to get a little too freaky-deaky with their self-absorbed obsession and it begins to make the whole experience completely inhospitable.
Like the restaurant who wouldn't even let guests come in from the cold and stand quietly in the vestibule while they finished getting ready for service so that the experience would be perfect. Really, we were all too cold to notice and too angry to care their special kind of perfect.
It happens, sometimes, when I get distracted with my work and get so singularly focused on what I am doing that when the alarm rings to get me moving to a meeting, I have to scramble to re-enter the world and get out the door. I'll forget my coat, put my sweater on inside out, forget I parked the car in the garage where I always park it, what-have-you.
So, when I found myself standing outside a restaurant in 25 degree weather, it was clearly my own fault I was cold.
But I guess I was also shocked to find myself standing outside a restaurant, waiting to get in. Their posted hours indicated they would be open. A guy who was standing nearby had called shortly before to confirm when they would open and had been told the same time as posted, which was about 10 minutes before. There were people milling around -- warmly -- inside, looking at us like we were some kind of strange. After all, we were standing outside in the cold.
Now I'll concede that I have been indoctrinated in The Blackbird Way. Here is a place where the owner is known to drive people to the opera to make sure they get there on time, where the chef will gladly run food, run the dishwasher -- who cares what needs to be done, just get it done. And where guests have been known to show up at 3:00 in the afternoon and have a drink at the bar even though the place is clearly closed and the staff is getting ready for service, having family meal, conducting pre-shift meeting.
But I think, sometimes, there is this overboardness when it comes to "making sure the guest's experience is exactly how we want it." Like the kitchen staff that gets angry at the customer who orders well-done steak. Or the front of the house staff who stands around sniggering at the the guest who orders Diet Coke with their meal.
I dunno. At the end of the day, it's a business. Sure, we want people to experience our brilliance. But it is a business first and last and every which way in-between. I know, I know, I am gonna get lambasted for not understanding that the guest just don't know better and has to be educated. The chef is the one who knows how you like your steak, thank you very much.
But sometimes I think people tend to get a little too freaky-deaky with their self-absorbed obsession and it begins to make the whole experience completely inhospitable.
Like the restaurant who wouldn't even let guests come in from the cold and stand quietly in the vestibule while they finished getting ready for service so that the experience would be perfect. Really, we were all too cold to notice and too angry to care their special kind of perfect.
Thanks for this! I don't care how genius a chef/restaurateur is- if basic customer service is lacking I will not spend my money with them. Period. Giggle at my diet coke order, I'm on antibiotics and can't order the perfect wine. Giggle that my father in law only orders soup, we aren’t cheap, he has had dental work done. Life happens-don't be gross about it.
Perfect example of how it's not all about the food. If you are miffed and cold before you even sit down to your meal--well, that will surely make your present dining experience unpleasant and most likely make you look for a different dining experience in the future. "Put yourself in the customer's shoes" or in this case "put yourself in the customer's shoes right outside your door without a coat."
There's a kitchen stuff store in town that I have despised for probably 7 years because they wouldn't let me in on a blisteringly cold day at 4 till 10, even though they were just standing there waiting to open. Oddly enough, years later I did find myself there again (presumably dragged by someone else) and this time one of the owners or managers or something was talking on the phone and loudly said, in front of me, "Oh there's nobody here, it's totally dead today." Really, there's a special kind of cluelessness that some places demonstrate.
"great service can make up for mediocre food, great food cannot make up for poor service" at the end of the day cooking is a craft and service is what it says it is: service. As in, "I'm at your service". It's alwasy astounding to me that people in this industry, many of whom started humbly, including myself, can climb to a level where they inhabit a philosophy of exclusion and develop a disdain for those who ultimately are paying them. If we want to call it art then the "artists" must take better care of thier benefactors. THX for a great post Ellen!