Text 21845, 98 rader
Skriven 2007-10-27 09:48:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MANNY ROTHSTEIN
Ärende: Diner's bill of rights 1
================================
-=> Quoting Manny Rothstein to Jim Weller <=-

 -> Moxie's [...] I already hated the place.

 MR> Jim, I think that you have outdone yourself this time.
 
Thank you. I felt much better after writing that. Ranting is good
for you.

By coincidence this article was in Wednesday's LA Times...


Diner's Bill of Rights

Diners, stand up for your rights! Feeling like frustrated with
restaurant service? Here's what you deserve. By Leslie Brenner Los
Angeles Times Staff Writer October 24, 2007

You arrive at a restaurant in time for your 8 o'clock reservation;
your friends haven't arrived yet. You've spent 45 minutes stuck in
traffic and you're wiped out. You'd like to be shown to the table.
"I'm sorry," says the hostess, barely looking up from her computer
screen, "we do not seat parties until they are complete. You're
welcome to wait at the bar."

You wait at the bar. Your friends arrive, and you ask to  have the
bar tab transferred to your dinner tab. "I'm sorry," says the
bartender, "but I'll need you to settle up here."

You're shown to the table, and the place is half-empty. Why couldn't
they have seated you immediately? Nevermind. You order. The server
("Steve") brings the plates and  interrupts your conversation to
ask: Who had the salmon? Who had the steak?  Halfway through, the
wine glasses are empty; the bottle's out of reach. Steve shows up
after you start waving frantically, and he dumps the wine into two
of the table's glasses. He holds up the empty bottle with a smile.
"Would you like  another bottle?"

Bad service in Los Angeles restaurants has reached epidemic
proportions.

When we dine out, we like to be welcomed. We like to be made to feel
that we matter. We like to feel taken care of. At high-end
restaurants in L.A., we pay dearly for the dining experience --
prices have gotten crazy expensive. We'll fork over the dough, but
we'd like more than just a properly cooked steak in return. The
restaurant business is about hospitality, right? Well, instead of
hearing about a restaurant's rules and policies, we'd like to be
shown a little hospitality.

Of course there are restaurateurs who understand that the way to
succeed is to make the guest feel she is taken  care of -- and you
can find that kind of great service not only at some of the  most
expensive restaurants in town but also at tiny neighborhood cafes.
But, alas, good service is an endangered species.

That is why I humbly propose a diners' bill of rights.

1. Hospitality. "Hospitality exists when you believe that the other
person is on your side," writes Danny Meyer in his book "Setting the
Table." Meyer is founder and co-owner of 11 restaurants in New York,
including Union Square Cafe, which long has been known for its
exemplary  service. Further, "hospitality is present when something
happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those
two simple prepositions --  for and to -- express it all." All too
often in L.A., diners are made to feel that something happens to us.
That needs to change.

2. Equal opportunity. Each diner has an equal right to any given
table. Restaurants shall not show preference in granting
reservations to celebrities or their handlers. If you're a
below-the-line sound-effects editor, you have a right to the same
table as an above-the-line director, and to the same treatment by
the wait staff.

3. Time of your choice. A  restaurant shall not unreasonably
withhold tables. You shall be given a reservation at the time you
prefer when the restaurant has tables available. If you ask for a
reservation at 7:30 and the restaurant has plenty of free tables at
that time, it shall not refuse that time and offer you a 6:30 table
instead.  The corollary is that if you cannot show up, you shall
cancel the reservation in  a timely fashion.

4. Courteous greeting. You have the right to be greeted courteously
at the door. That means the hostess immediately stops what she is
doing and helps you. It's a lesson corporate American retailers have
learned, but white-tablecloth restaurants, it seems, haven't gotten
the  memo.


Cheers

YK Jim


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