Writes Tom In Chicago in the comments section of "Diners Are Fed Up With Minimal Service. Will a Little Warmth Win Them Back? As prices rise and seasoned help is harder to find, some restaurants are trying to provide a more welcoming experience for their underwhelmed guests" (NYT).
Sam Hart, the chef who owns Counter- and Biblio in Charlotte, N.C., has taken a counterintuitive approach: putting guests last. First on the list of what he calls “the seven priorities” are employees and their mental health. The idea is that if a restaurant’s whole ecosystem is working smoothly, guests will never know they aren’t the priority....
“It’s gotten to the point where something must be said: an ever-growing portion of inconsiderate guests are destroying the hospitality industry,” [Hart] wrote. He listed 13 things customers should not do while eating out, including snapping fingers to get servers’ attention, threatening to post a negative review and “thinking that you own the place.”...
The thing about restaurants is that, in the end, you don't need them. You don't have to go. Ever. If you've come to expect awful people — the employees or the customers — you can solve the whole problem by not going at all. You need food, but you don't need to sit in a place where someone else makes it for you and serves it to you and cleans up after you. Maybe you eat out because you want contact with the human beings. As to that, I'd say: Better than nothing is a high standard.
By the way, I have never seen anyone in a restaurant snap their fingers to get service. That sounds like something done by a character you're not supposed to like in a very old movie. It's always a man, and he calls out "Garçon!"
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Does the NYT article mention the $15 (or more) minimum wage that Democrats have imposed across the nation?
I can cook a better steak than any restaurant I've ever been in with the exception of Smith & Wollensky's. For me dining is literally go big or go home and has been for years now.
Too much hassle.
I'm curious to know Sam Hart's five other priorities. "The customer's always right" doesn't mean the customer's always first. Restaurant work is grueling. A happy wait and kitchen staff isn't the worst idea.
I can relate.
All restaurants have raised their prices. Thanks inflation Joe! We really appreciate that you and your loyal corruptocrat 'SANCTUARY" city - pro-illegal entrant supporters are smothering our lives with wasteful spending. Denver alone is spending 40 million+ (a week) on the illegal entrants.
but in any case- it's true. higher prices, service is often terrible, and the quality of the food itself is downhill. I can only think of one restaurant locally where the quality is the same. One.
But they are happy to hit you up for endless tips.
The new tip structure gives you 18% or higher as your option.... as they stand there and make you feel guilty for not bucking up a high percent tip for crappy service.
Just one more perk in Biden's 'merica.
Democrats are paying people not to work, more than usual, and it's killing small restaurants.
Perhaps it's because of where I live, but I haven't noticed this at all. Yes, I hate the QR code menu that is still in the blue areas of the area, but even when we get a QR code, the server is always by promptly. We don't eat out a lot and don't go to fancy or expensive restaurants so maybe this is a factor.
It's sad. Restaurants pre-Covid were once a fun gathering experience. Even if it was a "treat", it was fun. But Democrats and COVID killed the fun. Especially when it comes to price.
Biden's inflation that we see at the grocery store is even more apparent at restaurants. I'm sure that diminishes traffic, and makes it harder for patrons to tip 20% so the wait staff can make a living. Vicious circle.
As quality of service has gone downhill, so has the quality of the food.
The Great Reset is becoming the Great Resent.
I also fly Frontier sometimes and don't feel as if I'm annoying the staff. I know what I'm getting when I pay $100 for a three hour flight across the country. It's uncomfortable and an assembly line, but the extra $200 isn't worth a little more leg room, a reclining seat and a TV or wifi for entertainment. Especially if we're traveling as a family.
Progressive prices (e.g. medical, education, food). Diversity (e.g. color judgment, class-based bigotry) breeds adversity.
Blogger RideSpaceMountain said...
I can cook a better steak than any restaurant I've ever been in with the exception of Smith & Wollensky's.
Agreed. Especially with the cuts available at Costco. All their steaks are cut 1.25" to 1.5" inches, price is WAY cheaper that a restaurant, and the quality is the same. Costco even offers prime cuts, one reserved for restaurants only, for a few dollars more per pound.
$12.99 for a thick, prime NY Strip Steak at Costco, cooked on you own charcoal grill vs the same thing for $60.00 at a steak joint. $9.99 to 10.99 for choice cuts. Costco of course makes you but a bulk pack for $40 to $60, but you're getting four or five high quality steaks.
This is what was bound to happen when spoiled, entitled, Gen Z freeloaders demanded (as they always do) tips instead of earning them.
Why do your job well (hell why do it at all?) when you have been paid regardless already?
Many customer-facing staff truly have lost the topic. They don't want to interact and don't seem to know how to socially interact. They often sneak a peek at a smartphone or chat among themselves in a group but they ignore the paying customers in front of them.
COVID inadvertently sparked a rise in take-out food. The best restaurant value today comes from buying hard-to-make entrees from a restaurant and then finishing it off with market food. Restaurants around here now charge $7 for a side of coleslaw(!)
On the bright side, restaurants owned by first-generation immigrants did not change at all.
Fast food in CA has completely gone to hell. You walk in and there's no one there at the counter. You're expected to enter your order on a big kiosk-type screen or use an app on your phone. Eventually someone comes out of the back and puts the food on the counter while yelling out a number. Most times there's no napkins or condiments. You have to stand there waiting until somebody from the kitchen comes up to holler out another number and try to flag them down so you can get some ketchup or whatever. It's depressing. What's worse is the drive-thru. There is zero sense of urgency.
I worked in the business as a store manager for a few years when I was in my twenties and early thirties. I don't recognize the business anymore.
My wife and I were recently seated in a once-favorite city pub where the cost of a casual lunch, with beers and service charges, has careened toward $100.
Yes. It's very hard for me to justify eating out when a single dish is north of $30. Our favorite Chinese restaurant on Regent has sky-high prices it seems compared to pre-COVID/pre-Biden. It makes me think twice. Even my weekly breakfast has increased in price so that it's only by ordering selectively that I can pay with a $20 and say keep the change so a good tip is there too.
Go to restaurants where the waiters wear white coats. They are professionals and serving is their job. They aren’t poets or novelists or dancers or actresses waiting for a break.
The waiters in the white coats make very good money. They know when to appear and when not. As I said they are pros
And never will they tell you this item or that wine is their favorite. Because they know that is unprofessional and that know one cares what they like.
First of all QR Code menus are an abomination. Actual menus are part of the dining out experience. Thankfully, they aren't catching on and a lot of restaurants have stopped using them.
Second of all, my wife and I rarely eat out because restaurant food is not healthy (salt and sugar and simple starches are cheap) and I can usually make a healthier, better tasting alternative at home. And I get the enjoyment of cooking, which I love to do.
So, if we do go out we expect the service to be impeccable, which it rarely is.
In the overwhelming majority of places the minimum wage is not anywhere near $15.00 an hour. There are only 3 states where the minimum wage is $15.00 or higher. I know there are some individual cities that have mandated $15.00 too. But there is no nationwide $15.00 minimum wage. In Wisconsin it is still $7.25 and you can pay wait staff lower than that as long as tips bridge the gap. This is true in most places.
The market is clearly sending a pricing signal to restaurant owners. The market is telling restrauntures that staff are not willing to work for the wages they are paying. The restrauntures need to figure out how to pay more for better staff. They can either use some of those new higher prices to fund higher wages or find a way to cut costs (other than intentionally running understaffed). Price signals are real and market participants ignore them at their own peril.
I declared 2023 the year of no eating out and it hasn’t been difficult at all. Outside of a couple work trips, I haven’t eaten at a restaurant since last December. I have met a few friends for lunch, but just had coffee. Also had a couple opportunities to host friends for dinner. No need to waste a bunch of money on restaurant food.
It started with hiring male stewardesses.
I haven't visited a restaurant since before 2000. They're no trouble to avoid, if you don't travel anyway.
With restaurant prices climbing higher and higher, my wife and I usually go out, if at all, during happy hour. She gets her 2 for 1 lemon-drop martinis, I get my 2 for 1 IPAs, and we share several appetizers. Even with a 20% tip we can usually do this for under $50.
Oh, there are any number of people who must eat at restaurants. They never learned to boil water, much less cook. And so now ware dependent, not only on others to cook for them, but needing a higher salary to fund this enterprise. And that makes them angry.
It is this dependency that is keeping the poor service restaurants on life support.
And "seasoned staff" shortage? Most customers will give a break to a newbie trying, but being ignored, even before taking the order will almost always drive a customer away.
I read elsewhere that restaurants are backing away from QR code menus. That's a relief.
The economics of restaurant dining have always been precarious. Now, significantly higher labor costs and food costs, along with reduced demand due to decentralized workplaces, are about to wipe out a big chunk of the industry.
This is inevitable. Then, the media will blame Republicans. That's inevitable, too.
Regular sit-down restaurants are disappearing around here. I'm nostalgic about the old coffee shops and lunch counters I used to frequent but admit I just didn't go there anymore.
Now everything is hipster breweries with Mexican food carts. Or hipster coffee joints that sell pastries with their brew.
Girl's got to watch her weight.
"After scanning the QR..."
There's an important clue that you're not gonna get much in the way of service.
Wow, a NYT commenter with opinions similar to mine. There's hope for them after all.
I've waived to get a waiters attention, and almost every time it was to get them to bring me the check so I could pay and leave. Snapping fingers at any time, not related to singing in a musical, seems rude.
I don't dine out all that often, but almost all my experiences over the past year or so have been positive (I live in fly-over country). That includes the fast food franchises at which I usually drive through or stop just long enough to nab a carry-out order.
One place I know I'll always get a smile, courtesy and competency? Chik-fil-A.
Is there anything more ridiculous than some well-to-do person in the Nation's elite newspaper grumping about bad service? These are usually the same people who don't give a damn about massivie illegal (or legal) immigration driving down wages for the working poor, or about Biden inflation sending food prices through the roof.
THe NYT's and WaPo seem to have an awful lot of articles about how (1) you can't get good service at ____ anymore (2) How terrible airtravel is and (3) how tourists/overcrowding are "ruining" all the great tavel places. Thank God there are enough hardworking cheap foreign nannies and greenskeepers, otherwise the world would be unbearable!
"Why do your job well (hell why do it at all?) when you have been paid regardless already?"
Why is it that the socialists/communists can't grasp that reality?
"They often sneak a peek at a smartphone or chat among themselves in a group but they ignore the paying customers in front of them."
That happened to me a few weeks ago. I went to a pizza place that has a restaurant/bar attached. While my pizza was cooking, I walked into that section to ask about a waitress who was battling cancer (per the restaurant's Facebook page.
There were only two guys at the bar and the Gen-Z bartender, staring down at his phone. I stood right in front of him and not once did he look up. The two guys at the bar noticed this too and like me, said nothing to the bartender. After about three minutes, I looked at the two guys, said fuck it, and walked out. Gen-Zers are slaves to their phones.
"In the overwhelming majority of places the minimum wage is not anywhere near $15.00 an hour. There are only 3 states where the minimum wage is $15.00 or higher. I know there are some individual cities that have mandated $15.00 too. But there is no nationwide $15.00 minimum wage. In Wisconsin it is still $7.25 and you can pay wait staff lower than that as long as tips bridge the gap. This is true in most places."
I'm in Idaho, which is not exactly known for high-paying jobs. Even still- all the restaurants around here that have "Help Wanted" signs out front are advertising $15/hr. Good luck hiring people for $7.25 (or less).
" I'm nostalgic about the old coffee shops and lunch counters "
Republicans desegregated lunch counters, and then the Democrats shut them down.
True story
The arc of the moral universe is long, but as it turns out, it bends toward slavery.
Do you have too much money and an inflated sense of your business acumen?
Open a restaurant, and both of your problems will be solved!
For the first time in my life, I actually feel like our civilization is in decline. Most of the products I buy are crap; I actually expect them to break within a ocuple of months. Most of my bad restaurant experiences have to do with the place being closed on random days due to 'staffing issues'.
hawkeyedjb said...
"After scanning the QR..."
There's an important clue that you're not gonna get much in the way of service.
5/30/23, 11:36 AM
Well put. They (used to) have the small iPad-like devices to scan your credit card, but those seem to have gone away, at least the places I usually, and rarely, visit.
After scanning the QR
That's when I say "I left my phone at home"
A lot of restaurants in Arizona have changed to counter service. Obviously not white tablecloth restaurants, but decent quality places that would have had servers in the past. A lot of the stigma associated with counter service is fading, along with the declining quality of most table service. Several local restaurants have started to close a couple nights per week. They simply cannot attract enough staff to stay open.
Fast food places are just as crazy. Haven't eaten at at Wendy's for over a year. Got some coupons in the mail last week. 6 piece chicken nuggets free with any purchase. I ordered medium fries and a small frosty to go with my free nuggets: $6.00 What the....? As Mom used to say: We have food at home.
Small town restaurants are great. A couple near our “up north” cottage that I will share are one in Coloma,WI called Jenna’s Red Hill Royal Cafe. Open 7am-2pm. Food is excellent and service is good. Great bar with a really good Friday night fish fry in Saxeville, WI called The Ding. Old Style cans are $2.50.
It is not an issue leaving a great tip in with place since the servers are kind and happy!
Also, if you can afford it but a whole beef tenderloin. At a minimum choice grade or black angus choice. Ask butcher to trim for you so when you get home there is no messing with that!
Cut steaks yourself. Very easy to do. You can cut them whatever size you want-a fill meal size or sandwich size. Always cheaper per pound.
Find a greek-american joint, forgo the booze and walkout for less than thirty bucks. Also avoid using the following lest people think you are a self referential elitist ass.
plucky favorite city pub valorized scanning the QR careened toward $100
Was at a lakeside restaurant in a pretty small town in S. WI over weekend. Ended up being almost 2hr wait for food, while we had beers on deck..until sun went down and tooo cold, forcing us inside to wait. Nothing fancy..my mushroom swiss burger arrived sans bun. No explanation.
With the markup on drinks being what it is, a free one on the house would seem a sensible gesture. Nope.
$12.99 for a thick, prime NY Strip Steak at Costco, cooked on you own charcoal grill vs the same thing for $60.00 at a steak joint. $9.99 to 10.99 for choice cuts. Costco of course makes you but a bulk pack for $40 to $60, but you're getting four or five high quality steaks.
I love the Costco NY Strip steaks. Seasoning is just season salt, pepper and garlic. Grilling them on the barbie takes less than 1/2 hour, including the warm up time. Ten minute cook time for my steak and 5-minutes for my wife's.
The 2 extra uncooked steaks go in the freezer bags for cooking on Independence Day.
It's what I now call "Bud Light Syndrome" and it's viral spread is not limited to restaurants.
When you listen to Bud Light's (female) marketing executive describe its consumers, she was oozing utter disdain for them. She described them as "fratty" and in need of "evolving" and "elevating." Just imagine in your head Thurston Howell the Third explaining to Lovey why Gilligan should be kicked off the island.
Well, we don't need Bud Light. Because they illegally collude with other brewers on price, there's no brand differentiation between them and it is effortless to switch to Miller Light or Coors Light. They all taste the same.
You see this EVERYWHERE, but probably nowhere as much as at Disney. They HATE their core consumer ... which is a white nuclear family with 2.5 children under age 10. And they're doing everything they can to denigrate that family and destroy any reason why normal white people would ever want to - God forbid - take their children near these obvious pedophilic groomers. My guess is that those people are too intelligent to pay $12 for a Coke, and so Disney has to find dumber customers who probably don't look after their kids all that well.
Going to a car lot in the last 2 years has been enormously frustrating. The arrogance of these places ... charging $20,000 to $50,000 OVER sticker price because of the lack of supply caused by supply chain issues at the major manufacturers. It was horrific.
It started at fast food places and its spreading and I don't see it ending.
tim in vermont said...
"Democrats are paying people not to work, more than usual, and it's killing small restaurants."
Thus making good help even harder to find. One bright spot: yesterday we returned to a local chain restaurant that we had avoided for months due to very poor service. New management made a complete turnaround, from our greeting at the door to the drink and food order, to serving up the plates and bringing the check. All this while not fully staffed.
My best girl and I eat dinner out about half the time. We sit at the bar if possible, have a few drinks, share a few dishes, sometimes enjoy watching TV above the bar, and have a great time. We rarely get bad service. Prices are up, but that’s true everywhere with Mr. Biden’s economy.
Restaurants might as well go QR code and a robots to deliver the food. The service won't be any worse and no need to tip the robot. It would not surprise me if Uber Eats and the other like companies start or buy restaurants. No need for table space and waiters. Only cooks, kitchen staff and packaging and deliveries.
Try getting a table at La Boue d'Argent.
The QR code bit was the height of annoying. Even here, they're being pushed to the wayside. Of course, that doesn't mean the service levels have rebounded. I attribute it more to those servers who are working are just spread too thin.
But I'm with others here - I can cook better at home with fresher ingredients than what is in most restaurants. While some cuts of meat can be pricey, a couple of dressed fresh caught rainbow trout are reasonable compared to mediocre farm-raised salmon.
San Franciscans believe they live in a food town, but it's not true. It's merely an eater's town. Even something as simple as a bowl of noodles and the lines are out the door and around the corner. Given the demographics, I don't think anyone under 40 knows how to cook for themselves anymore. A work acquaintance thought it odd that I'd prep meat in advance for fajitas when it's available at Safeway already done. It wasn't worth trying to answer.
When I was younger I worked in retail and in food-service. My food-service was the cafeteria so maybe I avoided some of the usual stress and grind with more traditional restaurants, but in my experience in both settings the worst part was dealing with rude customers. While this was the worst part of the jobs, it was also very infrequent. While I haven't really personally seen it, I've heard enough to stories to make me wonder if overall people have gotten ruder as a consequence of the lockdown. However, I also wonder, in part because I haven't really noticed personally an uptick in rude people, if the lockdown has made many people more sensitive and less resilient to behavior which while not polite isn't exactly beyond the pale. If you work in a service industry you have to learn to give a high level of deference to the customer, this is true whether you are waiting tables or a consultant that is answering a client's text message at 11 pm. Thinking back to the example of the restaurant customer who demanded extra scrambled eggs after their own dining partner ate their eggs, while their demand demonstrated a lot of gall, the best response of the restaurant should have been to give them a small plate of eggs. It costs them less than a buck and having to grin and bear the rudeness of the demand is part of the job of working in a service industry. I'm also assuming the fact that this was a shared anecdote implies this was a very, very infrequent, perhaps even unique, experience at the restaurant. If you work in a less technical field like the restaurant industry you need your customers far more than they need you.
Blogger hawkeyedjb said...
"After scanning the QR..."
There's an important clue that you're not gonna get much in the way of service.
I noticed that too, but I wonder if that is just a sign that the restaurant has frequent menu changes or specials, and rather than relying on a chalkboard up front, or have the server spend a couple minutes at each table telling them about the specials they figured using a QR system w9ould be more efficient. That being said, I don't have a QR reader app installed on my phone and I doubt I'm the only one.
First on the list of what he calls “the seven priorities” are employees and their mental health.
Goes a long way towards explaining the treatment of Sarah Huckabee Sanders by the owner of the Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. Apparently it’s somehow still in business, though.
'By the way, I have never seen anyone in a restaurant snap their fingers to get service.'
Good luck trying to hear a finger-snap over the cacophonous din of a modern restaurant.
Restaurant owners might try paying the waitstaff and back of house staff better, and see what happens to services provided the customers.
The tipping is out of control. Buy a cup of pour coffee at a counter. "Would you like to add a tip?" Here, you can choose between feeling like a schmuck or feeling like a schmuck.
I get such great service from fast food workers it's incredible. I can get a Big Mac or some KFC and everyone is super pleasant and helpful. I smile back and tell them to have a great day, everyone is happy.
This is because franchise giants take customer service training seriously. With single operators you get what you get. When trying to hire some worth out of Generation Anxiety proves too taxing, then you operate your business as a wellness clinic for them because otherwise they would just lie down on the floor or something. You don't have a folder with a manual where it says in big print 'fire them and hire another one' and 'keep doing that until you have people who do their jobs'; you don't have the psychological support of being a cog in a big machine and just following orders.
So you say to yourself I have to take care of my workers and once that happens customers will be happy. Of course that's a lie because those workers are totally not invested in the business, what incentive do they have to ask for less? Of course they will ask for more and more wellness until you go broke. Why the hell should they care?
If you want good service, go to restaurants run by non-Americans. Immigrants still hustle. I got this Italian place run by Bosnians, it's top shape and the service is awesome and prompt. You know the whole staff is all family and friends and stuff, so any customer problems are dealt with quick at the table. Everyone is invested at least a little bit.
Otherwise I don't get mad, I beat feet. They make me wait, I head to the car, there's another place. Service is poor, whatever, don't make a stink just get the check and get out. Never come back. If you're willing to immediately cut your losses you will have more time to find those places that serve you well.
Haven't eaten out since before Covid and then it was only once or twice a year.
Too expensive, for one. Other customers - who act like they're the only people on the planet - for another.
We'll go out with the same, small group of friends for Valentines Day - at the same restaurant every year - and that's about it.
I tried to feel bad for those small businesses/restaurants who tried to survive during the lockdowns ... but considering the BLACK LIVES MATTERS signs and rainbow flags on all their establishments, they got what they voted for. Good and hard.
We eat out mainly to share meals with our friends. Our families do not live close, so our relationships with close friends are a lifeline for us. The prices for meals have certainly increased, but the service we receive is almost always excellent. We tip well.
"I ordered medium fries and a small frosty to go with my free nuggets: $6.00 What the....? As Mom used to say: We have food at home."
I practically never go out to eat. I also managed to own two houses on a $40-50k/yr. salary. There might be a connection.
"but considering the BLACK LIVES MATTERS signs and rainbow flags on all their establishments, they got what they voted for.
Some of that could have been an attempt at conveying a "Don't burn me down first" message. It's not easy to pick up and move a B&M business should rioters target your neighborhood.
Just sayin'.
My partner and I recently moved into a house in Springfield, Oregon - Eugene's poorer cousin to the east. We like to cook and do so quite often. For us, eating out isn't an 'experience' or something special, just an effort to obtain calories when we don't feel like cooking.
We are not fancy people. So far have been very happy with both the service and food at two local burger joints (one of them a bar) plus diners for the occasional breakfast. I wonder if food trucks are the way to go these days. No expectation of table service, you have to come to the truck window to order/receive your food, and it's very likely you are dealing with the owner of the business, not an employee.
Some of that could have been an attempt at conveying a "Don't burn me down first" message.
Not around here. Deep blue college/state-employee town in a deep blue state.
It was virtue signalling on steroids.
We do takeout a lot, esp during the winter when we are in PHX, next door to N Scottsdale, which has a lot of pretty good restaurants. Last week, for the first time since Valentine’s Day, we actually ate out - at the Montana Club in Kallispell. Horrible acoustics, good service, and decent food. Price is up from the last time we ate at the small chain, but we were happy. I, in particular, since I like going out more anymore than she does.
We have a tradition: Valentine’s Day (actually a day before or after, because you can’t get in on the actual holiday), we eat at Michael’s in Las Vegas. It started as a mob hangout in the basement of one of the downtown casino hotels. Her first husband, an executive chef at Caesars, first took her there, some 40 years ago. Her second husband took her there a couple times. Now, it has moved south of I-215 in the South Point hotel/casino. She claims that they have the original tables, chairs, and stained glass dome. All dark wood and deep colors. Just the opposite from the Montana Club, in that the acoustics are excellent. The maître d' and his assistants are in tuxes, and the waiters in white jackets. He has been there almost from the first, and one of the owners for several decades. My partner inevitably trades stories with him about the old days. When you are served, you each get served by your own waiter, while someone in a tux supervises. And your personal waiter resets multiple times during the meal. I lose track of the courses. Crackers, then breads, followed by fruits and veggies. You, of course, get sorbet part way through. And, afterwards, they trot the desert wagon out. But we never have room, and instead take the complimentary chocolate dipped fruit selection home with us. By now, we know what we want - which is the steak, and, in particular, the filet mignon. We both prefer medium well, but it still comes so tender that you could cut it with a butter knife - but they give you steak knives for that course. A bit pricey, but worth it.
And with that, thinking about the deserts there, I am heading to the freezer for ice cream.
By the way, I have never seen anyone in a restaurant snap their fingers to get service
I've been known to wave, is that too aggressive?
One place I know I'll always get a smile, courtesy and competency? Chik-fil-A.
Yeah but the food is sub-par. The only reason I go there is for the service, I know it will be what I order, that despite the long line I'll be out in a couple of minutes and I won't feel like I've bothered someone for using their restaurant.
I don't have a QR reader app installed on my phone and I doubt I'm the only one.
You don't need an app. It's built into any smartphone in the last 5 years. Just try to take a picture of the qr code.
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