No proper Montrealer would go to TGI Fridays. Anyway Gringo, restaurant business is a mugs game. How does a restauranteur make money? By being the fifth or sixth owner of a place once all the capital goods have been marked down and sold out of bankruptcy. Of small businesses, restaurants are not one I’d want to own. The one exception is pizza shops and hot dog stands which make an absolute killing in ROCI. Classy restaurants, no.
Many thanks for the book recommendation, I’ll be sure to check it out.
I’ve not come across the issue about transitioning bar tabs in the UK but from my dining experiences in NYC it could be to do with tips? So the bar want you to settle up and give them a tip for that amount rather than the waitstaff getting a tip on the bar tab amount later on? I suppose it depends on how the restaurant distributes tips.
Good shout on the clearing of plates. I hate it when they’re left there forever.
Thanks for your thoughts, very helpful.
I definitely see why restaurants are pushing tables closer and closer together as when you weigh up the financials it makes sense, particularly when space is limited. The first new site we’re opening is actually slightly larger than ideal so they’ve been able to configure it with decent gaps between tables and no tables close to the door as someone mentioned. The team did very well to fill out the space with some features and also sectionalise the space a bit so the atmosphere hasn’t suffered at all.
For the 1st few months we’re offering a discount if customers join the mailing list (won’t be bombarding with emails) and they fill out a short feedback card so this will hopefully help us fine tune our model and help us find our feet with the customer base. Brits will always smile and say everything was ok even if they totally hated it so I’m hoping this will allow us to get some valuable feedback.
Is that you, Marcus Halberstam? For heaven’s sake, stop making reservations at Texarkana and you can very well avoid this problem.
Good shout on the glasses, I hate that. My missus is fully fledged OCD and closely inspects the cutlery/glasses etc whenever we sit down in any restaurant and it’s pretty surprising the number of places that fail the test, even fine dining places. It’s such a basis thing to get right.
I associate scruffy looking hipster staff with uppity/aloof places and we’re very much aiming to avoid that
Good suggestion, I love all those shows. The wife and I always give each other a look when we’re handed massive menus.
The place has a good buzz about it just now but the real test will be when it’s no longer the new place in town, that’s what worries me.
Margins on drinks and particularly alcohol are high so it definitely pays to have a large selection and to encourage sales by having a full list on the table. Twicetheman, I also hate it when you have to ask what they’ve got.
Totall agree on the water. I had that exact argument in a Copenhagen restaurant that it supposed to be the best in the world. The waiters looked totally shocked that I brought it up, they must not get many Scottish customers…
People in the UK tend to ask for tap water, i read it’s about 80% of customers that have tap water now.
limited beer menu
beer not ice cold
wine menu that doesn’t clearly list a house merlot, cab, etc for the non wine drinkers
being forced to do the stupid wine tasting thing
temp is too hot
tiny coffee cups that need to be refilled 2 or 3 times?
crappy coffee. since they’re buying in bulk why wouldn’t then spend the extra ten percent to get the good stuff?
paying for soda refills ( a little old school but it still bothers me)
they did this at Noma?
+1 on wine and coffee points I also find it amusing when I order a glass of wine and they bring the bottle and make you look at the label! Umm I trust you will bring me the wine I ordered, thank uou. Or am I missing smth?
It’s part of the tasting ritual. You not only confirm they picked the right bottle, but you get to see that your wine is fresh and not coming from a bottle that’s been open (and not properly corked) for who-knows how long. Then you get a little taste and nod your head. The tasting is important when ordering a wine you’ve never had before. I’ve been with women (never men) that will send back the wine they ordered when they don’t believe the taste matched the description. Valid point. Men don’t seem to care as much.
Now that you mentioned, I do remember being showed that the bottle was corked - that made sense. But the also showed me the bottom of the cork once the bottle was open. At a time I wished s o explained to me what I am supposed to evaluate there. I do enjoy tasting the wine beforehand. With the amount of wine I drink, I need to start doing more research on it.
Yup. They asked if we wanted water for the table and I asked for tap water and they brought us a jug. When the bill came there was a rather large charge for water and when I queried it they said that the water in Copenhagen was very hard so they filter it and hence charge for it.
Same for coffee, they don’t have any menus at all and asked us if we wanted coffee after the meal which we assumed was included in the rather large price for the tasting menu. Considering half the ingredients have been foraged from a forrest the least they could do is throw in a coffee and some water.
The origins of the tasting ritual is just to see if it’s corked, it’s not about letting you try before you buy.
The origins? As far as I know, I just made up the phrase “tasting ritual” mainly based on Karate Kid 2 when he does that thing with the tea with that hot Asian chick. It seemed like a more concise way of saying “you know that thing when the waiter brings the bottle to your table, uncorks it, let’s you smell the cork, then provides a small sample to be sure it’s what you’re expecting?”
I can’t say I really care when the sampling was added into the mix. It is now, so here we are. Also, it wouldn’t really be a “tasting ritual” if they didn’t let you taste it now would it? Then it’d just be the “uncorking ritual.”
This is possibly my most pointless post ever, and that’s saying something. So bored…
^ I was just getting on board with your terminology, it’s called coinage.
You’re tasting it to confirm that it’s not corked as a wine can still be corked without there being any discernable damage to the cork itself. But you’re right, the process has evolved so we might as well taste screwcap wines as the only downside is a few French Sommeliers looking down their noses at you which they probably will be doing anyway as that’s essentially what they’re there for.
anyway, I should go as I have to return some videotapes (that’s a wee American Psycho reference to make you feel better about the pointlessness of this exchange)
Europeans love to charge for little things that are free in America. Charge for water, charge for sitting outside a cafe, charge for public restrooms, … The most unexpected charge for me was for a pathetic salad that we sent back. Snooty French waitress explained that since we made the cook make it, and have her bring it, we had to pay for it.
Sorry, I don’t know what this has to do with the OP, unless g_bob wants to open a restaurant in Paris.
So if you just buy a glass, what happens to the rest of the bottle? Glug glug glug go the wait staff or down the drain?
It’s probably mostly the house wines that get ordered by the glass so the bottles go quickly enough. But, yes, the service industry makes Jordan Belfort seem tame when comparing the amount of booze and drugs those guys do before, during, and after work.
i dont take 4 hrs. maybe 2 hrs topps. but if you want them to leave cuz of ur comission. juss ask them. pretty sure they’ll never come back and you’ll have one less problem. i honestly think servers are overpaid. am i the only one who views this? i figure per two hours. a server gets 4 tables. each table costs 60 bucks. so dats $240 with a 20% tip das 48 bucks. add their minimum wage lets say 10 bucks. totals to 70 divide by 2. they make a whopping 35 bucks an hr. not bad for someone that does not need college imo. or am i way off base. i worked at kfc so i cant relate. i took chicken on the way home though.