by Carla G » Fri Jan 06, 2023 9:09 am
I find most (if not 99.9%) of my restaurant snafus to have been honest mistakes, usually immediately corrected and afterwards shrugged off and forgotten.
Except one. And I've never returned to the restaurant.
I will not name the restaurant because I think the problem originated with one paticular employee and not anything the restaurant condoned in general. I will be kinda vague because of that.
I'm a single woman and very often dine alone. I've found that lone diners often carry a difficult stigma about them anyway - single tops don't garner as much money, may be viewed as not tipping well or sometimes they just make others feel sorry for them putting everyone in an awkward situation. But most restaurants are learning to handle singles with grace and wind up offering the diner a marvelous time and meal. This paticular restaurant had a male host from an Eastern society that routinely marginalized women anyway. When I arrived (I was the second party there after the restaurant opening for brunch) the man looked at me for a lengthy time saying nothing (Geez, did I have smeared lipstick? Were my shoes mismatched? What was causing this stare?) I smiled and finally he asked, "Name?" I gave him my name which he did not write down. He did not say anything. He walked off leaving me standing (I thought he was leaving to check and see if another server had arrived yet or if he would need to double seat the server that he had just given a 4-top to.) And there I stood ...for a while. Other parties arrived, were happily greeted and seated and I was ignored. Every time I tried to get his attention he ignored me and walked off. Did the other parties have reservations? I didn't hear any of them say they did. One couple nicely said, "she was here first," but their gentle protest was waved off, dismissed. No, it genuinely felt like a cultural thing because I was a woman that dared to dine alone in public. After about 15-20 minutes (remember I got there when they first opened) I was never seated so I left. I have never returned.
"She did not so much cook as assassinate food." - Storm Jameson