Industry Standard: Keepin' it real: our end of the deal

[Robin Garr]

Industry Standard: Supper and the single diner
Insider Info For Those Who Dine Out
With Columnist Marsha Lynch

Since I got this writing gig, I've spent a lot of column inches imploring diners to support the local independent restaurant industry. I've asked this knowing that belts are tightening, budgets are shrinking and moths are flying out of rarely opened change purses all over the city. But what's in it for you? What are we doing to entice you to spend your decreasing pool of entertainment dollars at our places of business?

Of course we can drop prices. Many already have. Several local fine-dining establishments have recently revamped their menus to adapt to the changing recessionary and discretionary-funds dynamic. Le Relais, Avalon and Seviche come to mind. But what else can we do for you?

We can be consistent. Consistent with our service level. Consistent in the preparation of our most popular dishes. Consistent in our attention to detail in both the front and back of the house.

My table companion at a business meeting recently found a clod of dirt in her salad. The server instantly insisted on comping the diner's meal, but ... well, there's nothing like a dirt clod to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Unfortunately, a couple of the meals at the table were also delivered to the wrong diners, and even after that was straightened out, some folks' meals had to be done over because they weren't what had been ordered to begin with.

Granted, this could happen anywhere. Good lettuce grows in dirt, and every once in a while a dirt clod slips through. But compound one innocent little dirt-nugget with one or more service missteps and you're talking about people making a mental note not to come back anytime soon.

Tepid soup? Strike one. Dressing not on the side? Strike two. A glass of wine that you specifically chose to pair with your entrée arriving 20 minutes before the food? Strike three: You're history. And snotty service with an attitude is no longer in fashion, even as a novelty, period. Amateur hour is over, indies. We have to be on the ball, on point and on our best behavior.

When diners-out who champion corporate conglomerates are asked why they choose to patronize a chain rather than a locally owned and operated restaurant, one of the things they inevitably say is that they know what they're getting. Chain restaurants that are inconsistent in service and product just don't last very long - they rarely get a chance to become a chain.

In these recessionary times, knowing what you're going to get has just jumped to the top of the list of what folks want when they make the decision to spend the money to dine out. So, take heart, diners. Indies are now on notice that we have to deliver the best possible experience, time after time. That means it's a great time to dine out.

So we'll be seeing you in the dining room.

Marsha Lynch, a graduate of Sullivan University, has worked at many Louisville independent restaurants including Limestone, Jack Fry's, Jarfi's and L&N Wine Bar and Bistro. She is now the pastry chef at Café Lou Lou.

Read the complete report in LEO and on LouisvilleHotBytes.

I'm pleasantly surprised that two threads that have been started this morning on HotBytes reference this column of mine. The things I said in LEO this week seem to have struck a chord with diners and restaurateurs alike. I know one restaurant owner that's already made copies for their weekly managers' meeting.

I hope diners and restaurants will both pay attention (not specifically to me, just to the general sentiment of the column). Restaurants, tighten up your performance. Diners, don't spend your money where they're doing a sub-standard job. Reward consistency, attention to detail and excellent service with repeat business. Dine out as often as possible, but choose the establishment wisely. Don't keep eating somewhere lame because you feel sorry for the staff or the owner. Your absence will send them a message that they very much need to receive.

Good cooks and servers don't keep working indefinitely at places that provide sub-par food or service. Sure, jobs are scarce, but those of us with integrity would rather work an out-of-industry job temporarily rather than have our names associated with crap cuisine or a lazy tableside manner. I feel lucky every day to work somewhere I'm proud to be identified with. Actually, I've been lucky overall to have worked in some of the best places in town. Early on, I made it a policy of mine to ignore the help wanted ads and try to get jobs in the restaurants I enjoyed patronizing. The one time I made an exception in favor of liking a concept: I worked for a couple months in a place (long since closed) that was brand new, and whose owners I didn't know anything about - not their philosophy, not their work ethic, and not their business model. That was a valuable lesson - one that only cost me a little under a thousand dollars in bounced paychecks and associated fees. With the perspective of time, it seems like money well...not "spent", exactly, but money "well never-received".

Only the strong are going to survive this economy. Darwinian? Yes. Harsh? Maybe. Fair? Absolutely.

This is only slightly off-topic, and relates to my end of the restaurant industry, the supply-side.

Until recently, Gary and I enjoyed dining out really frequently, and made a point of enjoying at least one, sometimes two really fabulous and somewhat pricey restaurants each month (like Robin, we forgot to have children, and so we have the space and a little spare change to do some things we otherwise probably wouldn't if we had kids).

Anyway, when I was in the heat of marketing my business to Louisville restaurants, making phone calls, trying to get a foot in the door, I was surprised by a handful of pretty bad experiences with some local chefs who were either downright rude in person or who wasted my time in a pretty major way by not showing up to appointments we'd agreed to over the phone. Guess what? Those are places we think twice about patronizing. We can spend our hard-earned cash on other, equally fine restaurants just as easily.

One place, a place I love, still leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time we go there. First because of the initial experience with the kitchen, and then because they never bothered to pay their damned bill. I love the restaurant, I still go there on rare occasions because friends of mine like the place and want to enjoy it with us, but I still feel burned (I never talk about this to my friends, and have never named the place to anybody).

My best experience, probably not surprisingly, was the Oak Room, where both Duane and Chef Tod not only showed up but spent time with me, treated me respectfully, and the whole Oak Room staff treated me like royalty. I'm not saying everybody has to do that, but that's an experience I will never forget. It matters.

End rant....

edit to add: I have talked about the lousy experience, at least part of it (not about the bill) to one person, a former staff person.... Also, restaurants should probably consider that their local suppliers are also probably their customers.

It goes further than that. As restaurant owners and managers we should be smart enough to realize that everyone is a potential guest. Therefore, no matter where we are....if people know what we do for a living....our establishment is being judged on our behavior.

As far as an establishments need to be consistantly on the mark in its performance and product, Marsha is right on target. Why with all the choices in town would anyone want to return to the location of a bad experiance. Perhaps once forgotten in a couple of years or to give the new staff a try, but as owners and managers we want to be in that top 5 that comes to mind when that person thinks "let's eat out tonight". That only happens with consistantly high performace by every member of the team; all the way down to the dish crew.

That only happens with consistently high performance by every member of the team; all the way down to the dish crew.

Hear, hear, Neal. Sometimes people look at me funny when I tell them you can judge a restaurant by the performance of its dishwashers.

We have the best dishwasher in the world at Lou Lou St. Matthews; his name is Clarence. Holler!

Hooray for Clarence!

To be honest, I'd rather be consistently bad (better to be consistently good, of course) than inconsistent. Inconsistency is an absolute no-no.

That said, I always shoot for consistently great!

Great read Marsha!!!! I tell everyone I work with that "Attention to Detail" is that important!!!!

This is only slightly off-topic, and relates to my end of the restaurant industry, the supply-side.

Anyway, when I was in the heat of marketing my business to Louisville restaurants, making phone calls, trying to get a foot in the door, I was surprised by a handful of pretty bad experiences with some local chefs who were either downright rude in person or who wasted my time in a pretty major way by not showing up to appointments we'd agreed to over the phone. Guess what? Those are places we think twice about patronizing. We can spend our hard-earned cash on other, equally fine restaurants just as easily.

I had the same experience with a very few as you did. There are still a couple of well regarded places that I will not spend my money in to this day because of owner/jerks. Kissa... in the front door, nasty in the back.

As an example of just the opposite,I called on Anoosh Shariat at the defunct Remingtons and his place on Brownsboro RD. Very friendly. I didn't get his business as he liked my competitor. But because of the way he acted, I would never hesitate to go to a place he was associated with.

As a diner I have been eating at places with more consistent service now. Generally my favorite places to eat out are Tuscany or Moby Dick's (yes it's a chain, but a local one and a good one). Everytime I go to these places my food is good and, in the case of Tuscany, is almost always fast and friendly, even on the days when it's packed.

In the past there was a restaurant that I loved because of the price and close proximity to where I stay in the Highlands, which I rarely go to now. Their service is often bad (there was one really good server who did her job when we used to go there), and last time I went I ordered a dish that was supossed to have cheese and sun dried tomatoes on it to balance out the other slightly more bland ingredients. This dish has pleased me in the past but when I got it last time it had regular tomatoes in it and none of the intensely flavored cheese that made the dish good. And their health code ratings are even more inconsistent than the food. I haven't been back since.

Great read Marsha.
I do mystery shopping from time to time and was just part of a focus group for a week long dining shop and the one point everyone wanted to make was that while some things may not have been perfect on the 'checklist,' the servers were the one point that could truly make or break the experience. I always knew that as a server and I especially think it's true as a consumer.