The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - February 26, 1999

Greetings from the middle of the great Boston blizzard. Talk about timing! At any rate, here are a few thoughts for what is (for me, at least) a snowy Friday . . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR?
The turn from 1999 to 2000, whether or not it actually constitutes the start of a new millennium, will be a big party and you may be (should be) making plans already. In your planning, however, be sure you have figured in who is going to actually work the party . . . and what you are going to have to pay them to do it! In some areas, the going rate for working on New Year's 2000 is approaching $100 an hour! You may not find yourself in quite that position, but you had better figure that you will have to pay a premium on your labor. Be sure to factor that into your party package before you commit to a price for the evening.

STUPID SERVICE TRICKS
Mary Cleven passed this one along.

I am a regular Walt Disney World visitor (1x/year) and although I always have a car, I usually spend alot of time eating "within WDW", even though the food is not excellent, nor inexpensive. This particular visit to Orlando took in the new Disney Cruise Line cruise vacation, too....by the way....the food and service on this cruise are mediocre at best.

This visit to Orlando, I went for dinner at (a fairly national chain) in Lake Buena Vista and I had a bad experience. My 5-year old picky eater didn't like any of the children's meals and said that he just wanted some spaghetti "worms" (plain pasta with no sauce). The only menu item with long pasta was an angel hair with seafood. I asked my server if I could have just the angel hair pasta plain and he said that I could, but that I would be charged the $13.95 (or $11.95?) anyway. I asked if the seafood mixture could be served on the side since I was paying for it anyway and he said yes.

The food came and my son ate a few strands of angel hair and said it didn't taste good. I tasted it and the reason that it wasn't good is that it was overcooked and very soft. Not even close to "al dente", adding insult to injury.

My point is this: If places like this want my business, then they need to be a little more flexible. Why couldn't I just get the plain angel hair and pay a reasonable price for it....like $4 or $5 or $6? It obviously wasn't a pre-mixed/pre-fab item.

So although my husband's crab legs and my steak were fine, I can't stand this sort of inflexibility and would rather spend the money eating on-property somewhere at WDW with the usual so-so Disneyesque food, but where I have yet to encounter a situation like this, rather than eating off-property, because this type of rigid adherence to policy is inhospitable and very un-guest oriented. Especially if you're in Orlando and trying to compete with WDW, you need to try harder...or even just try.

A note from the Doc:
Are you absolutely sure this couldn't happen in your place? Drill your staff that the watchword of the day . . . every day . . . is NO UNHAPPY GUESTS. Then give them the latitude, the coaching and the responsibility to assure that it happens.

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