The day I was ‘limoncello-ed'

It happened to me again. 

It was very sudden. 

I didn’t even have time to react. 

I’d just finished my gravlax. 

I was taking another sip of wine. 

And then wham! Down it went. 

“With the compliments of the chef,” she said.

As soon as I saw the ubiquitous martini glass and the festering blob of mush I knew. 

I’d been “limoncello-ed.”

I checked with my guest – how many courses did we order, eight? No – two.

I looked around.

Had Uber taken us to the Palace of Versailles by mistake?

I couldn’t see any white gloves… only blue jeans on the servers.

Now I had to get creative.

What would I say?

Time was running out.

Soon she’d be back. 

“Was the sorbet not to your liking, sir?”

“Well… errrr…”

It was too late. I was unprepared.

“Maybe you’d kindly ask Chef how a Puligny Montrachet tastes after sucking on a frozen lemon... ”

I didn’t say that but I should have.

And my point is… Would chefs kindly cease this ridiculous habit of serving sorbets in the middle of a simple meal?  

It’s pretentious and not relevant. 

There are many ways to enhance a great meal. An engaging smile and a brief visit to the table from the manager would be at the top of my list.

But never a limoncello sorbet!

Mission first, people always

Occasionally a restaurant comes along that is about so much more than the food or the beverage or the decor. It’s about what it stands for and the good it does for the community. West-bourne opened recently in New York City’s Soho neighborhood.

Its positioning statement reads: “L.A. inspired, vegetable forward and mission driven. Through our partnership with the Robin Hood Foundation, a portion of every purchase made at West-bourne’s first location in Soho will benefit a neighboring nonprofit, The Door, to fund hospitality job training for youth in our community, and we hire from that very program to build our team.”

I asked founder Camilla Marcus what her inspiration was behind the restaurant. “Our integrated and local giveback model that is unique to hospitality was integral to the concept from the very start. To me, philanthropy for my generation is changing, as we want to vote with our dollars now and make a statement by aligning with brands based on shared values. We see it notably with brands like Everlane and Warby Parker, and yet by comparison, we make more decisions about where we eat and drink every single day than just about anything else. So, I got to thinking, what if your morning coffee, or dessert, or bottle of wine could have a real, meaningful impact on people in your local community?”

As hotels look to connect with millennials yet differentiate themselves from their competition, giving back to the community and focusing on shared values might just be the key. Bravi! to Camilla and her team for leading the way!

I know I’m just a dumb F&B guy, but … Part 2

My second rant about annoying things unrelated to F&B concerns – this time, it’s bathrobes and lighting (read the first one here). 

Bathrobes: Please would all the executive housekeepers of hotels that still make their bathrobes look pretty by tying them up in a “decorative but impossible to undo” knot, stand naked in a bathroom and time how long it takes them to unravel said knot and climb into the bathrobe while room service is pounding on the door with breakfast. My current record is about 4.5 minutes. I can hear them all sniggering at me… “Gotcha!”

Lighting: Before any lighting designer finalizes the design of any guest room and bathroom, please would they sleep in the room (with their partner) and get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. There is a recent trend to have the bathroom either open to the bedroom or behind glass (I assume to allow your partner the opportunity to laugh at you as you attempt to figure out which of the tiny bottles in the shower is the shampoo!).

When staying in one of these trendy rooms recently, the designer had very kindly labeled the light switches going into the bathroom. However, as a first-time user and not being able to read the switches in the dark, I hit the nearest one only to light up the entire bedroom and bathroom like a football stadium. For some reason my wife did not see the funny side of this. Lighting designers would have been punching the air!

Be known for something!

I had lunch recently at L’Amico in New York City, a restaurant created by Laurent Tourondel. The server recommended the pizza which, she said, was outstanding. As you walk past two enormous, copper-clad, wood-burning pizza ovens to get to your table, there was good reason for her recommendation.

Indeed, the pizza is exceptional and without doubt the best I have had since my lunch at Marta (a restaurant, also in New York City, created by Danny Meyer that serves amazing pizza as well). I could see pizzas flying out to every table around me and the reaction was similar to mine.

L'Amico's pizza

There are many other fantastic things on the menu but the pizza was SO good that I would return to this restaurant simply because of it. Chef Tourondel was inspired by the cooking of his Italian grandmother and he spent five years perfecting the pizza dough.

In Toronto there is an Italian restaurant called Terroni. Attached to it is a small Italian coffee shop and bar called Bar Centrale. The espresso is SO good that I have been many times for lunch just because of the espresso. Their barista, a Japanese lady named Ai, explained to me with great passion that the coffee beans, which are from La Colombe, are a blend from four regions: Brazil, Colombia, the Congo and Nicaragua. It is a single, very intense shot of perfect espresso that I crave.

So often I find hotel restaurants are merely just good at what they do. They are not “known” for anything exceptional. Investing in people who are passionate and investing in the right equipment and ingredients, and creating a reputation for doing something better than anyone else will give you that distinguishing edge. 

Size really doesn’t matter!

I continue to be amazed at how many old-fashioned, unprofitable wine lists are still in use.

I have a client who is losing a huge amount of money in F&B. I met their sommelier, who was very excited and proud of his restaurant wine list. He has a total of 530 labels with over 5,000 bottles in the cellar valued at nearly $250K. There were 170 labels on the wine list, and the remaining 360 were being held in reserve and were available to their wine society, of which there are only 180 members.

They do five wine dinners a year (you know how I feel about wine dinners!). I asked how often he turned over his inventory and of course he didn’t have a clue. So I analyzed their sales. 

They have a restaurant that impressively serves nearly 450 covers per day, mostly lunch and dinner. In the five-month period I studied, they sold 2,517 bottles of wine, of which 71% was served from their By The Glass list. That left only 734 bottles from their main list, or approximately five bottles a day!

Like most old-fashioned restaurants, the wines by the glass are listed on the main wine list, which comes in a classic faux leather book that is ceremoniously presented to the host or the wealthiest-looking man at the table! This itself is an archaic practice. If you have a great wine program, everyone should see it, as it acts as a great advertisement for your restaurant. I love to see a wine list on the back of the food menu.

In contrast, Cafe Boulud in Toronto has a great wine program. Wine Director Drew Walker has a total of 62 wines on this list, which is part of the lunch and dinner menu. There are 20 wines available by the glass and carafe and 6 super-premium wines available from the Coravin program. There is a reserve list of 160 wines for the big spenders. Inventory is less than C$120,000. Beverage to food ratio is 44%, of which 83% is wine sales. On an average Saturday night, he sells 75 bottles of wine, 40 from the main or reserve list and 35 from the BTG  program. 

The simple moral of the story is this: Just because you have a huge wine list doesn’t mean you have an interesting or profitable wine program.

I know I’m just a dumb F&B guy, but…

When will manufacturers of those little bottles of shampoo and bath gel that you find in most hotel bathrooms wake up to the fact that we can’t read your labels!

According to the Vision Council of America over half of all women and 48% of all men wear glasses… but not in the shower.

I was recently in Bangkok, staying at the excellent Siam Kempinski hotel. I laughed out loud when, like thousands of fellow travelers every day, I made the stupid mistake of entering the shower without first checking which of the tiny bottles was the shampoo.

However, as hard as I strained my eyes, I simply couldn’t read the labels. What to do next? Throw caution to the wind and guess? Would it matter anyway? Or should I accept defeat and exit the shower soaking wet, partially dry off so as not to drip water everywhere, find my glasses and solve the puzzle. Makers of mini shampoo bottles around the world must have been rejoicing that yet another dumb hotel guest fell into their trap. 

Could they not put a large S on the back of the shampoo, a large C on the back of the conditioner and a large G on the back of the bath gel? Or is that too simple?