Food Woolf: A Year in Review 2012

It may not be best to dwell in the past, but it doesn’t hurt to look back and appreciate all that’s happened. So rather than write a post featuring top recipes or big news stories of the year, I thought I’d take a little time to write something of a gratitude list for this blog in 2012. It has been an eventful time filled with great lessons, delicious recipes, and outstanding moments for me and my family. I hope you don’t mind me sharing them with you!

Perhaps the most valuable lesson of 2012 was to slow down and appreciate the little things. Despite the whirling speed of new tech toys and cool apps, I began to apply mindfulness techniques to my life, work, writing, and even social media. Slowing down may not have been instinctual when I started this year, but after twelve months of meditation and mindful action–I find that I have much more joy and gratitude for the little and big things that happen throughout my day.

I had the honor of being a keynote speaker at The Big Summer Potluck. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my new internet BFF Maggy Keet and speak with all the good and big hearted people about Mindfulness in the Digital Age.

I was nominated for Best Literary Food Writing in April by one of my most beloved food magazines, Saveur. I might not have won, but knowing that the incredible food writers and editors at Saveur had considered my writing worthy of recognition was award enough.

I continued telling my story about being an LA-based restaurant consultant in my Service 101 essay series. I spoke about the need for restaurants to consider teaching better bussing. I wrote about restaurant concepts that work, why guests should keep an open mind when visiting restaurants, how I enjoy my work in restaurants, and how I am working a compassion practice in restaurant dining rooms.

Other landmarks during the year that was rumored to be the end of the world included a very busy year in my work of opening restaurants. Some of my clients included Milo and Olive, Karen Hatfield’s Sycamore Kitchen, and the artisanal hot dog stand of Neal Fraser, Fritzi Dog. In addition, I celebrated five years of blogging and became the proud mama of a puppy.

I had the good fortune of enjoying some travel during my year. I visited San Francisco and saw my friend Michael Procopio for a great meal and later he suggested I visit the unique/edgy/performance art coffee shop called The Red Door. Experiencing a meal there was revelatory and completely mind blowing.

There were many great meals and restaurant moments in 2012. While I may not have spent half as much time I would have like to writing about the meals I enjoyed during my twelve months of 2012, I did manage to snap several hundred pictures of my repasts via Instagram.

Beyond my meals in restaurants, I found my way into my own kitchen and created a few recipes of my own. A few that I’m most proud of include my simple, and delicious recipes for a Sriracha Chicken, and Kale Salad that was inspired by one of my favorite new restaurants (and clients!), Sycamore Kitchen. My favorite recipe of the year–made so by its versatility and highly addictive flavor profile–is my savory cranberry compote I made last month. Even though Thanksgiving has come and gone, I’ve made the recipe a few more times since then. In my last batch I halved the amount of dried cranberries and added dried cherries.

I am grateful for so many things, including my family, friends, and all the great people I have had the good fortune of meeting during this year. Most of all, I appreciate and thank you for reading, writing such kind comments, and supporting my writing. I wish you all the best in 2013 and may all your dreams and goals be exceeded in the new year.

Love and peace to you and your family. Happy New Year!

Cranberry Compote on Greek Yogurt

Of the many uses of the compote (as a spread for sandwiches and a sweet/savory condiment for turkey and chicken), my favorite may be as a topping for yogurt and ice cream. I love how the sweetness of the cranberry sauce compliments the flavors of an unsweetened Greek Yogurt. I especially love putting it on top of Fage: it’s low in fat and super creamy!

1/4 cup of Cranberry Compote
1 cup of Fage (or plain) Greek Yogurt

Put the yogurt in a bowl and top with compote. Stir in to sweeten the creamy yogurt.

Suggestion: Add nuts or granola for an additional, crunchy texture. Enjoy!

December 29January 3

Service 101: On Your Side

“Hospitality exists when you believe the other person in on your side.” –Danny Meyer

The first time I became aware of this important dynamic of service, I was in my mid-twenties and more than a few years into my career as a bartender. I’m not sure why I hadn’t seen the important link between the service person who gives a damn and an engaged customer. I might have been naturally inclined to give that sort of service, it took an extraordinary waiter with international charm to make me realize the equation needed in order to create a memorable service bond.

The restaurant was called Dali, a small Spanish tapas restaurant that straddled the border of Harvard Square and Somerville. I went there for a romantic evening out with a then boyfriend, and we were taken care of by an older fellow with grey hair and a thick Spanish accent. He was what I called “a lifer”, a person who never got out of the restaurant business. He carried himself with proud gait of a professional but was also suave and flirtatious. The waiter winked at my boyfriend with a knowing smile and made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the room. He made us feel like VIP’s as he coaxed us through the menu in a playful and knowledgeable way that felt equal parts conspiratorial and friendly.

Thanks to his service, the sangria was like nectar, the food was mind-expanding flavorful, and everything he suggested showed us a whole new world in food.

I glowed for days after that dinner. It wasn’t until later, when the gauzy haze of perfection began to fade, I was able to make out some of the key guideposts of what made his service so spectacular. His service was flawless. His movements were graceful. The waiter’s timing was spot on and, above all, the man made us both feel like he wanted nothing more than to be the best server in the world for our important celebration.

The Dali waiter showed me the importance of a guest feeling like they were the best thing that happened to him all day. He showed me the power of making a guest feel like they were taken care of, and cheered on until they had the best time of their lives. This lesson is something I carry with me in all that I do.

Tips on how to give Great Service

1) READ your guests:
When approaching a guest, read the body language, energy, and banter as you approach the table. What are the cues you pick up on? Maybe the guests are on a first date and nervously banters. Maybe the guests are old friends who desperately want to catch up. Perhaps the diners are business associates hoping to get to the meal as fast as they can. Regardless of who your guests are, you can use your powers of observations to figure out WHO your guests are.

2) LISTEN to what they want

3) IDENTIFY what your guests need:
By carefully listening for cues and clues of what a guest likes and dislikes, you will be more able to find a way to identify what your guest wants and how you can get it for them. Be aware of the need to treat guests individually when multiple guests at one table may have divergent desires.

4) Tailor make your response to the specifics of the guests’ needs:
Communicate to the guest in a manner appropriate with their needs that you identify with them and will do everything you can to make sure they are satisfied with their experience. Note: how you deliver information to a guest is just as important as how you deliver food to a table.

5) Ensure the food and service is impeccable:
Match your actions with your words. Stay on top of the ordering, delivering, and clearing of food. Read the energy of the table as the food comes out. Be aware of new needs that will come up throughout the service. Checking in with guests, changing the flow of service as necessary, and reading your table’s energy throughout the course of the meal will help to make a satisfying dining experience for your guest.

December 16December 28

Service 101: The Importance of Bussing

Bussing may be the most important aspect of service that is overlooked by restaurant owners and managers. Perhaps it’s because business owners think guests don’t pay attention to the little things like how a table is cleared or when a water glass is topped off. Maybe it’s a pervasive mentality that bussing is a simple job that anyone can figure out. But great bussing is a complicated job that requires experience, training, and passion for the work.

Go to an average restaurant and you may see some tell tale signs of a neglected bussing team. You may see an overflowing bus tub filled with dirty dishes hiding in a corner or see a busser cut in front of a guest on their way to clear a table at the end of their meal. You might watch as the rushed worker clinks plates together as they snatched up the dishes like playing cards. Maybe you’ll be left too long with an empty glass or a pile of empty sugar packets in front of you. You could find your table wet from a fast wipe down or a chair littered with crumbs. Perhaps you’ll cringe when your busser sticks their fingers in a stack of glasses as they carry them away. When a table goes neglected for long stretches and then is suddenly barraged by a fast moving busser struggling to clear the table at the end of the meal, diners feel rushed, ignored, or worse–unimportant or unseen. All of these things may seem minor at first, but when the problems add up during a meal, these little missteps begin to subtract quality points from your dining experience.

“How hard can it be to clear a table?” I’ve heard many a customer say in frustration. I’ve even seen restaurant owners and managers remark that “any idiot can bus a table” while failing to show the staff how to do their job better. But the truth of the matter is, clearing and re-setting tables in a timely fashion isn’t a simple thing. Bussing requires skill, training, timing, grace, hospitality, and efficiency.

Investment in Service

Because restaurants are in the business of earning profit through the pennies and nickles on every dollar, many restaurant owners choose to focus their support staff training in one area alone: clearing tables quickly. Typically, the instruction offered isn’t so much a formal training as it is daily tirades on the need to “move faster!”

The general lack of guidance and good coaching leads to all sorts of sloppy choices. Rather than challenge their staff to work smart, clean, and gracefully, the average restaurant leader pushes their support staff to cut corners, take shortcuts, and do whatever it takes to clear and reset a table in a timely way. Many business sacrifice the quality of their service over the long term in order to chase the short game of getting a single table cleared quickly. The result of this short term thinking: thousands of dollars of loss in breakage, lost silverware carelessly tossed in garbage pails, unhappy customers, and food that is mistakenly thrown away that has to be re-fired for a customer’s to-go request.

Continue reading “Service 101: The Importance of Bussing”

September 15September 15

Service 101: My Neighborhood Could Use a New Restaurant

Thank goodness the current state of the economy hasn’t stopped plenty of new restaurateurs from opening a new establishment. Since it’s my business to help people open restaurants, I’m incredibly proud of the places I have helped open because they all seem to fill a gaping hole in the food scene that myself and tons of others have been craving. But even with all the new businesses opening, a lot of us are left wanting for more.

So when the New York Times wrote a piece in which they polled the paper’s top food writers to find out what restaurants they wished would open soon in New York City, it got me thinking…What restaurants are still missing in my city and what do my top food blogging friends want to see in their town?

So, in hopes of inspiring a potential new wave of much-needed restaurant openings, I decided to reach out to a handful of my favorite food blogging friends to see what kinds of eateries they were longing for in their neighborhood.

Gaby Dalkin of What’s Gaby Cooking–Los Angeles

I would KILL for for a fun sandwich place like Beyond Bread in Tucson. They have basically every sandwich under the sun and then even more fun ideas that you’ve never thought of and 123980 kinds of homemade bread.

And I’d also like a killer pizza place that is super inexpensive where you can go and order a slice or two, eat it in the restaurant, and peace out for under 8 bucks.

Lucy of Ladles and Jellyspoons--Los Angeles

What I want? Not necessarily in any order: a simple traditional French bistro that served exquisite food, an English pub with great British food, a Jamie’s Italian (cheap Italian with amazing pasta), and last but by no means least, Ottolenghi’s Cafe and NOPI

Marla Meridith of Family Fresh Cooking–Orange County

We need everything [in Orange County]. High quality, chef owned restaurants would be a great place to start. I can’t stand all the corporate, low quality, big box restaurant chains.

Heather Christo of HeatherChristo.com–Seattle

Not a week goes by that my husband and I don’t whine about how there is no great Jewish deli in Seattle (you know, with real bagels, dill pickles and big sandwiches!) I would also give a toe to have Balthazar to plop right down into my neighborhood. And we are really missing great Italian food in this city- there are very few options.

And Me?

Well, since we’re making our wish list, I’d like to make an official request ~~plea~~ to Portland, Oregon chef Andy Ricker. Los Angeles could desperately use a Pok Pok LA or Pok Pok Wings on Fairfax would be a welcome addition to my neighborhood. I’d even go so far as offer relocation services to any of the Vietnamese restaurant families from Orange Country’s Little Saigon.

What restaurants are missing from your city?

August 12March 14

Why I love working in restaurants

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of work we can do in a day. Sometimes when our work becomes challenging, it’s important to slow down. It may feel like you don’t have a lot of time, but it’s important to take the time to appreciate what you’re doing. Because at the end of your day, don’t you want to remember why you do what you do and put in so much effort?

Make a gratitude list for your vocation

When I focus on the good that comes into my life because of what I do, the more happy I get. Making a gratitude list is a great daily practice and one that helps keep me grounded.

Here’s what I’m grateful for today:

The uniform may be the same, but no two days are the same.

Unlimited access to coffee. Lots of coffee.

The surroundings are inspiring. Everywhere I look there’s something (or someone) I want to know more about. Ingredients, techniques, style, craft, food stories, and big personalities abound.

Restaurant people are some of the hardest working, funny, dedicated, big-hearted people I have ever met. Every day they show me how to be brave, be strong, have faith, and be strong–no matter what.

If you pay attention, you can learn something wonderful every day.

Because repetition of a simple act can bring mastery.

Every day is a huge challenge. Every day has its own big rewards.

I may not eat all day, but when I finally do get a meal, it’s usually pretty mind blowing.

The light.

It’s quiet in the chaos.

I love food, knives, fire, movement, and the energy of a busy dining room. Oh, and I don’t do well in cubicles.

Tasting beautiful things is a job requirement.

What I learn at work, I bring home to my kitchen.

What are you grateful for?

July 8

Service 101: Keep an Open Mind

We live in a time when new is a marker of cool. In Los Angeles, the newest restaurant on the block often trumps well established culinary landmarks–not necessarily because of the quality, but for the newness of the food and the scene. The fickle dining public swarm to what’s new and eat through the menu until they have reached overload and the place becomes “played out”.

The rush to stay current often comes at a cost, since most trend-seeking customers have very little patience for growing pains. Even well-respected chefs who bring along with them their own built in audience, require time and an extreme amount of effort to work out the kinks. Opening a restaurant is hard. Going to a new restaurant is challenging. Customers and restaurateurs need to keep an open mind in the first six months of business.

Take for example a restaurant opening I was a part of a number of years ago before I was a consultant. The city of Los Angeles buzzed with excitement as a well-regarded chef’s prepared to open her third restaurant. The restaurant was speculated about in the city’s gossip rag (Eater LA) more than a year before opening.

Behind the scenes, a famous designer and architect was brought in to create a lush dining room from the shell of a worn out culinary landmark. The chef created new dishes and groomed hungry new cooks for lead positions. Management staff worked tirelessly day and night to hire a great staff, stock the shelves with the best china, flatware, sparkling crystal, and bottles of the best liquor and wine. Service staff trained for weeks on the culinary history of particular dishes, memorized detailed information on wines from around the world, and studied traditions of food regions in Europe.

As opening day approached, LA foodies speculated online about what the food would be like. High ranking Yelpers schemed how to snag a first night reservation so they could be the first to review the restaurant. Curious neighbors peered in through the curtained windows and pulled on locked doors.

The day the restaurant opened, men and women of all ages jammed the reservation lines. Fashionable movie stars and grown adults fabricated lies, elbowed their way to the front of the line, and dropped names in hopes to get the reservation they wanted from the host staff.

After months of non stop work, the team crossed their fingers and hoped that the night went as well as they hoped. The dining room was electric with anticipation as waiters in crisp white shirts delivered the chef’s newest dishes to the guests. Plates flew from the kitchen as the brigade in white worked against time, sharp knives, hot plates, and exhaustion.

Several hours later, when the last dessert left the kitchen, the chef joined the management team in the dining room to measure the energy level of the room. Guests scurried from their seats to congratulate the chef.

Professional diners–men and women who rarely cook for themselves at home and eat out several times a week–gushed with praise and sprinkled well-intentioned suggestions of where the restaurateur could improve. The customers were giddy with ideas: how to re-design of the restrooms, what level the music should be played at, suggestions on what direction to take the business in (catering! delivery! even more expansion!), how to cook a piece of meat, just how much sauce should be poured over a certain entree, the correct measurements on a particular cocktail, and just how many bottles of wine from a particularly popular vineyard in California should be purchased.

When the doors were locked and the music turned off, the chef swore under her breath.

“I’m happy to listen to constructive criticism,” she said. “Just as soon as any one of those people run their own successful restaurant.”
Continue reading “Service 101: Keep an Open Mind”

May 11July 4

Service 101: Partnership in Service

Service is a dance that requires partnership. A diner orders a meal from a waiter. A customer asks a salesperson for a pair of shoes in their size. A passenger requests a seat assignment from an airline booking agent. The sequence of service is the required steps of giving and receiving in business transactions. Unlike any ballet, however, plenty of participants are unaware they contribute to the outcome of the service dance. When one half of the partnership is belligerent, demanding, and unmindful of their contributions to the equation beyond the financial, often times the dance becomes contentious.

Customers may have a very clear opinion of the responsibilities of the service giver–complaining about customer service is de rigueur on sites like Yelp–but its rare for the patron to see past their financial role in the dance. The Red Door Cafe is a small restaurant in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco where each and every potential diner is made aware of their role in their service experience and the owner challenges every diner to take responsibility for their part in the service exchange.

Wake up and smell the coffee

My good friend and fellow service provider, Michael Procopio suggested I check out the small restaurant when I recently visited San Francisco. “The lines will be insane,” Michael said. “But you have to go. Really. You must.”

Upon reading up on the Red Door Cafe on Yelp, you’ll see 5 star reviews from diners who rave about incredible food, great service, and an untraditional setting for breakfast. But it isn’t until you arrive at the restaurant and take a good look through the big glass windows that you start to really understand that you are regarding a very unique establishment.

The 12-seat restaurant opens at 10 am, but you’ll more than likely find a line has formed outside on the sidewalk by 10:15. Unlike a typical queue for breakfast, however, the diners-to-be aren’t reading newspapers while they wait. Customers giggle and laugh as they cuddle tattered, plastic baby dolls and sip coffee from Easter egg colored bowls.

A sign in the window spells things out for the curious diner right away: This isn’t a restaurant, it’s an experience. Look around and you’ll quickly start to get an inkling that this place is different. Inside, you’ll see diners cavorting with plastic trolls and headless dolls. If you look close enough you’ll note the risqué, plastic items sold at most sex shops next to the salt and pepper shakers on every table.

Ahmed–known to his regulars as A.D. or Absolutely Delicious–is the gregarious owner/bouncer/server/host of The Red Door Cafe. He’s the man to speak to if you want to put your name on the clipboard wait list.

“I don’t let everyone into my restaurant,” A.D. says as he sashays outside to eyeball you and other potential diners. “You have to prove why I should let you in, honey.”

Continue reading “Service 101: Partnership in Service”

April 13May 25

Service 101: Vocation vs Career

I went and saw the documentary film “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” this week. If you haven’t been to the movies lately, I recommend you skip the big flicks and go check this one out. Grab a cup of coffee, make a reservation for sushi after the film, and slip into an hour and a half meditation on the passion and tireless commitment it takes to dedicate yourself to a life in the food business.

The filmmakers dive into the simple–yet vibrant–world of one of the world’s oldest and most respected sushi chefs in the world. If you haven’t heard of Jiro Ono, it’s probably because his perfect-star Michelin restaurant is tucked into an in an elbow of a corridor the Ginza train station. The space is the size of a walk-in refrigerator. A seat at Jiro’s will take you at least one month to get a reservation and will cost you about 300,000 yen.

Jiro will make you every piece of sushi. He will watch you eat every bite. The 85 year-old chef will not smile. He will measure you up. You will think he is judging you as he presses every glittering morsel of fish with his fluid hands.

Jiro is, without question, a man obsessed. Rather than retire, the chef works seven days a week. He holds himself to incredibly high standards and when he meets those impossibly high standards, he elevates them again. He is always striving to become better. As the documentary’s title suggests, the man eats, lives for, and dreams of sushi.

Jiro’s introduction to the audience comes with a deadpan monologue to the camera about his vocation:

“You have to love your job. You must work hard. You must work long days. You must not complain. You should be grateful for the work. You must enjoy dedicating yourself to doing what you do every day.”

Chef Jiro is a craftsman with simple ingredients. Every item is hand-picked and hand-crafted by true artisans of the food world. Jiro Ono may not be famous, but he is one of the most respected sushi chefs in the world by people who know good food.

Jiro dreams of sushi still — A still from "Jiro Dreams of Sushi"

Vocation, Not Career

Watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi reminds me about the importance of putting my time and energy into my vocation, not my career. Whenever I wake up with my mind spinning with to-do lists, restaurant priorities, and frustrations with situations beyond my control, I know I’m obsessing over my career. When my sleep is interrupted by an overwhelming feeling of excitement and anticipation for what the day may bring, I know I am working towards my vocation.

A career is something you do in hopes of achieving something. A vocation is a path you painstakingly carve for the love of creating beauty in the world.

Dedicating my life to my vocation isn’t always easy. There are plenty of reasons that come up every day that make me want to wrestle back my ego, start a spread chart on all the hours I work, and create slideshows dedicated to all the things that aren’t fair in the world.

A vocation requires surrender. In order to pursue a vocation, I must give up on the notion of success, prestige, and recognition. I have to submit to the idea that my work should be simple and beautiful. As the Quakers say, “Tis a gift to be simple tis a gift to be free.” In short, there’s a lot less pain and anxiety in a vocation. The challenge is wrestling one’s ego and pinning it to the mat.

So today, I remind myself to push back the drooping ivy of impossible deadlines and negative thoughts that block out all the light. Today, I dedicate myself to creating beauty in everything I do. Starting now.

March 17May 25

Service 101: Controlling Service

diners dining — No one can control how a diner responds to customer service

News flash: I’m not the boss of the world.

I know you know that. Most of the time I know that, too. The problem is, sometimes a tiny little piece of me really wants to believe I can control the way things go.

When a guest comes into our restaurant, I want them to love what we do and feel taken care of. To be honest, there’s a tiny piece of me that cross-my-fingers hopes that all the hard work everyone puts into our food and service will somehow change someone’s life.

But every day, I have to remind myself that how things work out in this world is not up to me.

How people perceive the things is entirely up to them. No matter how hard I try, I can’t sway the perceptions of others with my passion, commitment, and East coast willpower. I’m an Aries (read: ram mentality) and the first born of a Massachusetts family, so believe me when I tell you I’ve been trying to exert my will on everyone and everything for years.

The problem with my earnest, heart-felt customer service is that sometimes it backspins. It can hit customers the wrong way. In my earnestness to help I may come across as annoying, or worse, bossy. I may tell a guest something that looks and feels like a YES–but it may come across as a giant NO to them. There are days when my desire to get things right goes awry and the people I work with end up feeling more stomped on then helped.

Being the boss of me

It wasn’t until rather recently that I began to understand that my desire to help and my need to control outcomes was making me–and sometimes the people around me–very unhappy. When people didn’t understand what I was doing for them or to them, I got hurt, defensive, and overbearing. I tried harder to make people understand that my way was the best way rather than try to understand where they were coming from.

There were days when I felt like I was losing the battle in giving great service. I knew something was off. I knew I needed to change the way I did things.

For me, the first step in giving up control is having faith that everything will work out, as it should. I’m learning that if I want to be happy in my life and in my work, I have to accept the results as they come. And boy, is that a hard one.

Luckily, I have a lot of great people around me who are helping me get to a place of acceptance and surrender. These people–my committee, I like to call them–coach me to look at how I can work on myself and leave all the people, places, and things around me alone.

I have to stop making my will to get the things I want the largest factor in the equation of service. In order to be of service to others, my will can’t be bigger than other peoples’. I have to turn the greater than symbol towards love and compassion and put myself on the small side.

So I may or may not be able to make you happy when you come into my restaurant or you come to this website to read what I have to say. The thing I have to keep reminding myself is that As It Should doesn’t always look like How I Want. Everybody hates bad customer service. But customer service isn’t as pretty when it’s delivered like a sledge hammer.

“We should realize that this event [of eating and being fed, is a ritual]…The whole thing of compassion comes in there. What helped me was waking up and thinking of my penny catechism: “to know, to love, to serve God.” I don’t think of God as up there. I think of God as right here in whatever I’m knowing and loving and serving…”

—Joseph Campbell

March 1May 25

Service 101: Compassion in the Dining Room

Walk into the 24-seat restaurant I work in and within just seconds you’ll have the entire place sized up: cement walls, high ceilings, a pastry counter, an open kitchen, two tables that hold eight people, and one counter that seats another eight guests. That’s it. Often, we have a line of people that spills out onto the sidewalk of Wilshire Boulevard.

“Where’s the rest of the place?” is a common refrain I hear several times a day. Confused diners scan the room for a side dining area with a hidden cache of tables with extra seating. But our tiny foot print with two tables is all we have. So we have to get creative–which is why every seat in the restaurant is part of the communal seating plan.

Every once in a while, there’s a lull in service and there are plenty of seats to be had. During those quiet times guests seat themselves. Men and women leisurely toss jackets and bags over empty chairs, splay their newspapers across the marble tabletops, and order their meal without any idea that soon—when the glittering-white daylight of Santa Monica fades—a swarm of hungry customers will arrive hungry for food and a piece of what was once their personal space.

The transition between the quiet and busy times is where things tend to get a little sticky. When the number of guests waiting to be seated reach more than four people, the energy in the room shifts. You can feel the tension, as the people waiting begin to covet the single, empty chairs that separate the seated diners. It’s during these moments when the guests who are waiting for a spot need a special kind of assistance. The diners need my help in asking people to share some available space with them.

This isn’t the easiest of challenges a restaurant manager can face. Asking guests to do something for you requires a lot of diplomacy and humility, and even if you bring a lot of kindness to the table it still might not go well. It’s in these awkward moments outside the realm of our comfort zone, however, that magic sometimes happens.
Continue reading “Service 101: Compassion in the Dining Room”

January 26May 25

Service 101: Managing Expectations

Restaurant people like me need to know who our customers are and what they want and must ensure that our restaurant delivers a high quality product (great tasting food, wonderful atmosphere, and generous service) in a timely fashion. But what makes some restaurants more successful than others is the ability to define and deliver on the unspoken (or hinted at) expectations of customers. A lot of restaurant leaders call this part of our job managing expectations, but really what that means is that we are in the business of reading customers’ minds.

Customers may say they want a salad, but what they really desire is something much more complicated.

When I hear, “Don’t you have a simple salad with chicken?” I quickly run an internal algorythm (based on years of waiting tables and managing) that tells me what customers who typically ask this question want but don’t ask for. perhaps the customer really wants a simple green salad with the dressing on the side and a large portion of inexpensive, poached chicken put on top. The customer expects this salad to cost less than $12-14. The customer may like a smile from the waiter but may be opposed to any chit-chat. The customer may also be of the mindset that any white wine will do, so long as it comes in a big glass and costs less than $10. A customer who asks this question tends not to be adventurous and likes to stay in their comfort zone. Avoid selling specials to the guest, especially if there is an item on the dish that the customer has never heard of before (they will most likely hate the dish).

If you’re a simple salad with chicken person, just know that not everyone insists that every restaurant have chickens poaching in the back kitchen for moments such as this. I don’t mean this in an offensive way, I just mean to say that what your expectation is of a restaurant is much different than the I want a basket of bread and olive oil and balsamic vinegar customer, or the what’s the most popular thing on your menu person.

Expectations may seem like a clear goal that everyone should know, but the fact is, what we think most people should do is not a universal belief system. Expectations are just an individual’s strong personal belief that something specific will happen in the future. None of us know for sure what other people want, we just know what we expect and make guesses from there. Just ask any guy what women expect on a first and second date and you’ll get a whole range of answers. Because here’s the thing–unless the person holding the expectation speaks what they want aloud, no one will ever know for certain the exactitudes of their desires.

I like to joke that I’m honing my psychic powers while I work in restaurants, but honestly it’s true. That’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m constantly reading the energy and body language of my guests and gathering clues about what’s really going on below the surface.

What do you (really) want?

Let’s talk about general expectations people have of restaurants. For some people, hand picked heirloom tomatoes and small batch burrata mean more flavor. For other people, just the mention of the word heirloom sets their skin crawling and their BS meter on high alert. One guest may like hearing specials recited at their table while another customer may find that kind of thing obtrusive and verging on deceptive. Depending on the expectations, one restaurant could get a five star Yelp review for the same exact experience that garnered a one star review from another.

Getting clear on expectations

If you know what specifically makes you happy at a restaurant then it’s very easy to identify what rubs you the wrong way. Or what it looks like when something goes terribly wrong at your table. “Waiter, there is a fly in my soup,” you may say. Or perhaps you are compelled to call over a manager because your waiter seems to have forgotten you and your order. Regardless of what specifically the restaurant did to fail your expectations, how clearly you can express those shortcomings to the person offering to make the situation better will get you so much closer to a resolution.

Sometimes restaurant managers know how to do the right thing and are empowered to go and get it done. Sometimes they just don’t. In all my years in restaurants, I have seen plenty of mistakes happen. I do my best to sincerely apologize, offer a solution, and go a little bit farther for the guest to ensure I can turn the guest’s experience around.

exceeding restaurant guest expectations — Sometimes dessert is enough to turn a bitter experience into something sweet

You wouldn’t believe half the stuff I’ve done trying to win guests back. I apologize, stay away from excuses, take items of the check, and then do whatever I can to connect to the guest. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Along the way of managing expectations, I’ve seen miraculous things happen. In the process of being sincere and generous of spirit, I’ve seen smiles come from the unhappiest of people. I’ve gotten hugs of gratitude. I’ve even minted customers for life. But sometimes, no matter what I do or how much radical hospitality I give, I can not win back a guest. It’s as if that small mistake of a forgotten side dish or a loud song on the sound system were offensive acts perpetrated against these hurt individuals. It is as if I personally attacked them, when in reality all that happened was that someone pressed the wrong button in the computer or failed to get a dish to the table in a timely fashion.

But it doesn’t matter what happened when things go wrong. What matters most to you, the unhappy customer, is what is done to fix the situation. Right?

But what about you? What sort of responsibility does the customer hold? If you have high expectations but can not voice what it is you expect, or you can not accept any resolution that’s offered to you, do you hold any responsibility for your unhappiness?

customer service counter — How open are you to getting good service?

I do not, in any way, mean to lessen the responsibility of the restaurant in the equation of making customers happy. No way. But what I am supposing is that in every hundred customers who have their expectations met, there are a small percentage of people who will never be happy with any business (or personal) exchange, no matter how hard the business tries to make things better. I mention this because I hope that I might some day one of these posts might help one person realize that if they can never find happiness in any business exchange, maybe it might be time to look at working on the one constant in the equation.

High Expectations of Service

But here’s the thing about expectations–we all have them. How we deal with our expectations and how willing we are to be flexible with what is given to us is an important piece in our long term happiness. If we don’t get exactly what we want, do we experience profound disappointment? If we find people are consistently letting us down do we get angry, sad, resentful, or spring into action to make a change in our priorities? Just how far are we willing to go to be happy? Are we willing to be open to new experiences? Or do we only want things our way?

December 15December 19

Service 101: Opening a Restaurant

Opening a restaurant is grueling. You think you know the depths of hard work and then–just when you think you’ve got everything planned out–the undertow of the process takes hold of you and pulls you under. You never think a restaurant opening can be any harder than the last one you did, and yet…here you are struggling to keep afloat.

There’s no time to think about how many hours you’ve been working when you’re in the process of getting a restaurant ready for the public. Things go wrong. People drop away. Plans change. Equipment doesn’t show up. Things get hard. Then, everything starts to go great. And just when you think you’re about to catch your breath, something unexpected occurs. The doo-doo hits the fan and you’re challenged to push yourself even harder than before.

But when restaurants are your life, you can’t help but enjoy the dare. Can you go another hour without a meal? Is it possible to get one hour less sleep so you can do that one more task? In the big test of opening, the days end with meals that are barely chewed (inhaled, really), clothes are left in a hump at the end of the bed, and your face–covered in a thin veil of construction zone dust–gets a pillow case compress rather than a good washing because you can barely keep your eyes open. Your mind spins through through dreams in order to work out the last unconscious detail.

Yes, restaurant openings are demanding. But they’re also damn sexy.

The work builds camaraderie and professional growth. The work is so consuming, you can survive on almost no sleep or food–making restaurant openings a whole new kind of diet that helps you lose a few pounds while allowing you to eat whatever little tiny bit of decadent food you can wrap your mitts around.

Do enough restaurant openings, and you begin to realize you can do and learn more than you ever thought you could. You stumble upon little discoveries, like the way you short-cut a problem with a novel approach or great idea, or uncover a way to save the business a bunch of money by thinking outside of the box. Or find a deep well of kindness, rather than frustration. Continue reading “Service 101: Opening a Restaurant”

December 12January 2

Wishes Come True

Be careful what you wish for. Because if you really, really want something, you may actually get it.

For me, the big it I was wishing for had a lot to do with work. Back when I started this blog, my work in service excited me, but I could only see myself going so far as a server/bartender. So, after a couple of years of thinking about how I could expand my world in service, I dreamed big and started my own business as a service consultant. That choice to take a chance on the work I loved had me heading in the right direction of my aspirations.

The more I worked as a teacher of service, the more I discovered I needed to learn. I became a student of the masters of great service. I read lots of books. I took courses. I honed my craft and longed for alliances with like minded individuals. I began heaping finer points onto my wish: I want to be part of something bigger than myself.

My dream for living a life of service had me wishing for a job within a restaurant group–a collective of restaurants that felt approachable, served really great food (the kind of food I could get super excited about), offered incredible service, and employed big-hearted people who understood what it takes to create a comfortable environment for its customers and employees.

For a while there, I thought the only way I could have the kind of life I was dreaming of would require a drastic change in scenery, a move across country, and a complete overhaul of my life. Either that, or a lot of consulting gigs that could keep me busy enough to pay my bills and give me a little bits of what I was looking for in different locations.

Turns out, the life I’ve always wanted to live doesn’t require a moving truck or a major remodeling.

Wishes are coming true for me right here in Los Angeles.

The day I finished a great consulting job in Rancho Cucamonga, I started thinking to myself about my dreams of living a life of service. I started day dreaming about what would come next. For a moment, I worried how long it would take for me to find my next client.

And then, I checked my e-mailbox.

Within 48 hours, a whole new chapter in my professional life began. After almost a year of dreaming of becoming part of a small restaurant family, I have been given the opportunity to help run a small, 20+ seat bakery and pizzeria in Santa Monica. Though this is something of a departure from my consulting work, it is a pleasure to know I now have a full time home within a small, four-restaurant family known for their great baked goods, incredible market-fresh menus, heart-felt service, and a dedication to serving the community.

I couldn’t be happier.

But, for the record, making a dream reality, requires a whole lot of care and maintenance (maybe more than you could have ever imagined) to keep them alive and well.

If you dare to dream big enough, be ready for a lot of work.

November 30November 30

Service 101: Restaurant Openings

Restaurants are like movies. The restaurant business is a collaborative art form that requires talented people to transform an ethereal concept into something substantial and real. A script will only ever be a script until the vision and passion of a director, cinematographer, producers, cast, and crew transform the words on the page into a movie. The same is true for restaurants. No matter how many dishes you’ve cooked or recipes you’ve sketched out on a notepad, a restaurant isn’t a restaurant until there are cooks in the kitchen, a staff on the floor, dishes on a table and a paying customer at the door.

Restaurants–like movies–become something different once life is breathed into them. How the whole thing turns out is really up to something bigger than just one person. It takes a village to make a restaurant.

I may have moved across the country to learn how to make movies, but over the years I’ve come to understand that what’s kept me in Los Angeles is my desire and passion to make restaurants. Sure, I still have plenty of filmic stories percolating in my mind—the magical coming of age story, the comedy about bloggers, and the redemptive love story–but it’s the bustle of dining room service that captures my attentions and creativity.

I love the thrill of making restaurants come to life and sustaining them through the long haul. I relish in the potential of restaurants, the personality of a dining room, and the feel of a kitchen as it pushes out plate after plate on a busy night.

Dining rooms are full of passion, drama, characters, and unexpected plot twists and turns. In the best of times– when I’m working in restaurants peopled by an army of talented people–I relish in the camaraderie. I love how a team of professionals can band together, problem solve better than MacGuyver ever did, and keep the whole process from going off track. Even in the worst of times, struggling restaurants have a kind of beauty to them. Success that can be found after a long bout of breakage, waste, inconsistent food, employee shortages, and financial woes are some of the most gratifying.
Continue reading “Service 101: Restaurant Openings”

October 23

Service 101: Awareness

“Awareness is the birthplace of possibility. Everything you want to achieve begins here.”–Deepak Chopra

As a Service Coach, I observe restaurant teams in action and coach them how to win the game of earning customers for life. I take groups of service professionals from being average–and sometimes minor–players to being highly coveted members of an award-winning team. I help shape natural talent into something special.

Most owners understand the basic business proposition of giving their customers a consistent product. But what many people in business fail to identify and grow in their staff is the importance of making customers feel as if their needs were exceeded. Again and again and again. Businesses that take the time to help their staff be aware, listen, and foster an intuitive sense about what customers want, tend to be the winners in the game of making customers for life.

I am lucky to be a restaurant consultant who has the great fortune of working with smart and insightful people who understand the value of hospitality. These visionary business owners see the long road ahead of them, recognize the need to invest in customer service programs, and bring me on to help improve their game. Like most great leaders, my clients understand the value of getting assistance to sure up their weaknesses–way before a weaknesses become a failure.

The first step in successful coaching starts with observing. I can tell a lot about a restaurant within the first few minutes of watching them in action. Give me a corner seat, a handful of minutes during a busy service, and I can give you an accurate assessment of a restaurant team’s potential, problems, and requirements.

Following my initial observations, I show clients what I’ve learned from watching their dining room. I offer them information on how keeping a constant eye on specific areas of their dining room can result in obtaining key information about their diners and how to better deliver what they need. Even in some of the best restaurants, leaders may fail to identify key areas for improvement. I notice dropped napkins while staff members walk over them. I identify neglected customers and lost sales opportunities where staff members walk past in a rush to get another task done. In some especially hurting businesses when owners can only see business losses, I may find unlocked beer coolers and liquor storage areas, menus with confusing descriptions, managers with lacking leadership skills, and dining rooms with a personality disorder.

Awareness may be something we’re born with. Our modern lives drain us of the impulse to stay aware. Lately, it seems, most Americans don’t seem all that comfortable with awareness.

Continue reading “Service 101: Awareness”

September 8September 8

Life By Me

What is most meaningful to you?

That’s not a question most people have the chance to think about on a daily basis. But if you’re Sophie Chiche, the curator of the inspiring website, Life By Me, you get to contemplate that question every day. On the colorful pages of Life By Me, you’ll find readable interviews from contributors from all walks of life. Sophie documents great conversations with Nobel Peace Prize recipients, massage therapists, designers, visionary leaders, teachers, fellow blogger Chris Gillebeau, and people like me.

What is most meaningful to you in your life?

The speed of today’s modern world has many people devoting their time to the daily monotonous tasks. Without an internal compass driving you to find meaning in the small gestures or be useful in all your actions, the daily task of keeping on top of the bills, showing up to work on time, answering emails, and putting food on the table will grind you down. But small tasks can take on a whole new significance if done with the purpose of giving, devotion, and commitment.

Life is a precious commodity. Why fill up all the spaces with meaningless tasks?

I recently had the good fortune to answer Sophie’s big question of meaning, thanks to a friend who put in a good word for me. I urge you to clear a few minutes from your busy day to spend some time looking around this inspirational online resource. If you’re interested in finding out how I answered the big question of meaning, swing by the website and read my interview here.

Do yourself a favor and pay a visit to Life By Me. Sophie and her team have created a beautiful website that sparks hope, creativity, and a desire to find meaning in the small and big moments. Life By Me makes you want to take positive action in your life to create significance.

Is what’s meaningful to you an ever-changing target?
Or does one thing in your life give you purpose?

August 18August 18

Find Your Accountability and Visioning Team

visioning and accountability team — It takes courage, strength, hope, and help to make your Big Dreams come true

The Big Dream is hard to achieve when you don’t have anyone but yourself to rely on. You need strength, talent, and motivation to fulfill your desires, but self-will can only get you so far. If you want to be successful in realizing your Big Dream, you better have a few key people in your corner.

Just watch an Oscar speech and you’ll get an idea of just how many people it takes to make one person reach their Big Dream. Friends, family, colleagues, technology crews, and even wardrobe people become essential in making something as simple as acting work.

Who will you need to rely on to make your Big Dream come to fruition? Are you strong enough to ask for help? Who can you trust to give you honest feedback and keep you on point? Because let’s face it, the road to success is too difficult to navigate on your own. There are twists in the road, surprising perils, and unforeseen challenges on the way to The Big Dream.

You need help.

You need advice.

You need directions.

What you need is an accountability team.

Accountability team
An accountability team might be small (one person might be all you really need) or comprehensive (a handful of friends and colleagues who you trust), and be available to you for advice, perspective, mentoring, and guidance. The quantity of helpers isn’t nearly important as the quality of the people, because these individuals will demand that you stay true to your word and deliver on your promises. They must be strong-willed folk who won’t be distracted by excuses and will call your bluff. Your accountability team must be trust worthy, true to their word, and able to offer insightful advice that will push you to go further than you thought you could.

If you think you might want or need an accountability team, the first step is to identify The Big Dream. Got it? Great. Next up, decide if you are ready to make the commitment to support someone else on their road to success. If you can’t give 100 per cent to someone else, then there’s no expecting someone to give the same to you. Accountability teams only work if both parties are willing to put in the hard work. Are you prepared to show up prepared, ready, and excited every time you make an accountability date? Are you prepared to be accountable for the things you say you’re going to do?

Reaching out to others to ask for help and guidance isn’t always an easy thing to do. You’ll have to be vulnerable. You’ll need to have trust or faith in the people you turn to. You’ll have to be willing to take advice. You’ll need to share secrets or personal information. You’ll have to be humble enough to accept critical suggestions and feedback. You’ll have to give credit to others for their help.

Continue reading “Find Your Accountability and Visioning Team”

August 3August 16

Service 101: Slow Down and Vision Your Life (or Business)

Brooke Burton Service Leadership Visioning workshop — Leading a Visioning and Branding Workshop with the Ra Pour leadership team

The faster our society gets, the looser we get with our systems. We cut corners. We text and walk. We don’t read the recipe through to the end before we start cooking. We go to the grocery store without a shopping list. We show up to popular restaurants without a reservation. We don’t ~~prof~~ proof read. We start a blog without knowing what we’re really blogging about.

We let the sparkly light-show of the PROMISE OF SUCCESS blind us to the realities of the work required to achieve victory. We get distracted by the siren song of PROFIT and FAVORABLE OUTCOME and forget to create a set of guidelines or a structured plan to get us where we want to go.

The famous movie tagline “Build it and they will come,” is a great first act twist, but it isn’t what you’d call a solid business plan.

Look, most people don’t find the words “actionable objectives” and “sustainable culture” sexy. But I do. Because if you want to be successful in life or business, you have to know the steps that are required to get you where you want to go.

Not planning, organizing, creating a set of guidelines, or charting a course for success is why many great people and wonderful ideas fail. Businesses collapse. Movies with great first acts fall apart by the end of the second act. Restaurants shutter after a year. Overnight successes crash and burn under the pressure. Blogs are born, go strong for months with an unending steam of daily posts, and then spontaneously die. Continue reading “Service 101: Slow Down and Vision Your Life (or Business)”

July 21August 16

Service 101: Living A Life of Service

Mindful service — The key to life is service

Even though this blog is about the food industry, it’s also about exploring the world behind food. Past the great meals, restaurants, the work, and relationships with talented chefs–there’s the deep stuff that goes on between meals that’s vulnerable and important. The more I write about living a life in the service industry, the more I understand that all this service stuff has some pretty profound lessons to teach. I’m beginning to understand that at the core of the service industry are some fundamental truths that apply to just about everything. Life is all about service.

So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I’ve been dreaming about service lately. These aren’t the old fashioned anxiety dreams about restaurants that never close, or tables that never get taken care of. The dreams I’m having are more like intensive courses in philosophy that show me the meaning behind service. So I guess you could say I’m tapping into something bigger than me.

I think I might be onto something. Because here’s the thing, when I woke up from an intense nap the other day, I felt like I had been given a gift. While I was sleeping I got a message about what life is all about. And the message was pretty simple.

The key to life is service.

The dream had me buzzing for hours after I woke up. I felt a gentle and purposeful nudge that got me to the computer and compelled me to write–despite the fear that maybe you wouldn’t understand what I needed to say. Despite several drafts and the desire to delete this whole thing, I feel the need to tell you what I learned. Because I think this could help a few people.

What the heck does the key to life is service mean?

The key to happiness is service doesn’t mean everyone should drop what they’re doing and start waiting tables or work in restaurants. What I think it means is that no matter what you do for a living, it’s good to remember that at the core of what you do is service. Your work may feel like it’s to produce a certain product on time or deliver a specific kind of service in a reliable way. But the real truth is, your work is to serve the needs of someone else.

By definition, to be of service means one must actively help another or do work for someone else. So, regardless of the end goal or result of your personal work, everyone’s job hinges on an idea or a process to aid others. No matter what you do for a living–be you a scientist, an architect, a rock musician, a banker, a fisherman, a politician, a medical professional, a parent, or a baker, you name it–your role is to help people. Being of service should be the reason behind everything we do.

Whether or not we’re aware of it, we’re all in the business of being of service to one another.

I think the reason why so many of us are unhappy at our jobs is that we’ve forgotten this piece of the equation. In the rush to get our work done, we by-passed the primary goal of our work. Rather than keep in mind that our goal is to make other people’s lives better in some small or meaningful way, we focus on the minutia. Deadlines, emails, conference calls, technology, difficult bosses, co-workers that get on our nerves, and long hours take our focus off the true end goal and rearranges our priorities.

Continue reading “Service 101: Living A Life of Service”

July 8August 16

The Unhappiness Factor

One of the main goals of being of service, is to give to the customer what they want.

The problem is, many people in this world aren’t exactly clear on what exactly that is. Customers–people like you and me–get mucked up by all the No’s, the Should’s, and the Can not’s. We have a hard time getting to what we want and need because we don’t really understand what we will allow ourselves to have.