Service 101: Partnership in Service

Brooke Burton Red Door Cafe San FranciscoService 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.”

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Service 101: On Getting Great Service

great service at Hotel Langham

When you become part of the food industry—be it as a waiter, bartender, busser, sommelier, manager, prep cook or chef—you begin to see the world of restaurants in a different light. You recognize restaurants for what they are: an unpredictable canvas colored by impulsive personalities, precarious technology, a collection of various talents, and volatile products.

And yet, despite how many service industry professionals there are in the world, it’s a wonder how few great service experiences there are to be had.

We restaurant people know the naked truth and bitter reality of what it takes to create a great dining experience and aren’t shy to express our opinion of how others in the service industry are doing. Because, though we may not be on duty, restaurant professionals are almost always observing, tracking and scoring service and the quality of the food we consume–even if it is just a taco from a shiny truck on a street corner.

It’s rare when restaurant professionals have a great meal or impeccable service. But when we do, we’re sure to tell everyone we know about it. Great service is just that rare.

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Zingerman’s: The Service

“Zingerman’s is the only deli-and-service nirvana I know” –Eating Well

When it comes to eating out, I’m obsessed with finding good food and great service. It’s hard for me not to, since I work in the restaurant business. In the words of my sweet, generous husband, I tend to “go all Norma Rae” on service issues. When I see bad service and poor management, I want to stand up on a table and say “It’s all about great customer service!” But then my husband reminds me that maybe that kind of behavior will either get me carted away by the police or fired. I take this stuff very seriously. Maybe a little too seriously.

When I find great food, I’m elated. When I find a passionate server or bartender, I clap like a giddy school girl. When I find both great food and great service (which, unfortunately, is rare) I become a volunteer spokesperson for the joint.

Unlike many diners, I always walk into restaurant ready to love it. Based on my numerous years in the restaurant business, I know my eagerness to see a place succeed is just not the norm. Call me the optimistic pessimist. When it comes to dining out, I always want to believe that something great can happen.

The thing is, so few restaurants want to put in the time and effort to create a great experience for the diner from the front of the house (the service staff) to the back of the house (the kitchen staff). The food may be well thought out, but the service staff is neglected and left to their own (bad) habits. Or the service could be impeccable and the food is sub-par. Getting both parts of a restaurant right is very, very hard.

Can I get a drum roll please

Which brings me back to Zingerman’s. I know. I’ve been writing a lot about that place this week. But after all the writing (okay, I’ll say it, cheerleading), I would be short changing the place if I didn’t take a moment to express how impressive Zingerman’s trademark service is.

Beyond the incredibly delicious hand picked heritage foods and their artful presentations, Zingerman’s well-trained staff is always attentive, ready to help, knowledgeable and prepared to go the extra mile for the customer.

On a recent trip, my mother in law was presented with a handful of balloons (that had to be painstakingly filled up on-the-spot) when she mentioned it was her son’s 40th birthday. Sandwiches were hand delivered with a smile by an employee that that had to search the two floor dining room in order to find us. Our Roadhouse server, seeing that I was an information hungry foodie, answered all of my food related questions and offered historical background for many of the dishes. Ari Weinzweig, owner of Zingerman’s, went out of his way to make myself and my family feel welcomed and appreciated. He even took the time to find and read my blog after I mentioned it to him. At the Roadhouse he even filled our water glasses while telling us the story of the Pennsylvania sweet corn.

Me and Ari Weinzweig (my hero)

Every time I visit Zingerman’s, I’m blown away by their can-do attitude.

How do they do this? By dedicating huge amounts of time and effort into their people. To borrow the words of Ari Weinzweig, my service hero and author of Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service, in order to give great service one must:

1. Teach great service
2. Define great service
3. Live great service. The management staff spend enormous amounts of time walking the walk of great service by actively showing their staff how to give good service.
4. Measure it.
5. Reward it.

If you’re in the service business and take your job seriously, you ought to buy yourself a copy of Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service. It will teach you everything you need to know about getting successful results for great service.