Customer Complaint Resolution / Student Presentations / Bubbly Tasting

Our next to last class started with a brief Odds n' Ends. Everyone spent the weekend working on their final projects, or are in the midst of working on them. Richard told a story of a friend who had a catered event on his boat in Nantucket this past weekend. His caterer canceled less than a week out before the event because one of the caterer's employees quit to work for this friend in some non-food capacity. The friend scurried and found another caterer hungry for work, and as it turns out the caterer did an excellent job, and now this friend has gotten this new caterer a ton of work, and the old caterer's name has been dragged through the mud in a wide circle of friends. Be careful who you choose to punish.

When a customer complains, they are saying, "I would like to purchase again. What are you going to do to fix this?" So when a customer does not complain, they just pay the bill and leave an ordinary tip, they have given up on the company and it is unlikely they will return. A non-complainer's rate of return has been measured at under 10%, but a complainer whose issue is NOT resolved has a rate of return of about 40%. Complaining is cathartic, straight up. And when a complaint is quickly resolved, rate of return shoots up to around 90%.

The non-complainers are the bane of restaurants, and leaving out comment-cards for the customer to voluntarily fill out is not a very strong solution. An owner who sits by dishwashing waiting for full plates to come back so they can approach those particular customers will only go so far. There needs to be management on the floor looking at everything at all times, looking at faces and looking at tables. This may not be a reasonable expectation of a small restaurant on a tight budget, but someone keeping their eyes on a dining room, who is smart enough to react, is a hallmark of a successful restaurant.

An angry customer needs to be handled correctly, appealing to the emotional need to be taken seriously and taken care of. These steps are a framework to defusing a customer on the edge:

• Listen effectively
• Empathize and apologize if necessary
• Determine problem
• Propose solutions and reach closure
• Follow through FAST
• Do something extra

The ultimate objective is to make the customer come back. But on the other hand, there are situations where the customer is a liar. Guytano told a story of a group of 4 who came in on Mother's Day and claimed to have a reservation, though there was no record of it -- they might of called the wrong store. They had to be worked in, and catered to, checked in on -- like the restaurant is doing them a really great service.

We did some role playing, with one playing the host, the other the complaining customer. It definitely takes some fluid thinking to stick to the customer resolution framework while dealing with wound-up, questionably sane members of the public.

One role play was illuminating. A customer calls to make a same-day reservation for a large party, under the gun from his employer. One of the slower students played the reservationist, and her solution when confronted with the insistent customer on the phone was to....pass him off to the manager. And I thought the last 9 months we were here in these classes was studying culinary....MANAGEMENT. The solution, after listening, apologizing, and stating that it's not possible was to what Richard called a "Holiday Inn". Holiday Inn's policy was to never have a 'no vacancy' sign. If a customer came in and there was no space, the Holiday Inn would call other hotels and find a space for the customer. Even though the customer did not spend money on the Holiday Inn, it was an opportunity to leave a good impression and offer something for when they are back to spend money. The reservationist could of made a reservation fro them at another place, and offered a round of drinks or something when the next time the customer does come in.

Next up we went through three student presentations of their business plans (which means we have 15 or so to get through on Wednesday, including mine), and then we tasted a number of sparkling wines. Nothing particular jumped out at me, the Spanish cava was ok, the Italian Prosecco fresh, the French champagne musty.

In the News / Business Plan Review / Sequence of Service / Other Reds

Like with the last few days of the school year every year up through high school, the last few days just feel...wistful, breezy, the last few grains popping through the hourglass. With Culinary Arts, we were jamming on our final buffet, with each student focused on pulling off three heur d'eurves. Now, we're just banging on about a template for a business plan for which much of the research will be made up, as there is not enough time to really get the information.

In the News was abbreviated, but dedicated mostly to pizza. Like last week's Bruni monologue on the state of the pie, this week brought a huge article in New York Magazine. The interview with Una Pizza Neapolitana's Anthony Mangieri made me want to just punch him in the face -- he's everything that is wrong with NYC pizza today. One thing that I really didn't like about NYMag's coverage is that it didn't really address where NYC pizza is going. Clearly, we're in a trend bubble and by this time next year many of the pizzeria's that have opened in the past 12 months will be closed.

Next up, Richard dedicated his time to reviewing the parts of the business plan template -- presentations start Monday. When mine is complete, all will be posted here.

Sequence of Service: basically what it takes to be a waiter or waitress. Up until now, I thought I could easily slip into this role with out experience. Now that we saw a training video for service staff at the Palm chain of steak houses....I definitely could be a server at a restaurant that doesn't suck as hard as the dickwads who are supposed to act like retarded monkeys towards the guests like at the Palm. I like service that is restrained and direct, clear and unobtrusive. At the Palm, they're all buddy buddy touchy feely, ick. SHUT THE F UP, I'M HERE TO ENJOY MY FRIENDS, NOT YOUR SMARMY ACTING!!

Still, there is a lot of detail work that goes into being a good server at a good place. Respect.

The class ended with a tasting of eight red wines, all of which tasted a bit like musty alchy vinegar, except for a barolo, that tasted like musty oaky alchy vinegar.

Legal / Financials

Again, felt a bit zoned out in school today. Only a few sessions left. We opened with a dry discussion of legal issues. In summary, do not discriminate in the hiring or servicing of protected classes. Also, most lawsuits against food establishments are nuisance suits, but cost a lot in time and money if they aren't settled out of court. There was some talk of natural vs foreign rulings (a piece of spatula in lasagna is foreign, a small bone in a fish fillet is natural), and the parsings of various courts.

Class was interrupted by a talk from a eco-conscious caterer named Mary Cleaver, who was not the most compelling speaker. I thought it was just me, but most of my fellow students found her wandering story of her wandering business both unfocused and hard to follow.

The rest of the class was a review of the financial spreadsheets we will have to present in our business plans.

Odds n' Ends / Restaurant Design / Business Plan Review

To be perfectly honest, I spaced out for most of this class. This is the last week. Monday and Wednesday of next week are business plan presentations, and Wednesday afternoon is graduation. Then we're dun, sun. There is a chance I may be TEACHING a once-a-week culinary class to high school students come Fall, and if that happens, with permission of the organization will be blogging about it here.

Anyway, odds n' ends was dedicated to discussing what we saw at Blue Smoke. Richard levelled with us, saying every time he's eaten there he thought the food was lacking. Once, he brought a management class there for their school dinner and the service and food was so over-the-top poor, the restaurant comped the whole meal and invited them to come back.

It IS a Danny Meyers restaurant, and there is a level of service and precision not expected in other restaurants, especially in a casual concept like Blue Smoke. Still, the employees who work in a place like this are different than one who would work in, say, Union Square Cafe -- Blue Smoke has the highest staff turnover of all of Meyer's restaurants.

Richard also went into a few details of the smokers we saw -- these pieces of equipment are so large and unwieldy, they had to be craned over the entire 15 story building and dropped into the backyard and slid into place. The 15-story exhaust flues that are tacked on to the side of the building needed a number of variances from the Department of Health, Department of Buildings, the condo board and on and on. Regardless, the cost and inconveniences of the smokers were built into the the idea of the restaurant from day 1. Literally, the whole concept is built around these very difficult-to-obtain fixtures.

Most of the day was comparing floor plans, casual versus luxury, and the flow. The story that is told when you first walk in is designed. If the first thing you see is a host and monster bar, that's different that a long hallway that opens up on a maitre'd station and a baby grand piano. The experience is designed.

We reviewed some ADA guidelines (a wheel chair must be able to turn in a 5 foot radius in a rest room) and logic of placement of different stations in a working kitchen. Class wrapped up with Richard showing us his CAD drawings of the coffee shop he once owned and ran, and a review of the excel spread sheets that we will fill in for our business plan finals.

In the evening, the majority of us met up at Peryali in the Flat Iron District for our final meal. It was good, with an obscene amount of wine. Funny how well you get to know people without even being aware of it.

Blue Smoke / In the News

Today we met in class briefly, before heading out to Blue Smoke for a tour. The dining section this week in the NY Times was remarkably thin, and content-wise filler like what to do with left-overs were disturbingly dumb. However, Bruni's big piece on pizza was pretty cool. Richard thought he was too hasty in deciding to write about just post 2004 pizzerias (the year Franny's and Una Pizza Napoleatana hit), but I kinda agree with Bruni: the pizza restaurants that have opened up since then are by all accounts place pizza in a different kind of light that the older, classical places do. Maybe it's not totally fair to not compare them (as some older joints are simply better than the new joints), but the pretense of 'fancy pizza' is not really shared by any older places.

We briefly looked at a kitchen layout, a before and after of a real working restaurant, to point out the logics of flow and traffic in an industrial kitchen. Then we all picked up and walked over to Blue Smoke, on 27th between Park and Lex. It's part of Danny Meyer's Union Square hospitality group, which includes a lot of good and very varied places, from Union Square Cafe to Tabla to Shake Shack. We arrived around 9, and were met by the managing partner who was, simply put, seemed to have his shit together and all together happy with what he's doing with his life. He told us of his 17 years with the company, helping to open up the restaurant in the week right after 9/11, the adjustments to the concept and the systems as they started up.

He handed us off to the head of front of house, 13 years with the company, who started as a bus boy and worked his way up. He showed us the premises, the jazz club below, the prep kitchen. Then the chef showed us the main kitchen, all the stations, and the two huge smokers. Gas-fired, wood-fueled, with large flues in the back of the building that rose all the way up 15 stories to vent the smoke. The pork butts and ribs looked spectacular, I must say.

The common thread among the three people were that they started with the company many years ago at a low level position, stuck with it and rose, worked insane hours, now get paid and have benefits, with the first one actually sharing in an ownership stake. All three are clearly hard working, and get a buzz from the intensity that comes with working in a restaurant. I understand that -- when you work 6 14 hour shifts in a row, it's actually cool if it speeds by with constant action and you actually save money by not doing anything else. -sigh-

Leases / Wine Tasting

I missed class on Monday, due to the extended weekend, a baby who endlessly fascinates, and an upended sleep schedule. The two subjects were restaurant design, including an exercise in putting the pieces together on a sheet of graph paper, and business structure. The former, I'm not too upset about missing, as I feel I have a handle on design and the logic of flow, but think I may have to go into the book and see just what kind of company I want to run in the future and why -- a Limited Liability Company? A sole proprietorship? Etc?

Today, we reviewed leases, briefly looked at layout, and then tasted a wide variety of red wines. Leases: you gotta read 'em before you sign 'em. Residential leases have lots of government regulation -- even if you don't read it carefully, you're relatively protected. With a commercial lease, however, what you sign is what you're in for, with some reasonable exceptions.

Never sign a commercial lease without professional oversight. Not necessarily an attorney, but someone with experience who ca tell you how a lease will effect you -- effect you with what is there, and effect you with what is NOT there.

If the business owns it's building, that obviously is an asset that can be sold along with the business. In the case of renting a space, length of lease determines the value of a business. You can have the most fabulously successful restaurant, but if you have 1 year left on your lease, no one in their right mind would buy it from you until a new lease is negotiated. If you're rocking and you have 15 years left on your lease, then you're in the money.

Landlords tend not to like restaurants -- it's not uncommon to see available storefronts with a sign that says, "no restaurants". Though restaurants close pretty much as often as any other kind of business -- but there is the perception of volatility. Then there is the garbage, the smells, the pests, drunk customers, late hours, fire hazards, etc.

The lease is made up of clauses. Though not exhaustive, these are the big guns:

• Rent Structure: How you pay. Typically a fixed lease, where rent is determined by a schedule or formula, increasing from beginning to end. There are percentage leases, where rent is a percentage of gross sales, which means it will be in the interest of the landlord to drive traffic to the business, like in a mall. A Consumer Price Index lease ties rent to inflation (or, as the case may be nowadays, deflation.)
• Taxes: Percent of real estate taxes that the tenant is responsible door. This is pretty straightforward, but what if the government reassess the real estate tax and doubles it? Could be a business killer. In the lease, the clause could establish a sliding scale over time for whatever increase (or decrease) happens.
• Conditional Liquor License: Lease is only valid if a liquor license can be procured. If you sign a lease to open a bar, then the bureaucracy denies you a license, well...
• Construction: Will you be allowed to do what you want to do? Landlord may require specific approvals, or his own approvals, Time frame: typically there is a rent abatement period for construction. Access: while building out, you and your crew needs to be able to get in. Also, ownership -- who will own what is constructed, that is attached to the building?
• Utilities: You want individual metering, so you pay for only what you use. However, if there are common areas, a percentage based on traffic projections may be in order.
• Quality Standards: If you propose a pizzeria, a landlord can write into the lease that you will be a pizzeria, going so far as to define how much you sell of what. On the other hand, the leasee can get 'exclusivity' -- if in a mall, here you can assure that the landlord will not open another pizzeria in the complex.
• Time Standards: Times the operation is required to be open or closed. In a mall situation, this is pretty stringent.
• Insurance: Liability. Landlord will want you to carry some.
• Duties of Repair: Who is responsible for fixing what, in what time frame?
• Demolition / Eminent Domain: What if the government clears the land and forces the landlord to sell? This clause can assure that the renter gets a cut.
• Union: If the building is unionized, it'll probably require the business that come in to also be unionized.
• Code Violation: If the building is not up to code, who is responsible? The codes change all the time...
• Assignment/Sublease: The right to either assign the lease to another party, removing your own name from the lease. Or subleasing, where you are still on the lease and bear responsibility, and the subleasee pays you. With assignment, the onus is on you to find someone to take over your lease. At the same time, the landlord can restrict who you can assign to.
• Personal Guarantee: You promise to pay, no matter what.

The last couple of hours of class were dedicated to tasting eight red wines, sniffing, discussing what fruits it smells like, food matching, etc. I'm still of the belief that wine by itself is not very appealing, but when drank with rich food, it comes into it's own, becoming a flavor enhancer. As with every class, I'm amazed how gross the thick sweet stuff like port tastes, but when matched with something savory or stinky, the layers of squiggly flavors race across each other making the most wonderful new flavors. But to serve a flight of 8 dishes for eight wines would probably push the school's budget.

In the News / Costing Beverage / Architect

Class started with a short In the News. The NY Times had a stunningly boring article detailing the details of a superior hamburger, but didn't really add much to the canon.

There was a cool article, however, on the recent state of NYC food carts. Up until the downturn in the economy, there was peace upon the streets of NYC. Food cart permits were cheap and few and far between. They were handed down within families, as well as locations and street corners. The city was not much involved -- it only gave out 3000 licenses, and the licenses can be renewed by mail every two years, forever and ever. Because of lax enforcement, many carts are not inspected, or have expired licenses, or no licenses at all.

Now people who are being laid off from white-collar jobs and speak English as a first language are investing in food carts to deliver a different level of food to the streets. They get their permits, and then go wherever they are legally allowed to go...and into direct conflict with the underground economy of the long established immigrant class. When a new truck rolls up on a corner that has been claimed by a cart family without challenge for 20 years, there is going to be conflict. Used to be when two vendors got into a tiff, one would call the cops anonymously because everyone undoubtedly were doing something illegal. These food cart trucks tend to be on the up and up, and the old economic model is turning to intimidation and violence as leverage.

The sad thing is, because of the inadequate bureaucracy, the city is losing a ton of money and has little real power over the food carts. A vendor of a new fancy ice cream cart is quoted as scoffing that he pays a few hundred dollars for a permit, when his business model would allow him to pay $5000 a month during the warm season and still be profitable.

There were small pieces on the food shows -- the Fancy Food Show had a 25% rise in attendance, while the tone of the piece on the Unfancy Food Show as equal parts snobby and dorky -- why the NY Times sucks.

Next up was an exercise in costing out a mixed drink. Unlike a recipe card, each cost card is per drink, not a batch of drinks. Most booze is in liters and recipes in ounces, which is annoying, but even more annoying is perusing the price sheets for booze vendors. For a bottle of Bombay Gin, you have about 10 different prices. Half are for NYC and half for NYS (different tax and control procedures), and within each category different prices on different size bottles and discounts depending on how many cases you purchase.

The second half of the class was a field trip to an architect's office to talk about how we, as restaurateurs, would communicate and deal with an architectural firm, from initial concept up through plans detailed enough for a contractor to build from with precision. The architect went around the room and asked each of us our concept, and teased out some details that would help a design firm get on track.

Some of us had pretty clear ideas of what we were going for, and when one didn't, the architect was pretty concise in trying to get clarity. One student kind of scattershot mentioned a lot of different things she liked that she would like to see in her operation (mosiac! bar in middle of room! stage! fountain!) and the architect basically asked what is the focus? Do you want a candyshop vibe, a restaurant vibe or something else?

I had a pretty concise statement of what I wanted (Jewish Italian Grandma style filtered through an Eames lense) and didn't get any appreciable feedback. Guess I can skip hiring a design firm and just get some hacks to have the plans drawn up and approved by the city?

Richard, a few students and I went to a pizzeria nearby the archictect's office afterwards, not very good pizza but fun to be snarky about the menu, decor and oddly-pacing owner with some like-minded fellows and fellowettes.