Given the difficulty of getting people into restaurants these days, you’d think that once you got there, they’d be happy to see you. But a certain breed of establishment, the type that cares more about getting Page Six dish than dishing out good food and service, is still upholding the standard of rudeness that gave New York a bad rap in boom times. Pete Wells’ experience when reviewing Hotel Griffou, started by veterans of the Waverly Inn, Freemans, and La Esquina, sounded familiar:
I checked in on time for an 8 p.m. reservation. “Three people?” asked the man at the desk. No, four, I said. He replied, with evident sorrow, that he had me down for three.
“I called a couple of hours ago to change it to four,” I said.
“Our reservations line closes at 5,” he said, as if he’d caught me. Why did it matter? At every restaurant I’ve seen, a three top is a four top missing a chair.
Not at Hotel Griffou, where we were sent to the bar while someone hunted down our table. The restaurant has four dining rooms, and we had an excellent view of one, a bright space with long beer-hall tables that sat empty. We imagined that they were being held for a group. Naturally, this is where we were seated, 50 minutes after we had arrived.
I am still getting over the rudest restaurant service I’ve ever had. It was at a downtown no-reservations restaurant in 2005, during the height of that restaurant’s popularity. Two of us arrived at 7:30 to put our names in for a table of three – our friend was meeting us there at 8pm. At 8pm, we were informed that a table might be available any minute now.
“Where is your friend?” the host said. “We can’t seat you unless the entire party is here.”
Our friend was nearby but lost, circling the block in a cab, since the restaurant was in a very hard-to-find location. We offered to start ordering right away but still were denied the table until all of us were there. Meanwhile, the location of the table was a mystery – all we could see open was a two top by the door. The host checked in another time, and by the third time at 8:10, he was having a conniption.
“Where is your friend? She really needs to get here now. I have a 20-person VIP birthday party here tonight! If your entire party isn’t here, we’re giving the table away.”
When we offered – again – to start ordering immediately, even taking the missing person’s order over the phone, the host refused and said, “If you can’t sit down in the next few minutes, I can’t guarantee that there will be another table available for the rest of the night.”
When our friend arrived seconds later as promised, we were finally seated by a waiter – at the two top with three chairs pulled up. The bullying host eventually circled back to check on things and seemed surprised that our friend was actually a man – a very tall, pissed off man. Needless to say, we found little comfort in the “comfort food,” but at least Ivanka Trump at the table next to ours got wonderful service that night.
The place? Freemans. What a surprise that one of the owners of Hotel Griffou learned his manners there.
What was the rudest service you’ve ever received? Feel free to share it in the comments. And I’m not talking about just bad, absentminded service – I’m talking rude!
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bellastraniera
a.k.a. Marcy Swingle - obsessed with food and fashion.
So, my wife and I are dining at an outdoor patio restaurant in Pasadena. After taking our lunch order, he sees some guy walking down the sidewalk, climbs over the railing and chases him. “Bob! I’ve been looking for you! We need to talk business.”
The waiter and Bob walk down the street and turn the corner. The other couple out on the patio looks at us and we all shrug. We drink our bloody marys and talk. It becomes clear that the waiter isn’t coming back soon. That business must have been really important. After 20 minutes, I got the owner. The owner, to his credit, was infuriated that his waiter disappeared and left customers hanging. He told us that the waiter was fired and that our meals would be paid for out of his tips. The story ends well, but what could be more rude than the runaway waiter? (well, lots of things, sure.)
I made the mistake of going to a West Village Thai joint for dinner with three friends the very same day it received a glowing review in the Times. Since I had met the owner a few weeks before I asked the host in a low-key manner, “Is Andy here?” hoping that we might get seated sooner. Yes, it was kinda crass to think we might be able to skip the line and yes I did ask him several times again discreetly if he had a table, but what he said to me just before we sat down was inexcusable. He cozied up next me on the banquette as we waited for the table to be set and said something to the effect of; “Let me tell you a secret. When you know the owner of a restaurant, you need to be subtle about. It’s all about eye contact.” I was completely demoralized by this self-important gatekeeper’s lesson in social graces. Thankfully the food at Rhong Tiam was quite good that night, but I haven’t been back since.
Ha – both good ones. Joey Deckle I think you should have responded to that guy: “No, let me tell YOU a secret. When you know the owner of a restaurant, you can tell him who deserves to be fired.” As subtly as possible of course.
Oh god – nothing infuriates me more, especially in these tough times, than a rude, pretentious, spazzy staff. I wrote about the west village restaurant De Santos a few months ago, terrible: http://mynyplate.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-review-de-santos-tambien-conocido.html
So awful. I haven’t been back of course, but I’d be delighted to know that it’s closed by now!
I don’t know if this would qualify as “rudest service ever” but it certainly goes into the boondoggle bin – the recent pig roast hosted by Il Buco. $20 and time on line got us raw sausage, a couple of slices of pig fat, bread (with 2 slivers of pork), a heap of salad and 1 ricotta fritter about the size of my thumb (and I have tiny hands). Gross. We were not the only ones to notice this. When confronted with the question “why are you serving pig fat” the woman behind the serving table said “it’s a very fatty pig”. Right. Never got an answer about the raw sausage either, they instead just gave me another raw sausage. I will never go there for anything ever again.