The customer is not always right. That’s true. There’s a whole website devoted to that concept. But what (S)Amy don’t get is that even when the customers aren’t right you have to treat them with respect – and if you’re getting large quantities of unhappy customers, the problem just might not be the customers.
One of the first things publishers tell their authors is not to respond to negative reviews. It only makes things worse (as Anne Rice found out). Somebody needs to beat that into (S)Amy’s heads.
Not entirely sure about Arizona law, but Federal law makes it illegal unless it’s assessed to the customer as some sort of service charge. I would be shocked if Arizona didn’t fall into line with this. Even if there’s a stated no tipping policy, if you want to give somebody money, the owner can’t stop you.
Tips given directly to servers are theirs and not the proprietors. The owner needs to know how much only to ensure their staff is being paid at least minimum wage.
I’m thinking big picture here. I’m quite curious about the two of them. What his real story is, what her background is. Guessing that VERY FEW people open a restaurant of any size with zero exposure to cooking as well as running a business.
Watched the actual episode twice. The person who should have started the restaurant is the server who got quietly tipped by Gordon. SHE knows PoS system, how to run a front of house, etc. If she can’t cook she can find a good chef to run the kitchen. But it sure seems to me that a big part of this train wreck is the seeming fact that neither of them have deep knowledge of or INTEREST IN a service industry.
Can Yelp fuck up someone’s shop? Yeah. My Dearly Beloved™ and I dine out frequently and the local places do get a hit or a bump based on the ebb and flow of Yelp and other social network feedback sites. No doubt. It’s the electronic cracker barrel. Lacking face to face, of course, the civility level drops into the sub-basement a lot of the time. I post to Yelp, rarely, if I’ve had a good experience. If I’ve had a lousy one I don’t. Why? Because one lousy moment is rarely indicative of a lousy place. We frequent a place down the block so much that we’ve become friendly with the owner and have plans to dine out with two of the servers who are dating each other. We’re deeply familiar with their menu. For the first time last week, we had a negative experience. ( Not a huge one either ). I can’t imagine running to Yelp to trash this establishment. They have a great track record in service, manners, innovative foodie combinations, style and overall energy. Meh- so we had one bad moment. We’ll live.
These two jokers should not be running this place- and I would bet that in 3-4 months when the novelty of going in there and being shit on by Samy has worn off, the place will trickle down and close up shop.
But I certainly recall episodes where that was exactly the case. Somebody worked a 9 to 5 job working for somebody else, then retired/quite and then invested their life savings/retirement fund/mortgaged the house/sold the kids to the sex slave trade/whatever to start a restaurant.
Just because they thought it would be a good idea.
And on those shows you could almost see Gordan himself shitting his pants when he heard the horrid details.
Nope, last night was a new restaurant. KN does do 2-part episodes when they have enough material, but that isn’t what happened. Gordon left before he could do the stuff he normally does in the 2nd half.
Perhaps, but how many people know that they react poorly to criticism? Nearly everyone thinks they have a REASON to be upset. Only people who are the most self-aware know their own problems like this.
