Burnt Hands Perspective
This is a raw and unfiltered look into the state of the restaurant industry as a whole, powered by longtime friends Chef/Owner Antonio Caruana and former bartender turned News Anchor/TV Host Kristen Crowley.
Representing all aspects of the industry from the front to the back of the house we will dig into the juiciest stories and pull from decades of experience in one of the sexiest and most exciting industries in the world...the food and beverage industry.
From international chefs, sommeliers, industry pros, and so much more, this show will cover all of it without a filter. You turn up the volume; we'll turn up the heat.
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Burnt Hands Perspective
I Know the Owner, VIPs, Kids: Customer Entitlement In Restaurants and How To Deal With it
"I know the owner", "Why don't you have high-chairs", and more... the entitled customers we deal with and how to handle them. Let's Go!
We celebrate one year of the podcast by going in and tackling the growing problem of customer entitlement in restaurants, exploring how post-COVID culture has changed expectations between diners, bartenders, and staff.
Chef Tony gets real on the following:
• Balloons and party decorations disrupt the dining experience for other guests and damage the restaurant's ambiance
• Free birthday desserts aren't standard at fine dining establishments. When serving dozens of celebrations nightly, it becomes financially unsustainable
• Children in restaurants isn't about disliking kids, but about parents who don't manage behavior in adult dining environments
• Dress code violations range from revealing clubwear to pajamas, reflecting a lack of respect for the establishment's atmosphere
• VIP status is determined by staff based on relationship, respect, and patronage - not by customers claiming special treatment
• "I know the owner" claims are rarely meaningful and won't result in preferential treatment, just stop.
• Quality food and cooking takes time, and customer impatience won't speed up proper preparation techniques
What else? What did we miss that drives you crazy as a worker OR as a customer? We want to know!!! Comment below...
Also, if you've enjoyed this season of Burnt Hands, please subscribe to our podcast and follow us for updates on Season Five. Your support means everything to us! Every follow and subscribe helps us grow and continue to do what we do, so smash it for us and get ready for year two!
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And action it is. Did you see that I?
Speaker 2:love that. That was it we should actually keep that in.
Speaker 1:We are Definitely Just to do it.
Speaker 2:Anna needs a cameo into the show. Here we are.
Speaker 1:You got the fit on today and you're looking dope.
Speaker 2:I came a little underdressed for this obviously you got the burnt hands, but this is the last episode of season four, so episode 13 of season four. So it has been officially one year tomorrow that we launched the podcast. One one year tomorrow that we launch the podcast.
Speaker 1:One year tomorrow already.
Speaker 2:Yeah, isn't that crazy.
Speaker 1:We have to have a party.
Speaker 2:Well, we are having a party.
Speaker 1:Oh, we are. No, no one told me about it, you're actually supplying the food. Ah, here we go. There's the catch right there, totally.
Speaker 2:Here's your bill. Here's your party. All right, Love it. We figured so. This one's on you and customers and customer experience. So we've had a lot of questions. We asked for questions. It's a crank-off. It's a crank-off competition.
Speaker 1:When you said that out of your mouth, did you think oh, here he comes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did. I always question what I say, but I know what's going to happen so it's fine, here he comes. Hey, listen I got more Pale Horse coffee in my head right here because it's early.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, they are right next door.
Speaker 2:We thank them for fueling the podcast throughout the entire season they get a lot of plugs, don't they? They do actually.
Speaker 1:They need to give us more god damn, we need some more support right, give us more coffee, yeah right, we need a coffee tab over there so we're going to talk about customer entitlement customer entitlement something fun that people have brought up because, um, from the owner, chef and staff point of view, we got to talk about the how the culture has changed, post-covid entitlement in general.
Speaker 2:So we're going to run through topics and you get to go ahead, say whatever the fuck you want to say I'm gonna say what does that work?
Speaker 1:yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 2:Everybody's waiting, so look at them, they're all it's it's patient, so we touched on this one before, because we already touched on this, and it's not that you, you hate fun. I mean, I think you love fun, but you hate balloons in the restaurant. So let's talk about birthdays first.
Speaker 1:Yes, all right, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 2:Not that you hate fun, but you do hate balloons. So you have rules here in the restaurant. We talked about this, I think in the back, like season one or two. We had this conversation about balloons and that you do not allow them in the restaurant.
Speaker 1:I don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a fact and here's why you know what. There's different restaurants that have different things right and some of them allow them. That's the type of place. But most places that spend a lot of money on making sure the ambiance for everybody and the vibe for everybody is the same. We all go through this and some people don't. They don't follow through on not liking it, they just accept it right and it sucks. Because here's what people don't understand when you come into a restaurant like this, which we can't turn the cameras around and show everybody what it is here, but you can Google it.
Speaker 1:You can Google it. Yes, please do wwwluchesecondocom With.
Speaker 2:O's.
Speaker 1:With O's. It's not Segundo, it's Secundo, secundo, secundo, let's see. So anyway, you look at that up and you check it out and you'll see it's white tablecloths, very fine. We do the best we can for the area as far as bringing the fine dining and we really pride ourselves in it. Now, what people don't understand when you're going into a fucking restaurant okay, you're going in to celebrate something You're basically bringing in balloons, confetti, the big thing that says 25, you know what I mean. All the party favors and all that shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, you're coming into a restaurant. You're not renting a private hall right, it's not your own space. It's not your own space. You're not renting the table for the night. That table is provided for the food you're purchasing. Yeah, yeah, and the experience you're getting and the experience you're getting. So if you're sitting at a table and you bring these balloons in and everyone gets all, why can't we do it? This is crazy. We bought these things and this is absurd. No, it's not absurd. Let me tell you why.
Speaker 2:Please do.
Speaker 1:The people next to you could be there for a totally different reason.
Speaker 2:They're not your party.
Speaker 1:They're not in your party. They could be there because somebody's family passed away, or maybe they're mourning somebody, or maybe their spouse or their child is in the hospital down the street and they're here to just get something to eat while they're doing it. You don't know what someone else's circumstance is right.
Speaker 1:No that's true. Why do people have to sit here and stare at your party when they weren't invited? They weren't invited to your party. You can't just open up a party in a restaurant and act like you don't like no one. This isn't the park, where you grab a hibachi underneath the canopy and you just go crazy. You bring whatever you want. You bring whatever you want. No, that's a good point.
Speaker 2:You bring your people in coolers.
Speaker 1:So nobody you don't know why everybody's here. Some people are here on their first date. They don't really want to. They want to wear a nice dress, they want to look really good and they want to look for a really good experience that adults would be at, not a balloon hitting them in the head. You know what I mean? Because the wind or the air condition is moving or rattling away or the balloon gets caught off and it goes up into our ceiling and now we have to take that thing down because everyone's looking at that all night. No one knows that when you were here at a six o'clock reservation and you're gone and your balloon went up in the ceiling and we can't take it down because there's a full dining room, well, the eight o'clock people come in and now they're seeing balloons up in the ceiling.
Speaker 2:It just looks tacky. It just looks tacky.
Speaker 1:It looks like you don't take care of business and they don't know that that just happened. There's a million reasons why I guess not a million.
Speaker 1:That's a lot there's 112 reasons why you shouldn't do that. It's rude, it's disrespectful, it's only cool for you. If you're bringing all this stuff into your table and you're willing to have that type of party, then you should have had that party somewhere else and then came back and enjoyed dinner. That's my take on it. That's my restaurant, that's my rules, that's how I do it. We're very, very honored that you come here for your birthday. Don't get, get me wrong.
Speaker 2:We love it well, but you guys do like you know, you do the little placards, you do, you do a card like I mean there's other things you can do. So if someone does like rent, like the private room, they can bring the words back there yes, you can rent the private room that comes with that. You can do that there as a general rule for diners or people that are customers, like, yeah, if you want to decorate, rent the room right. Like, do a space, don't pull it into the restaurant.
Speaker 1:Don't be so shocked when a restaurant owner or maitre d' or host says that we don't do that. It's not uncommon to not want your party to interfere with everyone else's dining experience. We are trying to provide a consistent experience for everybody and you breaking that consistency is a problem With. That being said, let's move on to this, because now I'm getting heated.
Speaker 2:You get pissed off about the balloons, I know. Well, no it's actually going to bring a whole thing of balloons today and just put it behind him just to fuck You're just running late, though I was late. I'm never late, so I didn't get time to stop at the Dollar Tree and get the balloons All right. So, children, let's talk about children.
Speaker 1:Well, hold on, let's do this, though let's go back to the birthday thing. Okay, no, you're not getting free, fucking cake.
Speaker 2:Oh, here you don't get free desserts, you don't get free appetizers.
Speaker 1:It's look. Here's the reason. We are a very busy restaurant, as most places are.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, if you're going to your birthday celebration. Do you think you're the only one, do you really think you're the only one here tonight with a birthday reservation?
Speaker 1:yeah do you think there's not 25 other people here having their birthday or their anniversaries or all of the above? Do you think that if I had to give away 25 desserts a night, that wouldn't, some point in time, affect our income? Yeah, nothing is free. Everything costs money to make, and if you have to do it once, you have to do it to, and that's just the way it is, because consistency is consistency.
Speaker 2:So if you're going to Krispy Kreme. They give you free donuts on your birthday. Go to Krispy Kreme.
Speaker 1:But if you think at our level of the dessert that we have to make the time that goes into it, we're just going to give it away. I don't know what to tell you. I don't know where that comes. It's very selfish to think that a restaurant with 25 to 30 to 40 sometimes on the weekend's birthdays- A night, yeah. Add that up. You think we're going to give that away.
Speaker 2:That's $400, $500 worth of dessert Times $10, $15 per dessert.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's just the fucking ticket price. That doesn't go into how much was made and how much of it's being taken away from the people who are actually going to buy it and away from the people who are actually going to buy it.
Speaker 2:Let's also read the room. If you're going to a nice restaurant, don't expect that. If you're going to TGI Fridays or whatever, yeah, they may do that.
Speaker 1:Some people get you in the door with that hype. They give you the little ice cream sundae at Friendly's. You know what I mean. They have to. That's part of their marketing.
Speaker 2:We get that, but do your research before you come.
Speaker 1:Don this comment. I'm being rude in this because it's our show, it's my show and it's my fucking feelings and that's the way it is. If you don't like it, put a comment down below. We can talk about it in a good way. I'm just saying it's disrespectful and selfish to think that if you go to a restaurant and you're supposed to get stuff for free, I don't go to the damn. Look, I don't go to Foot Locker.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Hey man, it's my birthday. Can I get a pair of?
Speaker 2:shoes. Can I get a free?
Speaker 1:gift. It doesn't work that way. You know what I mean. I don't go to the oil change place. Hey, why don't you throw it? It's my birthday. Can I get a clean air filter for free?
Speaker 2:It doesn't work that way, although we should ask for that. We should.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's go on, sorry.
Speaker 2:All right establishments and some are set up. I know when I was at the steakhouse, like you know, people would come in with kids. That was also more fine dining. We didn't have high chairs. You don't have high chairs here, so like in the sense of people that come in and then get pissed off because you can't accommodate their children or their infants. So there are kids that come into this restaurant, but there are people who are more used to being in restaurants and dining. So I think there's different levels to it. So just kids, like good kids versus asshole kids. Yeah, multifaceted subjects, it's a lot.
Speaker 1:This is a lot. First of all, I want to put this out here right now it's not the kids' fault. They're kids right? I love kids, chef. Love them kids.
Speaker 2:I don't think we need to sing that, no, why? Anyway, listen to me.
Speaker 1:I love kids, I have kids. Kids are great, they're funny, they're cool, they're fun. Yes, it has nothing to do with the kids. It has to do with the punk-ass parents who don't know how to raise their kids in public. True, that's the problem. True, kids are just kids. Right, I'm not mad at kids, right? No, that's number one. They're just kidding, they're being kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's the parents who don't know how to handle that.
Speaker 2:They haven't been told different.
Speaker 1:It's almost like the balloon thing. Your kid's running around and you think it's cute because you have five minutes to talk to your spouse or whatever while they're off running around. But the other tables can't talk to their spouse because your kid's running around like a maniac or screaming or crying or not knowing how to act in this type of setting.
Speaker 2:Is it that, like when kids run by, I try and put my foot out and trip?
Speaker 1:them. That's classic.
Speaker 2:I love it I seriously want to do that every time. I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, well, here's the thing. So the kids aren't the problem. Like I said, love kids, I have kids. They make me laugh, they're great, right, yeah, but they sit down when you tell them to a very high-end restaurant. They're just not ready for that yet. And they're learning and they will. Some of them are my kids are different ages, but the younger ones I can't. They're just not ready. They're too young to sit there for the amount of time it takes to go through this type of steps of service.
Speaker 2:Two to three-hour meal.
Speaker 1:You don't serve chicken, like it's not correct. And of course, when you have the tablet out at the table again, someone in the table behind you, out of the corner of their eye, has to see that flashing tablet and all that shit and it's not fair to that diner and please, for the love of god, if you have your kids in a damn restaurant, turn the fucking volume yes, like give them headphones like we.
Speaker 2:I've been in so many, so many restaurants that I've seen lately where they turn the volume up on the fucking YouTube and you're like, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, you're listening to skibbity toilet. Yeah, skibbity, oh God Skibbity toilet on the damn thing when you're trying to eat.
Speaker 2:Only people with little kids are going to know what that is, cause it's so annoying. It's absolutely horrendous. I mean it's like total trash. They call it brain rot. It's brain rot video. Siren head, all these clowns oh it's terrible. But check this out. Stop doing it.
Speaker 1:Just stop Now that's one side of the kid thing.
Speaker 1:The next part of the kid thing for me and for us here is this this is an adult entertainment. You don't bring a kid to a strip club. You don't bring a kid to a casino Hopefully not, right. Kids at a local bar, yeah Right, maybe some people do somewhere, but let's talk generally for people who have a brain in their skull, right, let's talk about that. So you go through that. Now, it's an adult entertainment. That's what it is. It's a venue. Okay, people come here to get away from their kids. People come here to get babysitters. Some people work two months at a time to save up the money. One gather the time. What it takes to go to a restaurant like this have to pay for the babysitter, have to do everything it takes, get the food ready for the kids when they're at home. You have to order the pizza, you have to do the chart, whatever it is that they do hundreds of dollars dropping hundreds of dollars to even get out of your door.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, so by the time you get here now you're sitting, sitting here and the table three tables over there's a kid in there screaming and yelling and watching fucking Skibbity. Ohio Riz.
Speaker 2:This is what we have to listen to yeah, yeah, no one wants to hear it. It's disrespectful.
Speaker 1:This is an adult venue and it's not that your kids aren't welcome. You're not welcome with your kids. Okay, let's not blame the kids here and let's not say we hate children, Bullshit.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:And unfortunately there are some people who have kids who can dine. Yeah, we're talking kids, man. I'm not talking about 9, 10-year-old, I'm talking about kids. Like toddlers to 5, 6 years old, Infants, toddlers, 4 years old, 5 years old. This is what we're talking about when we're talking about kids. There are some amazing kids that come in here and they're going to be dining professionals one day?
Speaker 2:Yeah, mine are definitely they were raised that way. They were in restaurants since they were born, like literally, and there was no tolerance. You don't get up, you sit here. You literally are going to eat what's on the menu. You're not going to pick your own shit. But again, we're different about that. We raise our kids very that way.
Speaker 1:Right. So my kids range from frigging six years old to 21. And obviously the six-year-old isn't ready for certain things. My 10-year-old is just now starting to fit in right.
Speaker 2:Get it figured out my 16-year-old.
Speaker 1:She's great and she knows what she wants and what she doesn't want, so she won't even come to a restaurant that she doesn't really know she likes, so she's good there.
Speaker 2:And my 21-year-old. She's as cool as a breeze, so she don't, that's all. She doesn't care. Yeah, so it's. I think it's different. Yeah, it's, whether you take them out and expose, same as travel, like you know, going on planes when they're younger, or things like that sometimes you have to go through the really bad stuff, but I literally I was one of those people. I wouldn't fly with my kids till they were like three, because I didn't want to ruin other people's experience and I was very conscious about that.
Speaker 2:So if you're not conscious about it as a parent, that means your kids are not going to be conscious of what's around them either. So it's just a trickle down of just them being assholes in a restaurant which sucks.
Speaker 1:When we first opened, I had bad reviews because we didn't have changing stations in the bathroom. Have you seen the bathroom? Yeah there's just as much money spent in that bathroom as there is out here it is. There's actual fixtures in there that cost more money than whatever. You know what I'm saying. You don't want to put a plastic rhino.
Speaker 2:No, I really don't want that.
Speaker 1:I don't want that.
Speaker 2:You know the pelican plastic brief that you change a baby on.
Speaker 1:It's just not for that. There are restaurants for that and there are restaurants that are not for that Go to a restaurant.
Speaker 2:that's that way.
Speaker 1:Read the room, look at your reservation when you go to make a reservation yes, we read the room, because it's a big thing read the room so when you go to make your reservation, do some research on the restaurant you're going to and don't be mad at us when we don't have stuff for your kids. We're not a kid place, we are an absolutely, we are absolutely geared for adult entertainment.
Speaker 2:We have a whiskey wall in a wine room that costs more than most people's restaurants that allow kids with the rhino fucking pickup truck as a parent, never expect that a restaurant's going to have high chairs and is going to have, you know, booster seats and is going to have a chain like. You shouldn't expect that and you should be prepared. I mean, go to your damn car, change your kid in the back of your car, like we've all done.
Speaker 1:Um, those kind of things happen and it's you know, and again, it's not the kids fault you are welcome here with your kids, as long as you can keep control of them and we don't have to step in and say, sir ma'am, can you please?
Speaker 2:step outside with your screaming baby you know I'm saying put you outside, all right, okay, all right. So we did, children got it. That was our, that was our take on that. So the next one, which has become a more um, more of a problem, I think, with the freedom of younger women nowadays. I'm going to put it that way because my daughter is in this mode and your daughter is getting into this mode. But dress code, yeah. So dress code overall. So dress code.
Speaker 1:My daughter and your daughter dress actually somewhat conservative compared to what's going on in some of these adults walking through the door, yeah, so, um, it's hard to enforce sometimes.
Speaker 2:So talk about dress code hats like shorts and how you enforce it well, here's the thing that's funny.
Speaker 1:You say that because there's some people lately that are just straight up rude. I don't know where the fucking trend came from to walk into an establishment in a fluorescent pink fishnet mini skirt with fucking fluorescent yellow thongs under them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with a fluorescent yellow, bra yeah like you're going to fucking spring jam right spring break, like mtv spring break meets stripper pole like that's really what it looks like.
Speaker 1:Is that a?
Speaker 2:thing how.
Speaker 1:Now, when you walk through there, everybody's looking Obviously because your ass is out.
Speaker 2:They're looking at your ass. You want them to look at your ass.
Speaker 1:Well, you want them to look at your ass, but a lot of this ass I'm talking about ain't lookable. I mean, you're looking at it because it's like how in the fuck is this happening? It ain't even good. It's like how in the fuck is this?
Speaker 2:happening. It ain't even good. It's a bad BBL.
Speaker 1:There's a small percentage of women that can walk in like that and actually have everyone looking like God damn, but those are typically the women who are beautiful and dressed beautifully, appropriate, right, that gets more attention. But when these women come through I mean some of them their tits are out Like right to the areola, almost right to the areola, literally, and everyone's sitting there. Now how is a waiter supposed to go to that table and act? Right, you know what I mean. How is a husband or a guy or a date supposed to look, sitting next to them?
Speaker 2:yeah, everyone's looking at you. You're going to look. Don't get mad, yeah.
Speaker 1:But the bottom line is you that and and it does put on a huge, it's a huge problem, right and and that's that's you know, thongs hanging out, the g-strings coming back. It seems like back in the 90s with the spice girls showing up where it was showing off over the jeans. That's starting. I'm starting to see more of that, but more towards the back with the you know the with, with the, which that's not as bad as some of the no outfits that we've seen no right.
Speaker 1:So how do you handle that when someone it's hard that way like it's well, it's hard like again more power to you.
Speaker 2:You feel confident. I love that. Like go ahead. But this is like again read the room. This is not the place to do it like. If you're going to the club or you're going out later like I, that's fine yeah, right, you're in miami, or you're like, you know you're, you're going to a party, but I just I don't know how will they feel comfortable.
Speaker 1:It's not so much even all about the sexually revealing clothing. We're talking about gentlemen that will walk in here with a sideways hat on basketball jerseys, work construction Carhartt shirts, mud still on their fucking boots. You know what I'm saying, literally, literally. And Skylar, what else am I missing?
Speaker 2:so, dress, I mean yeah, and how like enforcing it? I mean it is hard because you don't have it like written. You know it's hard to write it down because it all comes down to discrimination yes it always comes down, no matter who it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know you could be a farmer and you don't allow farmers in here. This is Chesapeake. We have farms here. This is how you're going to survive here. You're going to close down in a year. Now it's been three. We're doing right, so I don't tell you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you know you have to again go back and read the room and look at the fucking design of where you're going. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Try and match like yeah, match the level Like I. So the pajama pants and the Crocs kill me. Pajama, pants and Crocs for real, my child looks like she's going to Walmart like half the time and I'm like, oh, I'm like, please, please, don't. I'm like, just put something on that doesn't have stains on it, please.
Speaker 1:You're 30 years old. You're 30 years old and you're coming into a restaurant, a nice restaurant, where you know it's a nice restaurant, yeah, and you're wearing fucking sweatpants. I don't understand why you don't give a shit. Why do you not care? Yeah, why? Where's my camera? Why do you not give a fuck? Why? Why does everyone around you have to look at this? Why?
Speaker 1:I mean, we all like gray sweatpants, but not in this environment, no, you don't need the zucch's on the plate, not in the fucking, not in the gray pants, not in your pants. You know what I mean. The old, the old jewel.
Speaker 2:Quote of the quote of the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, Keep the zucchini on the table, not your pants.
Speaker 2:So again we're going back to yeah, read the fucking room Like stop. Yeah, I just I've. There's a time and a place for everything. Yeah, and that's Like you know you're wearing the little like tube dress, mini dress things Like I.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but maybe we're forgetting that this is their club days.
Speaker 2:This is their club days and this is them going out before. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know why they have gray hair and they're doing this shit, but that's fucking weird. You know what I'm saying. Maybe your club days are all off, but I don't know what it is. Man, Dress right and kind of read the room. Gentlemen, be gentlemen. What happened to dressing up? What happened to the suits? What happened to the slacks, the jackets, the sport coats, all the above? You know what I mean. Even the nice it doesn't have to be sport coats. You know what I mean. But what happened to the business, casual or sporty business? Right, there's all kinds of really fucking great styles out there right now, but wearing shit to a beautiful restaurant, ain't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, enjoy the experience.
Speaker 1:Everyone's laughing at you. Everyone's laughing at you.
Speaker 2:Technically, yes, if you want that kind of attention, you definitely got it and you're posted on somebody.
Speaker 1:You're the one who sent your perfect steak back because you thought it was too rare. Beat it. I've seen that happen too.
Speaker 2:All right, so two more. We got two more topics on entitlement. So one is VIPs.
Speaker 1:So handling VIPs requests, like all the things that come with it, okay, vip solution. Here's a solution. All you people out there wanting to know the VIP Rule number one we are the ones who consider someone VIP. They are very important person to us. They don't get to make that decision. You don't get to decide if you're a VIP. We make that choice, okay, and if we decide you're VIP, that's a very easy way to handle it. What you're talking about are the ones who consider themselves VIP and they're honestly not.
Speaker 1:No, they've been here one time, they've been here once a week and they come in and they'll have a course, or they'll. You know they'll have. Is they drink real quick? They have an appetizer and they go out and then they come in the next week and the bar is all full and they're like why can't I get in? I'm here every week. Well, they're here every day, dude, and when they're here and they may be here twice a week, but they spend so much and so forth. Or that guy right there sitting in your spot was here every day while I was building this place helping helping me, you, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Or the bartender got a flat tire last Tuesday and he helped her get fixed, or something. These are just examples. There's many reasons why someone is a VIP, and it's not just because you walk into a place every day.
Speaker 1:No, it's not, you can walk in every time and people fucking see you walking in the door and they're like, oh shit him again, her again, you shit him again, her again. You know what I mean and that's just as common. You can come into a restaurant every frigging day and this happens. I'm not making this up, oh no, I've had it. There are people that have walked in. They don't come in much anymore because we make them understand beat it, you're an asshole, you don't know how to act. You know what I mean. You're not VIP is kind of why you're in a position you're in. So when we deal with our actual VIPs, we enjoy it, we love it and that is the majority. So VIPs for us are very important because it's pretty, right on right, very important.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad you finally got that. Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:So anyway, no, they are important to us because they bring a light to the room. They really typically know how to eat, they know how to dine. They, because they bring a light to the room, they really typically know how to eat, they know how to dine.
Speaker 2:They know what's going on. They're professional I mean typically professional diners, but overall VIPs are just good people.
Speaker 1:They're good people. Yeah, they're respectful.
Speaker 2:Yes, Usually amount of spend and consistency matter.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But that's not the only things I mean I've had clients, like customers at the bar back in the day who literally just drank beer, like I have one that just drank Coors Light, nothing but Coors Light. Never wanted anything fancy, high, fine dining establishment Would order a basic ass meal, nothing crazy, never high tab, never anything but great conversation. Talked to the people around them, supported us consistently, always tipped well, was respectful, didn't expect much and they got treated better than the person who's buying a 500 bottle of wine because they, they're just that type of vip person so you don't have to be balling to be a vip no, you don't, you have
Speaker 1:to be respectful and be a good customer and let the the establishment decides who's a vip, just based on time and energy. Yep, you know you don't get to decide if you're a VIP or not or get mad because you're not considered one. Some people are like that because people take those type of people, take it to the next level and they start demanding and they think that they're more important than the other guests. Or you know, we have a brand new customer in here and a VIP will go. That person never even comes here. I'm here every day. I here and a VIP will go. That person never even comes here. I'm here every day. I know that. That's why we're going to give them a lot of fucking special attention, because they've never been here yeah.
Speaker 1:And I want them to make sure they're happy with their decision. They're comfortable.
Speaker 2:And you're not going to ruin that Vip, vip you know, what I'm saying, so we have to come up with that at the end of the episode.
Speaker 1:Vippy McViperton.
Speaker 2:McViperton no, it's. It's interesting to just see how you cut that hole. Like you catch more flies with honey, like being someone who isn't demanding and expecting free shit is probably going to fast track you to being on those type of you know lists and treatments and being invited to things and whatever else.
Speaker 2:So as soon as you come in and say I need a strong island, or you better, you know I'm here all the time. You know, can you give me something? No, that's where. It's like a heart. You are literally putting up your own wall. If you say any of those things to a bartender or server, you're done Like don't expect anything and you'll get more.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean exactly. Yeah, just be cool, just play it out, do it man everybody everybody will. You all, everybody will fit into their role at some point exactly. But but if you do it and you're just a cool person and we're, we're the ones who decide, yeah, okay, so leave it to the staff, all right? So the last one.
Speaker 2:This is the last, the last thing of customer entitlement. I know the owner. I know the owner how many times, how many times this is a touch we have one of one of the the servers here at the restaurant is here. How many times, skylar, do you hear that like a night? Typically Two to three times a night, from just her couple of tables. So imagine how many people come in here and say that I know, On night.
Speaker 1:Out of hundreds of people. Here's the thing with I know the owner or I know the chef. Speaking from my own experiences, we have. I have a lot of interaction with a lot of people, a lot of people. So between my two restaurants, this podcast, my life out in the streets, my motorcycle world, I know a lot of people, but more so, a lot of people know me. It's easy to see somebody once say hi to them and then they follow you and stuff or they come to your restaurant, so they have a history of interaction with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's really hard because some of them may think they do know me, but it doesn't mean the owner knows you. I remember your face, I remember your time. I don't remember you. Or maybe you know somebody that I met at a party three years ago and you remember me because you've been watching and you see, but I don't remember. So years ago, and you remember me because you've been watching and you see, but I don't remember. So it's not rude that we don't remember everybody, but you got to remember.
Speaker 1:If we're serving 1,000 to 1,500 customers a week, I don't remember everybody you know, and customers come in. I know the owner yeah, I'm sure you do. Or they'll say he's a really good friend of mine and I'll look out in the dining room. I don't know who the fuck that is, I mine. And I'll look out in the dining room. I don't know who the fuck that is. I'm sorry, I don't know. Can you find more information? So when I go, talk to them cause I don't want to be rude give me an information. So maybe I can jar something in my head of how I know this person, so I can at least have a conversation A lot of the times I don't know, I don't know the customer.
Speaker 2:What if we like anytime? Anybody says that say okay, well, he only responds if you text him. That's a good point so if you start saying that to customers, like, if you want him to come out of the kitchen, just send him a quick text because I can't interrupt him right now and see how many people that alleviates well, that'll leave.
Speaker 2:You can't call me or text me then I don't really know you right and I have thousands of contacts in my phone and we have the same issue like I forget where the hell I met people.
Speaker 1:I call it bar dyslexia.
Speaker 2:You don't know where you met them.
Speaker 1:You don't know what you don't know if I'm not everything Sometimes yeah. I just I look at their face Like I don't know, I'm staring at you, I don't know, I don't know you. And it's not that I'm mad or I'm irritated, it's, it's actually, it's it's. It's an honorable thing. Well, it's nice that people it's nice people know but when they try and get it to get you know a deal or it's hard, it's those reels we see the reels all the time where they what people expect.
Speaker 2:When you say, I know the owner and the staff's like tripping over themselves giving them bottles of like bottles of. We need to do that because that would be funny as shit but it's not wrong. And it happens, it's not wrong it's not wrong at all, but it's definitely um, it happens like I mean, it happens even outside of the restaurant business. I mean people walk into other booths oh, I know them, they'll get me an appointment.
Speaker 1:Or I know that even doctors like oh no, they know like I can get no, it's it doesn't work that way and don't be mad if we, if you know the owner and we don't know you, we're. I'm appreciative that you know me, but all's I do, really honestly, all's I do is own a restaurant. There's nothing special about me to know I mean you are so special.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, but there's really nothing. Honestly, I mean, I know the owner. Well, if me and you were at a fucking game somewhere and I walked up to you and said, hey, can you buy me a hot dog in line? Can you wait in line for me at this hot dog? If we're at a baseball game, can you wait in line for me? Hell, no, why, I'm the owner. You know me, remember. You know me, remember. You wanted me to get you a table and stuff in my restaurant. Right, remember that. But I'm still the owner. That doesn't work now, does it? So typically people are only saying that to Because, like I said, if we were at that baseball game and there was a long line and I said to the guy hey, I know you, you're my customer.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't remember. Oh, no, I remember you, I know the customer.
Speaker 2:I know you, I know the customer here.
Speaker 1:Can you give me a hot dog? I'll be right over here, we'll start flipping the script we're going to start asking whoever says it to bring something. You brought me a bottle of wine, what'd you bring me so it's not I know the owner anymore. I'm making a revolution. Now it's gonna be.
Speaker 2:I know the customer right now it's.
Speaker 1:I know the customer it'll be mental warfare.
Speaker 2:This'll be fun. I know the customer. I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1:Alright, so anyway, thanks for knowing me, thanks for coming in, thanks for the support. We really appreciate it honestly. But there's a lot of that's. That's the thing. That's what they're there. So you know who knows who the owner is typically. So stop using it, stop saying the amount of times I go to TJ Maxx or anywhere, the friggin store, a Best Buy. It doesn't matter where I am and people walk.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna say something hey.
Speaker 1:Luce. I'm not Luce. That's your name. My name is not Luce, just so everybody knows. I'm my name's not Luce. Okay, my name's not Luce, I am Tony. That's my name. Say it, tony, I'm not.
Speaker 2:Luce. Tony, Tony, Tony.
Speaker 1:So Luce is my restaurant name.
Speaker 2:That's that. It's your stage name.
Speaker 1:So if you call me Luce right away, you already don't know the owner Coming next to the stage.
Speaker 2:Luce, Luce on the main stage On the satellite. Bringing light to the stage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is Luce. Here Is Luce. Here Is Luce. Here, we are all here.
Speaker 2:We are all here.
Speaker 1:All right, what else we got? Do we have a grant? That is it for the customer entitlement. Skylar, what do you got? Customer entitlement, are there any more?
Speaker 2:entitlement, things that we can cover.
Speaker 1:This is your moment as a server to go hard right here. Right, can't hear? Is she's saying that they use the owner thing to kind of fluster them or put them on guard, or make them give something better service that they should right exactly so again. It all comes down to now.
Speaker 2:We can use the okay, we'll text him and he'll come out and see. If that, and they're like, oh, I don't have his number, well then you probably don't know him that well, do you? Sorry sweetheart, try again. Yeah, let's try again and how about you write a letter in the mail? We'll get it later and then we'll address your situation and I'm going to go last thing.
Speaker 1:I'm going to create another one here. Oh, For all you people who go into a fine dining restaurant or a steps of service restaurant like here I'm going to say this entitlement thing Nothing happens faster because you're impatient.
Speaker 1:That's so true. You know what I mean. That's so true. You know what I mean. Nothing is gonna happen faster for you because you're impatient. It doesn't happen. We cook every dish by hand. It's all curated in hand in the pan. There's no way to make it faster. The only problem is the more people we have here, the slower it's going to be. So if you're going out to an establishment that fucking prides itself on steps of service, we can only go so fast. A pan heats up at the same rate. The burner puts out the same BTUs. There's the same amount of things happening, no matter what. There's no way to speed up this process when more people are here. So enjoy the person you're with, understand where it is you're going, understand that it takes time, and nobody, no kitchen in the world, is just taking their fucking time. There's a reason why the food is coming out their fucking time.
Speaker 2:They're not trying to make your experience slower, Justin.
Speaker 1:There's a reason why the food is coming out slower than normal, and it's only because it has to come out with the same quality.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, we cannot sacrifice quality for your convenience, and we won't. Yep, I'd rather you got up and left because it wasn't on the table than have it come to the table, wrong.
Speaker 2:Which has happened in the past month?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it will, and I invite that because there's nothing more I can do. So if you leaving, is your solution to showing me? Well, I'm showing you because your food is almost done and you're missing out for no reason. By the time you get home and stop crying and pouting, or go across the street and wait for your frigging fries, you would have just sat here and ate your food and enjoyed. But if you would have just tuned up your conversation, with your guest.
Speaker 2:It's going to take 30 to 45 minutes for you to get a meal.
Speaker 1:So stop thinking it's going to be 20 minutes.
Speaker 2:It's not here. It's not.
Speaker 1:It's going to take time because we have to do steps. There's a lot of steps. Sometimes we have four or five different stations that touch a dish. Yeah, before it comes out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's a lot to it, unless you've worked in a kitchen. Shut the fuck up.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Oh what, we have another comment from the audience.
Speaker 1:Know what it is.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Educate yourself on the temperatures of food.
Speaker 2:It's not the server's fault.
Speaker 1:For instance, last night I had a beautiful rack of lamb, yeah, medium. Well, the he had a beautiful rack of lamb yeah, medium. Well, the guy wanted it, which enough is enough with that. However, it couldn't have been cooked more perfect.
Speaker 2:It was beautiful. The lamb here is insane.
Speaker 1:I had to bring it to the table and explain to the gentleman. I don't know exactly what it is you're looking for, sir, but I cannot mimic this perfection. I can't do this again. The guy, our grill guy, is a perfectionist and this temperature is perfect. It's literally it is perfectly medium. Well, there's still juice in that thing pulling out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful, and he wanted to argue with me saying that it's more done I wanted it more done.
Speaker 1:I said so you wanted it Well that's what you wanted, so I didn't take it on the grill for a second. Come back, because if it's done right, it's done right. And if you order something that you don't know what you're getting or you don't like it and it is done properly, most restaurants aren't going to just give it to you or take it off your bill. Some will because they're corporate, they don't give a shit and it's just easier to get rid of you, but here, if it's done right, sorry, well, that's also another entitlement.
Speaker 2:Thing we didn't touch on in this is do you take things off the check when it is cooked Right? And because a lot of restaurants will, just to make the customer happy, because the customer is always right and we had that. I think in one of the review episodes about the customer is not always right they're not Fuck that.
Speaker 1:They don't even know what the hell they're talking about half the time Sometimes they do, but when they're right, they're right. Yeah Right, when they are right, they're right.
Speaker 2:I want medium rare and you come out and it's completely cooked through. Yes, and.
Speaker 1:I'm a perfectionist too. If something's not right, it's not right, right.
Speaker 2:But know what it is.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to try and talk them into or convince them that it is. I'm not going to say oh Well, you stand behind your staff too.
Speaker 2:There's very few owners that do it like they don't have the balls to do it, and I've dealt with owners like that that didn't stand up for employees and when people did stupid shit and it was literally that's when you leave. You lose good people when you don't stand up for them or you're behind your quality.
Speaker 1:Stand behind your quality. Stand behind your word.
Speaker 2:So know that, like actually look it up, because there's I mean, you are a chef there are actual temperatures for each of those things that internally the meat is this temperature, this temperature, this temperature. So just fucking Google it.
Speaker 1:And all you out there listening to me that are cooks, all you grill guys and all you cooks get a fucking thermometer. Yeah, there are tools out there for this trade that were developed for perfection. And do it Touching your hand like this, saying that's medium, and this is medium, and this is medium well, right, here is medium.
Speaker 2:well, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1:If you turn wrenches for a life, or if you're using a chainsaw all day, or if you're sitting at a desk, or your muscles in your hands are all different, everybody's different. So my muscle here is going to be different than her muscle there. So who the hell's right or wrong? You know what I mean. Use the temperatures, use the tools, rather, that have won awards. Yeah, you don't win michelin stars without using tools. You know you gotta use precision. You have to use consistency. You have to use the tools that made the job perfect so you know, guesswork on your medium, medium well meaning is by.
Speaker 1:Because you're so good and you can touch a steak. I'm sure you're fucking amazing. You know, I'm sure you're so good and you can touch a steak. I'm sure you're fucking amazing. You know, I'm sure you're amazing.
Speaker 2:But try using a thermometer and giving the customer what they're relying on.
Speaker 1:You cannot go wrong with the goddamn temperature.
Speaker 2:The number is right, you can't fuck with it. The number's a number Like I like numbers. I like data, I like numbers. So we're good there. Okay, any other rants?
Speaker 1:No, we ain't getting off this thing.
Speaker 2:Well, we have a lot, we have a lot. So this is the end for season four of our hands.
Speaker 1:Yeah, season four and year one.
Speaker 2:And year one. So this is one year anniversary. So for all you people who tuned in, the whole time.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Yes, it is a slow process. We build it slowly, we're doing it very organically and we're going to continue to do so because we love doing it. It's fun for us, right? It brings me out of the kitchen sometimes and lets me vent, and you guys want to listen to it. I appreciate it. If you don't, you turn it off and whatever, but don't forget to subscribe. Subscribe and then turn it off, okay.
Speaker 2:Subscribe and hit the follow on the podcast. It helps. And yeah, we appreciate all the support and we're ready to kick off season five.
Speaker 1:Restaurant Industries Live and well, it ain't going nowhere. It ain't going nowhere. Suck it up, it's getting better. If you want to get on the show, send us a message.
Speaker 2:Yes, all right. Thank you, guys, so much.
Speaker 1:Ciao, for now Ciao.
