Restaurant "Solitude" →
People knowing me better are aware of the fact that I will open a restaurant someday. Somehow. Somewhere.
I just had dinner at the restaurant of the hotel where I'm currently staying. I was the only guest in that restaurant – and I liked it, the experience was quite special. Apart from that, this restaurant is indeed a good place to eat and have good white wine (the red one isn't as good), but it's all in all nothing particular. A place perfectly tailored for transient business people with neither time nor choice at their disposal. So what was special about being alone down there? It's not easy to be put in words, but let's give it a try. I talked to different people lately how important the User Experience of hotels and restaurants truly is. Employees and their behaviours and gestures play a big role in that game. It's all about offering the best possible attention and service without ever being intrusive or pushy. Being the only one certainly influenced the way I was treated. Not only did they have a lot of time, there was also a psychological component involved: how can we make him feel less solitary? The first part of that treatment was offering me to go to the hotel bar instead, a much more crowded place, but providing the restaurant menu over there (instead of the rather snack-oriented offerings of that bar). Then I got a great choice of different types of bread and pesto spreads as amuse-gueules plus a "special greeting from the kitchen" – although I think this part is a standard nowadays at every sophisticated restaurant. Another detail: they offered me dessert, which made me think and hesitate a bit, but then I declined. Something they might have recognized, because a minute later I had two chocolate pralines on my table as a compensation for my blatant, violently suppressed lust. If I will have my restaurant someday, I'll need to treat each guest in a very special way, but give her or him the true feeling of being the only one around. Or even offer any hidden special features for people showing up all alone, as a sublime reward for their gastronomical solitude?
Comments (0)
