We've been very, very busy at Rick's since the end of Ramadan mid-October, with a lot of pressure in the kitchen and on the floor. Parties of 10, 15 who reserve and want to order a la carte rather than with a fixed menu. It's tourist season, local business entertaining is in gear and we're thrilled with our business...but constantly vigilant to ensure good service. Invariably there's the gaffe - oh oh, here's the main dish for the table of 7 persons and there are only 6 plates...what happened to the salmon steak??? - or an unreasonable delay. It's a part of the fine tuning that's always necessary on our part to follow the situation in the kitchen and with service. Tonight Issam was off and he'd asked Amine and Karim to play guitars so there would be live music. An upstairs client came down and asked Amine if he could play the piano with them, Amine said he'd check with me and when I said no it just wasn't something we allowed, he went upstairs and told the fellow. As I was making one of my frequent tours of tables (I had already greeted the table of the "pianist" - 8 people-, then said 'bon apetit' to the only two who had starters), they waved me over. Two particularly started piling on me for not letting the pianist play - it began with a sneering Frenchman asking, "Parlez vous Francais?" "oui". The other asked, "Do you speak English?" "Like a native." Well all of a sudden these two guys started laying into me because I wouldn't let the pianist play. I smilingly and politely (well those of you who know me, know that my smiling response wasn't exactly dripping with sincerity, though it would have been hard for the Frenchman to tell) explained many people ask to play the piano and we have a policy that no one other than Issam plays it, other than on Sunday night Jam Session - this to avoid potential problems of bad pianists and our clients driven mad by renditions of "Chopsticks" or "Heart and Soul." The Frenchman sneered that the policy was "nul" (stronger than boring), that we lacked spontanaity. He finally said it was so "American". To which I replied I could hardly hide that. That conversation at a dead end he said they were tired of waiting for their main dish (because only two had ordered and eaten starters, the others had to bide their time waiting) and if it wasn't served quickly they'd leave. I said that was something I could check on for them, went down to the kitchen and to my great relief saw their plates being placed on the tray for delivery. I opted not to give them my cheerful "bon apetit". Very quickly the Maitre d'hotel said the obnoxious Frenchman had asked to speak to the "owner" and the waiter had said only the Maitre d'hotel was available. They complained their dishes were cold. Both the chef, the waiter and the Maitre d'Hotel had followed the plates and knew that the food was not cold. I saw them being delivered to the pass and put on the tray. The Maitre d'hotel apologized (for nothing) and offered to take the plates back to be re-done, but it would add to the time, if they were pressed. They said no, instead they would leave, and if we didn't agree they could leave without paying for their 8 dinners he would make a scene in the restaurant, go from table to table asking all the clients (who were happily eating their dinners and raving about the food) if they were happy with their meals! Obviously that was a threat that had nothing to do with our decision to - literally - "swallow" the cost of 8 main dishes just to be rid of these obnoxious people. As they left the spokesman said again that the refusal to let the pianist play had really ruined their evening. Sorry. Talk about unhappy people...hopefully someone will read this and recognize some friends, relatives or a pianist. I thought about a photograph of them as they left that I could use for "We've Been There Stories" on our website...but didn't want to introduce something negative. Just to close, I love France and find the French charming. We have a wonderful clientele of French residents and greet tourists all the time. My remarks about this man are especially pointed because his behaviour and manner were so far removed from what we are used to. |
