{"id":1941089,"date":"2023-05-31T06:03:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T10:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/only-good-food-and-service-can-salvage-americas-sucky-restaurant-experience\/"},"modified":"2023-05-31T06:09:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T10:09:21","slug":"only-good-food-and-service-can-salvage-americas-sucky-restaurant-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/only-good-food-and-service-can-salvage-americas-sucky-restaurant-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Good food and service can save America&#8217;s bad restaurant experience."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fonly-good-food-and-service-can-salvage-americas-sucky-restaurant-experience%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1941089&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Why Restaurants Need to Drop the Tricks and Focus on the Basics<\/h2>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>It was a nice, long holiday weekend \u2014 God bless the troops! \u2014 and I\u2019m not ready to kill my buzz by talking about politics just yet. But I <em>am<\/em> ready to address this highly important <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/05\/30\/dining\/restaurant-prices-service.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York Times article<\/a> about how dining out is so often now a miserable affair worth neither the money nor the time it takes me to put on my shoes.<\/p>\n<p>Included was an absolutely enraging quote from a restaurant owner in Norcross, Georgia, who said, \u201cYou have to come up with different tricks to get them (customers) to stay in your building.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I feel like Mrs. White in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z8d8y4BLWtI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1985\u2019s \u201cClue\u201d<\/a>: \u201cFlames on the side of my face. Breathing, breathless, heaving breaths\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>There are no \u201ctricks\u201d to providing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-in-n-out-burger-is-what-vibrant-conservatism-tastes-like\/\" title=\"Why In-N-Out Burger Is What Vibrant Conservatism Tastes Like\">pleasant dining experience<\/a>. Prompt and friendly service isn\u2019t a gimmick. It\u2019s timeless. And good food isn\u2019t added value. It\u2019s the bare minimum. If those simplicities aren\u2019t consistent or provided at all, no amount of mood lighting or sexy menu adjectives is going to \u201cget them to stay in your building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the contrary, all the \u201ctricks\u201d are not only <em>not<\/em> the solution, they\u2019re precisely the problem. They\u2019re the endless excuses that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/late-night-restaurant-owners-want-to-play-fair-so-far-they-say-newsom-hasnt\/\" title=\"Late-night restaurant owners want to play fair. So far, they say, Newsom hasn't\">restaurant owners<\/a> give customers for charging unjustifiable prices. Don\u2019t forget about those new \u201cservice fees.\u201d That \u201cunique experience\u201d (potted plants, wall art, and servers who wear chef coats) won\u2019t pay for itself, you know!<\/p>\n<p><em>May I please see a menu?<\/em> \u201cScan the QR code.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This one looks good\u2026 <\/em>\u201cWe\u2019re sold out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>How do we pay? <\/em>\u201cIt\u2019s on the app. And just a heads up, there\u2019s a 22 percent gratuity already included.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I placed an online order last week at a fast-casual Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., and when I went to pay, it asked if I\u2019d like to leave a tip. I entered $2.00 before noticing a banner at the top of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/demi-lovato-happens-against-gender-reveal-celebrations-there-are-males-with-vaginas-and-women-with-penises-2\/\" title=\"Demi Lovato HAPPENS Against Gender Reveal Celebrations: \u2018There Are Males With Vaginas And Women With Penises\u2019\">web page<\/a> stating that there was a \u201c2.5% surcharge\u201d added to my bill \u201cto support our environmental responsibility efforts.\u201d The note concluded with, \u201cThank you for partnering with us!\u201d I deleted the $2.00 and hit the confirmation button.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not \u201cpartnering\u201d with them. I don\u2019t work there. But they want to charge me for giving them my business? They can go play in traffic.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t care about the \u201cunique experience.\u201d I care that the servers are nice and the food is good. Let\u2019s not overcomplicate it.<\/p>\n<p>The Times article questioned whether there was anything restaurant owners could do to \u201cwin them (customers) back.\u201d Yes, they could! And here those things are, free of environmental surcharge:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Knock it off with the QR codes and require that your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/only-good-food-and-service-can-salvage-americas-sucky-restaurant-experience\/\" title=\"Good food and service can save America's bad restaurant experience.\">staff hand customers real menus<\/a>. Directing a 65-year-old woman to \u201cscan the code\u201d when she asks to see a menu is the same thing as telling her, \u201cGet it yourself.\u201d It takes work to pull out a phone, pull up the camera, scan the code, click the corresponding link, figure out the web page, and on and on. The agreement between the customer and the staff is that the customer is paying money for the staff to do the work. The paying customer shouldn\u2019t be required to do any work. And if she is, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/05\/18\/its-your-own-fault-youre-being-asked-to-tip-at-self-checkouts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">she should get a share of the gratuity<\/a>. (And make sure your real menus have been wiped down.)<\/li>\n<li>Speaking of gratuity, if it\u2019s going to be taken for granted, then so is perfect service. That means prompt, friendly, deferential, and clean. Anybody can take or leave an $8 \u201csmall plate\u201d (otherwise known as \u201cless food for more money\u201d). But nobody should have to tolerate a filthy restroom or crumby bar top when it\u2019s demanded that they hand over another quarter percentage of whatever their bill amounts to. That\u2019s a shakedown.<\/li>\n<li>Putting words like \u201cNew\u201d and \u201cFusion\u201d in your restaurant descriptors doesn\u2019t compensate for unremarkable food. Putting a toothpick in your tiny burger bun or teriyaki sauce on macaroni doesn\u2019t entitle anyone to customer enthusiasm. If the food is genuinely good and priced fairly, people will like it. They will come back. If it\u2019s a gimmick \u2014 it always is \u2014 they won\u2019t.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Drop the tricks and start there. And maybe, restaurant owners, just maybe, you can get them to \u201cstay in your building.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n\t\tEddie Scarry is the D.C. columnist at The Federalist and author of &#8220;<a href=\"\/\/www.amazon.com\/Liberal-Misery-Hateful-Everything-Everyone\/dp\/1637584350\">Liberal Misery: How the Hateful Left Sucks Joy Out of Everything and Everyone<\/a>.&#8221;\n\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/business-2\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">business<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/culture\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Culture<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/dining\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">dining<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/food-2\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">food<\/a><\/li>\n<li class \n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a great holiday weekend, I don&#8217;t want to ruin my mood by discussing politics. However, I must mention the crucial New York Times article on how dining out has become an unpleasant experience, not worth the cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":1941090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[7378,7086,15131,4397,4617,10011,4400],"class_list":["post-1941089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-americas","tag-bad","tag-experience","tag-food","tag-restaurant","tag-save","tag-service"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1941090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}