If Your Food Is Upside Down, Make Sure Your Staff Is Stand Up
When is a salad upside down? Have you ever thought of serving one? Are they even that appealing? These are interesting questions considering the world is going green.
It is also going upside down. Everything in it appears to be fitting into this category. If we pan to the real estate market, many homeowners who triumphantly moved bag and baggage into a new abode hardly had time to unpack before the value of their homes plummeted below their purchase price.
The same holds true for many car owners. Buying a vehicle at sticker price almost assuredly signifies you will have to pay more for the car than what it will be worth one year after you drive it.
Those are expected. But upside-down salads, please. Strangely, I came across this somewhat new, albeit weird phenomenon, last Friday evening as Kranston and I stopped to have a quick bite to eat at Sonomas Big Three Diner. The Big Three is the casual restaurant playing host to those guests that spa at The Fairmont Hotel in the midst of Sonoma County wine country. The diner is a strange combination of hotel retail, pastry dessert case and above average hotel coffee shop food. Actually, its tremendous food all freshly prepared and served with a four star hotel style. Yet, on this particular night the baby spinach salad with goat cheese, granny smith apples, candied pecan and grilled chicken was a complete surprise. The reason being is that all of the ingredients of the salad were placed on the late first. The spinach was the tossed in the dressing and placed on top.
The weirdness of this presentation was that the salad looked like a bunch of tossed spinach. The goat cheese stuck to the plate since it probably came from under the heat lamp, and the granny smith apples were diced to the point of extra labor costs.
The key to the situation, and the point that the salad even made this column was the expert way the entire staff dealt with the problem.
When brought to their attention, they all claimed that was the way the salad was served. It wasnt until I suggested that the chef instructed the salad maker to create the salad this way and then flip it over so the ingredients, color, and presentation were all on the top of the spinach, that someone admitted the kitchen staff was new.
That of course is what we all face- the fact that eventually somebody in the kitchen will make a mistake, or worse, decide that there is a better way to make either this or that.
In the Fairmont arena, I couldnt ask for more attentive waiters, bussers, or managers on duty. They each addressed the problem with complete professionalism and took the criticism with what appeared to be sincere interest.
The lesson here is worthwhile. The room isnt outwardly attractive, and although better than average, the real reason for going back to The Big Three Diner is because of the service. It starts when you walk in the door and lasts throughout the meal. So whether you are a guest or a local you are treated with a four star attitude.
While explaining the art of salad making, I did at times toss the cordiality out the door; yet, the staff was accepting of the advice and had the perfect answers regarding style, technique and menu interpretation. They even suggested the next time I order the salad I ask that it be tossed. What a concept.
I doubt I anybody instructed anyone in the kitchen to build an upside down, goat cheese melting on a warm plate, salad. Yet, as long as the staff handles the complaints as well as they did while the new kitchen gets up to speed, the customers will surely come back. The salad was definitely upside down and the kitchen was getting slammed, but the dining room staff rose to the occasion and kept the restaurant from sinking. And thats what its all about.