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Customer is not always right: manual on good behavior in bars and restaurants

The phrase that gives title to today’s text, whose popularization is disputed among the English retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge and the american businessman Marshal Field, is not always a true maxim when it comes to bar and restaurant customers.

I dare say this because, unfortunately, many customers have been making poor use of this premise and, consequently, harming bars and restaurants. Of course, this bad behavior is not widespread, but the annoyance is such that I feel compelled to make a warning in this column.

The idea – nowhere near – is to turn this text into a boring and boring “good practices manual”, despite understanding that the topic is so important that it deserved a book about it. I hope that the reading will convince the reader that habits need to be changed to make the experience good for both the customer and the bar and restaurant.

Having made this introduction, I understand that it is necessary to point out some of the many examples of bad behavior (intentional or by ignorance) from customers to show that they are not always right. In times when the word “protocol” has never been used more often, I humbly hope that clients will use the points below as a protocol to be followed.

The “no-show” has to end!

I confess: the “no-show” was the main reason that led me to write this text. This terrible habit of customers who book tables in bars and restaurants and simply do not show up, for me, is the most disrespectful thing there can be on the part of the customer.

The consequence of this, in addition to being drastic, is logical: restaurants, which, in rare exceptions, do not have a waiting list, lose the opportunity to reserve a table for customers who could attend and consume.

Based on this, incidentally, in Portugal entrepreneurs, chefs and sommeliers created the “Reserva e Aciona” movement. The purpose of this movement is to make the customer aware of, if it is not possible to attend, to cancel the reservation made. I hope that the same thing is done in Brazil.

An alternative to this is to charge a fee or even the full amount of a service in advance. tasting menu, for example, to minimize the damage that obviously should not be borne by the bar or restaurant.

Unfortunately, however, this habit is still not fully accepted here, as he highlighted Tassia Magalhães do Nelita, where booking fees for more than 3 people are charged.

Tassia says she doesn’t understand the opposition of some customers to this charge “because if he made the reservation and goes, he doesn’t have to worry, since when he arrives at the restaurant the fee is reversed on his credit card.” I agree, obviously.

Schedules must be respected

As with any appointment, schedules must be respected. If the customer is not late for a personal appointment, such as meetings and doctor appointments, why find it common to be late getting to the bar or restaurant when a reservation is made?

In reality, not only the arrival time must be respected, but also the departure time. Often, customers remain seated at the table after the end of the entire service “as if they were at home” and ignore that the table can often be used by other customers who are waiting, or even that the restaurant is about to to close.

Edrey Momo, from the portuguese restaurant Task of the Corner, he told me of customers who, in clear disrespect, remain “talking at the table and ignore that the restaurant has closed, which makes waiters and cooks wait for the end of the chat to leave” and “pretend not to notice that the restaurant is full and there are tables to be seated, arriving at the table tens of minutes after paying the bill”.

Still on reservations and schedules: there are customers with the bad habit of booking tables for several people and, at the time limit, they show up alone or with fewer people than expected. This has two consequences: the bar or restaurant could use the table with other people or the table waits for others to arrive and then order.

Can any wine be brought to the restaurant?

The famous “cork fee”, many should know, is the fee charged by the customer’s restaurant when the customer takes a wine to the restaurant to accompany their meal.

Many disagree with this charge, but it is important to point out that it pays for the wine service, which involves the use of appropriate glasses, such as the act of serving and the packaging of the wine to leave it at the proper temperature (in a bucket of ice, for example).

Before taking the wine to the restaurant, the customer must check if the establishment allows this practice and what is the amount of the fee charged. Furthermore, it is important to understand if the chosen wine is not already on the restaurant’s wine list and is in harmony with the menu to be served – and, why not say it, with the restaurant itself.

The work of sommeliers must be respected and, therefore, it is only logical that, before thinking about taking home wine, the client must think about honoring these professionals.

Change of dish or drink

Classic or authorial, recipes for dishes or drinks were the object of study and reasoning by those who created them. Although the customer has the right to eat what they want, often a request to change ingredients may not be logical and can make creations disharmonious.

For Thiago Cerqueira, do Perseu Coffee House e Flora Bar, the customer must have common sense when making the change. Therefore, as it is unusual, an alert should be made in case of changes that do not match the dish or drink.

About Fred Sabbag

Fred Sabbag is a lawyer by profession, but in his spare time, he doesn’t do lawsuits or legal proceedings: one of his passions is going to bars and restaurants. The habit earned him numerous followers on Instagram (@fredsabbag) and made him a gastronomy celebrity in São Paulo.


Reference: CNN Brasil

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