Something amazing just happened. I have discovered that several people actually read this blog fairly regularly. That's great! Now I feel like I'm not actually wasting my time as I write......
This past weekend I went to a restaurant with a friend of mine who reviews restaurants as a part-time gig in SF. It's like the secret-shopper thing, except for restaurants -- very cool. It goes like this: you are assigned a restaurant to review on a given night, with a tab of X dollars (X being enough for a decent dinner for two people, depending on the $$ of the eatery in question). After eating dinner, you submit your receipt with a detailed review to the company (which apparently takes 1-2 hours), which will then reimburse you for the dinner. The beauty part of this: the guest gets a free dinner, no work involved! And, although I hate to admit it, I'm a sucker for free food.
The restaurant my friend and I went to on Saturday was large, but with a nice atmosphere. Think French-bistro-esque, except bigger. It had lots of those French ads from the mid-century which are so popular in upscale kitchens. You know what I'm talking about.
I learned a lot about the workings of a restaurant. My friend used to work for a catering service, and knew the inner workings of a good restaurant. He explained how everyone was evaluated, from the manager on down, as well as the food, etc. I never realized running a restaurant was such a complicated affair, but upon closer thought it makes sense. There are a lot of usually fairly demanding people to manage, and the clientele is always changing as the evening progresses.
In case you are wondering I had the Salmon Tartare to start, then the Lamb Stew, and a Lemon Tart for dessert. With a glass of wine, of course. It was very agreeable. All in all, it made me think of those cultures where food is appreciated to a higher degree than it is in the US. In France for example, people spend hours over a good meal. Now in my opinion they go overboard with it (a 2 hour lunchbreak every day?!? are you kidding?), but that does not mean that every now and then a good meal should not be savored and enjoyed.
This past weekend I went to a restaurant with a friend of mine who reviews restaurants as a part-time gig in SF. It's like the secret-shopper thing, except for restaurants -- very cool. It goes like this: you are assigned a restaurant to review on a given night, with a tab of X dollars (X being enough for a decent dinner for two people, depending on the $$ of the eatery in question). After eating dinner, you submit your receipt with a detailed review to the company (which apparently takes 1-2 hours), which will then reimburse you for the dinner. The beauty part of this: the guest gets a free dinner, no work involved! And, although I hate to admit it, I'm a sucker for free food.
The restaurant my friend and I went to on Saturday was large, but with a nice atmosphere. Think French-bistro-esque, except bigger. It had lots of those French ads from the mid-century which are so popular in upscale kitchens. You know what I'm talking about.
I learned a lot about the workings of a restaurant. My friend used to work for a catering service, and knew the inner workings of a good restaurant. He explained how everyone was evaluated, from the manager on down, as well as the food, etc. I never realized running a restaurant was such a complicated affair, but upon closer thought it makes sense. There are a lot of usually fairly demanding people to manage, and the clientele is always changing as the evening progresses.
In case you are wondering I had the Salmon Tartare to start, then the Lamb Stew, and a Lemon Tart for dessert. With a glass of wine, of course. It was very agreeable. All in all, it made me think of those cultures where food is appreciated to a higher degree than it is in the US. In France for example, people spend hours over a good meal. Now in my opinion they go overboard with it (a 2 hour lunchbreak every day?!? are you kidding?), but that does not mean that every now and then a good meal should not be savored and enjoyed.
posted by slithytoves at 6:30 PM
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