I'm very sorry about your experience at my restaurant on Saturday
night. As a seasoned chef and restauranteur, I am accutely aware that
all of my guests arrive expecting to eat fantastic food, have a great
time and leave fully sated and happy. My goal is to satisfy every guest
that dines with us whether they are having a few drinks or Eating The
Whole Menu. I take all of my customer's feedback, positive and
negative, very seriously and I respond to all feedback personally after I
discuss the issue with my staff.
With this said, I must certainly apologize for the miscommunication
generated by the server at your table. She misrepresented the Eat The
Whole Menu at The Bent Brick which unfortunately ruined for you what has
historically been an epically great experience for all of the guests
who have ordered it. Apparently your server led you to believe that
we strongly encourage large parties to Eat The Whole Menu. This is not
the the point that should have been communicated. We like our customers
to order however they wish to order. It's certainly fun for large
parties to Eat The Whole menu but how our customers enjoy our menu is
entirely up to them.
It is very unfortunate that your server stated that there was no
manager on duty when you requested to speak to one. We always keep 2
managers on duty at all times, one in the kitchen and one on the floor.
There were, in fact 2 managers present when you left on Saturday. Her
lack of communication on theses two points are egregious indeed, and
will be addressed.
We have trained our waitstaff to let our customers know that the
Eat The Whole Menu is our version of what would normally be a "grand
tasting menu" at high end restaurants. It consists of 5 to 6 amuse, 10
courses and 3 desserts. It is a big experience in that it involves
eating more than 12 ounces of food and it typically takes 2 hours for 2
people to eat at a relaxed pace and 3 plus hours for 6 or more people.
This equates to 1 course every 7 to 10 minutes. We think that this is
the proper pace for a night out to dinner. We believe that if you are at
The Bent Brick to Eat The Whole Menu it is our obligation to let you
enjoy it. If you want it expedited we will happily do it but there is a
limit to how fast most non-competitive eaters can injest their food.
As it clearly states on the menu, ($55 each, 10% of which gets
donated to Blanchett House) it is designed so that everyone at the table
gets one menu. The value perception on the Eat The Whole Menu has been
so positive that most of the people who get it the first time return to
eat it again. . . except that they want to split the menu amongst 2 or
more people when they return. This is a fair request and we like to try
to do everything we can to accomodate our guests. Unfortunately,
accomodating this request can sometimes cause undo problems.
Your table contained 8 guests; 2 people ordered a la cart and the
other 6 people split 3 tasting menus. At $55 per tasting menu that
equates to $27.50 per person. Yes, this is real money and we don't want
to be responsible for it being mis-spent at The Bent Brick. But this
is not $55 per person. This is $27.50 and it is what you would typically
spend on 2 and a half appetizers at any decent restauant in Portland.
Some large parties split Eat The Whole Menu in order to sample our
entire menu and reorder the dishes they want more of. Judging from your
reaction you were too displeased at the portion size of the split dishes
to consider reordering. Possibly, you chose to split the Eat The Whole
Menu among your table to save money. This is a valid move but you
should not have been lead to believe that you would get full in doing
this.
It is unfortunate that you came in to The Bent Brick expecting us
to comp your corkage because one of your party made the wine they
brought in. We don't expect, and rarely receive, free wine or services
from wineries we don't know. You shouldn't expect free services from
unfamiliar parties either. We have very many close contacts with local
winemakers. We have built our wine program around those relationships.
We treat these winemakers as our friends and family and they return to
The Bent Brick frequently to taste their wines on our draft system. You
can talk to any of the fantastic local winemakers who have engaged us
about our keg wine system and they will tell you volumes about how well
we treat them when they come to The Bent Brick. But, it is impolite and
disrespectful to walk in to a restaurant that you are unfamiliar with
and expect them to give away services.
I do sincerely apologize that your server on Saturday did not
communicate clearly with you how the Eat The Whole Menu should have been
applied to your party. That mistake ruined what should have been a fun
and enjoyable evening for you. I appreciate your feedback on this and
it will be used constuctively. I assure you that I will address how
this particular issue gets handled in the future so that our efforts to
accomodate our guest will end up pleasing them. I know that we probably
won't be seeing you again at The Bent Brick but your feedback will be
used to improve our service in the future. I hope that you will put
this response, unedited, on your blog. I will put this exchange on the
Bent Brick blog so that our followers can see how we are trying to
improve their experience night in and night out.
Regards, Scott
*This post is unedited
