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DANNY RASKIN

Local Columnist

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One half hour for one half price, it adds up to one
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ME ME ME ME

AUGUST 9, _ 1991

I BEST OF EVERYTHING 1

The Most Important Restaurant
Ingredient Is Often Overlooked

That's right, for one half hour only, 5 p.m. to
5:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, Mountain
Jack's is offering any entree for just one half the
regular price!

CK'S

I LISTENING POST

very important aspect
in the success or fail-
ure of a restaurant so
many times hinges on just
one word . . . service . . . It has
gotten to the point where too
many restaurateurs are los-
ing sight of this highly salient
mode of action on the part of
employees . . . either neglec-
ting to oversee proper service
or hiring incompetent help
. . . The latter has become a
scourge because of the over-
eagerness by owners to
employ bodies instead of
experience.
It's cheaper, they say, "we
can train them" and seldom
do . . . However, in the long
run the restaurant owners
discover that this is a much
more expensive proposition
. . . You can't buy customers
- who don't return . . . this, my
friends, is the true lifeblood of
a successful restaurant.
There's nothing wrong with
hiring inexperienced waitper-
sons if the operation has a
good training program and
puts it to work . . . Not by us-
ing the customers as guinea
pigs, though . . . There's
seldom much better than a
program where trainees wait
on a restaurant's experienced
personnel, who give critical
good and bad performance
views.
Fred Sampson, last year's
president of the New York
State Restaurant Association,
sums it up pretty much in Na-
tion's Restaurant News when
he says, "The best-prepared
meal in the world cannot sur-
vive poor service.
"The first time I ever heard
that expression I was working
in my father's restaurant. He
said those words to a wait
staff person to emphasize how
important service is. While
the comment was made 40
years ago, the truth of the
statement has become pretty
obvious to me; my father
knew what he was talking
about.
"More and more, manage-
ment is starting to realize
that there is more to good ser-
vice than just approaching a
table and stating, 'My name
is John, and I'll be your
server this evening; here are
our specials.'
"A full-page article in the
New York Times was headlin-
ed 'New Focus on Service,
Relearning a Lost Art.' It
defined good service as begin-
ning with the person who

takes the reservation and not
ending until the customer
has paid the check and walk-
ed out the door.
"Nick Nicholas, who
operates a number of fine
restaurants, Nick's Fishmar-
ket in Chicago among them,
said this about his wait staff:
`When my servers dress for
work, they are as spotless as
a surgeon preparing for an
operation. They approach
their responsibilities with no
less a sense of a profes-
sionalism than a lawyer or ac-
countant has. They see
themselves for what they are
— professionals.'
"Unfortunately, some oper-
ators in our industry lose
sight of the fact that what
someone is paying for a meal
has no relation with the level
of service he or she should
receive. Good service is not
confined to just rolling pastry
wagons, tableside cooking
and white gloves. It includes
anticipating your. customers'
needs, paying attention to
them, treating them with
courtesy and making them
feel comfortable.
"One of the ways to bring
your customers back and keep
them is to provide the best
possible service you can.
"It is ironic that in the last
25 years we have seen an ex-
plosion in the number of
schools teaching the culinary
arts, and yet the industry has
done very little to raise the
level of service. While a
number of extremely quali-
fied individuals are conduc-
ting outstanding service
training programs, they are
few in number. As a result, we
have thousands of men and
women who can truly send a
culinary 'portrait' out of the
kitchen, but, alas, sometimes
the 'frame,' better known as
service, does not do justice to
the painting.
"Like most children, the
older I get the more I realize
how smart my dad was. He
was right. Great food cannot
survive poor service."
Amen!
HOW DID Stevie Wonder's
hit tune, "I Just Called rIb Say
I Love You" in Italian and
English slip in there? . . . And
hey, isn't that "New York,
New York?"
Could be that both are on
the top charts in Italy .. .
because that's what the re-
cent "Una Serata Italiana
Musica" dinner at Cafe Cor-
tina on 10 Mile east of Or-
chard Lake Road was to
feature . . . with songsters
Pino Marelli and Lisa Agazzi.

A lot of "Saluta" and
"Viva" by the merrymaking
attendees at the funfest given
by Cafe Cortina owners
Adriano and Rina Tonon .. .
Julio Iglesias wasn't there,
but Pino did sing, "Of All The
Girls That I Have Loved"
with some people closing
their eyes and envisioning
Julio at the mike . . . Rina
drools at his name, but will
take Adriano anytime . . .
Sure they sang Italian hits of
today, but also "Amore" and
"Back to Sorrento."
Count about 82 and you
have a festive evening at Cafe
Cortina recently . . . with
dancing, too, by many folks
who didn't care that there
was no dance floor . . . and

K

There's nothing
wrong with hiring
inexperienced
waitpersons if the
operation has a
good training
program and puts
it to work . . . Not
by using the
customers as
guinea pigs,
though .. .

don't forget the menu by
Chefs Paul Tootikian and
Domenico Mautone . . . Was
so much fun that look for the
Tonons to do it again.
CONGRATS to Barry
Rankin on his 50th birthday
. . . to Roger Hack on his 40th
birthday . . . celebrated with
a surprise party by wife
Esther Hack for 17 friends
and relatives at Andiamo .. .
to Ruby Samson on his 75th
birthday . . . to Len and Gert
Milstein of Scottsdale, Ariz.,
on their 45th anniversary .. .
to Fran Beresh on her
birthday.
IT WAS AS if the old State
Theater on Woodward had
come alive again with one of
its stage shows.
Still beautiful, the State
Theater today is ClubLand,
where action is a byword.
And it took eight years, but
Leah Marks finally saw her
name on a theater marquee
out front.
Occasion was the recent
HIV/AIDS Benefit '91 by
Detroit Medical Center to
assist the program in many
local hospitals.
Quite an impressive setting
for a fashion show on the
huge ClubLand stage as three
large video screens con-
tinuously gave out the names

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