DuskyHued LadySatan's Reviews > Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

i was given this book by the business investor-partner of the restaurant where i currently work bc he and the other owner/investors hero worship this dude and his whole 'hospitality' approach to business. frankly, they can have it. this guy name-drops like a true Manhattan-ite to try to gain credibility, brags about meeting his first chef while in a fist-fight with a customer over their preferred table, and generally comports himself as though he reinvented the wheel when it comes to restaurants and their operation. it's neither charming or nostalgic, which is the tone he seems to be going for in the two chapters that i struggled to finish. what he really did was force Open Table on the majority of the restaurant business, which has been nothing but detrimental to small, privately owned restaurants outside of big cities (and inside them, too), underpay all of his back-of-house staff and then start the 'service included' nonsense to put the burden of giving that back-of-house staff a (much deserved) raise on the front-of house-staff instead of out of his own multi-million dollar pockets, which in turn cost him all his good front-of-house staff (he's since abandoned he practice bc DUH, it didn't work *newsflash*). and now he's heavily invested in the reservation system Resy (so clever) which doesn't cost the restaurant money to use bc Resy tracks the users internet habits (all of them) and sells that money to the highest bidder on the back end.
this guy didn't invent hospitality in business - companies and businesses have been practicing good hospitality for eons because they really do care about their customers, instead of seeing them as an endless supply of profit and marketing data. so this guy and his dumb book can get bent. the people i work for and their idiotic business practices annoy me endlessly, just like this stupid book did, and i'm at a loss as to why i bothered to have this book under 'currently reading' for as long as i did. in conclusion, be nice to your customers bc it's just basic human decency, and for heaven's sake, pay your staff a respectable, deserved wage or don't go into business. thank you, i'll be here all week - try the veal, and don't forget to tip your waitress.