The customer isn't always right
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The customer isn't always right
Michael Klein, Philly.com
I urge you to read Dan Rubin's Inquirer column today about the landscaper who created a website to allow his fellow contractors can call out bad, nasty customers - an anti-AngiesList.
It got me to thinking about Chip Roman, chef-owner of Mica in Chestnut Hill. Not 24 hours before, he went onto Facebook to complain about a party of six that canceled its reservation just before the appointed time. Reason unknown. "Dear 6 top that just canceled five minutes before your reservation, **** you," it began.
One of the most vexing aspects of running a restaurant is dealing with no-shows, especially for a restaurateur almost entirely dependent on reservations. (Roman also owns Blackfish in Conshohocken and Ela in Queen Village.)
No-shows or last-minute cancellations have been a problem for years. You get your "shoppers" - the couples who make reservations at three restaurants and at the last minute decide to grace one with their presence, in effect stiffing the other two restaurants. And you get your legitimate cancellations - someone is sick, a babysitter doesn't show up (hmm).
Roman fielded a couple dozen private messages from fellow restaurateurs to commiserate. The reaction mainly from his non-restaurant Facebook friends included calls for him to identify the transgressor. "Nah, I won't do that," Roman told me.
The impact of Friday's last-minute cancellation was this: Roman has 30 seats at Mica. Dinner tabs average $80 a person. "The food's already bought, the staff is there," he said. He said he could have booked that table 10 times over the course of the week. After reconfiguring the dining room, Mica accommodated a deuce, meaning that he "ate" four covers.
To combat this kind of thing, many restaurateurs ask for credit-card numbers to hold a table and threaten to charge patrons who cancel at the last minute or don't show. But they seldom follow through.
The offending customers invariably will contest the charges. Even worse, said one Facebook commenter, they'll go on a social-media site like Yelp to trash the restaurateur.
The Internet, which gives restaurateurs services like OpenTable and CityEats to book tables painlessly, has also created what Roman calls a "lost intimacy. Now, it's easy for people to click everywhere." He added: "They're not necessarily doing it to be mean." Phone reservations tend to be better honored.
"If you buy tickets to a football game and you get sick, tough [noogies]," Roman said.
So what's the solution - short of changing human nature? Selling tickets to a restaurant? Creating a database of deadbeats that restaurateurs can share? Put someone on the phones that day to double-confirm reservations?
"Put someone on the phones that day to double-confirm reservations?" For years we did exactly this and had very few no-shows because of it. We also mentioned we'd hold the table for 15 minutes, another beneficial win-win reminder.— George Mahe- Sounds like Chip needed to sit down and pour himself a glass of WHINE rather than heading out to make a fool of himself on social media— kilo_005
- Watch out for Open Table. A few weeks Amada called us to cancel an on-line reservation we'd made, saying that they were booked for a private function and the signals were crossed. In other words the "tables" can get reversed in this environment as well.— jimmy76er
- Your customers may be rude, but badmouthing them on line is not going to win you a lot of new ones...— bluehaha
- Seriously, Chip Roman? "The food was bought, the staff was there" . I hope they already were 6 top or no 6 top. How hard up is Chip if he suffered so greatly from losing a 6 top? Last minute cancellations are common and part of the industry. It's embarrassing that he publicly commented on this. Last minute cancellations work out well for last minute diners who may want to walk in and now there's room for them. Last minute cancellations often work well for the restaurant too, as restaurants are often overbooked, or even if booked properly, some diners are late, take longer to eat than expected, etc. which backs up the flow of the dining room. It's really not a big deal to have a cancellation and I really don't want to eat at a Chip Roman restaurant after reading this pathetic public display.
And buy a ticket? It's dinner, not a show or a game. And for the record, if you get sick and can't go to a game, you can sell your tickets on a million different websites, etc. Try to sell a reservation for Mica. I guarantee you won't get many takers.
Chill out everyone, it's just food.— Amanda KM - @AmandaKM
Lots of specialty restaurants are already selling tickets or taking credit cards for reservations.Chip Roman's point is that if you indeed had bought a ticket you would be out of luck and perhaps have to deal with the loss or sell it yourself in which case the restaurant is not impacted.If you also get sick and cannot go to a game on the day off the game the chances of selling it within 24 hrs of the game are slim.Last minute cancellations do not often work out well for restaurants and just because there may or may not be walk-ins is no excuse for people to behave poorly.Agreed about the public commentary. So many Philly chefs even people like Vetri act like children on twitter and facebook.— SeanSnyder - That first "sentence" is really messed up.— citizen k
- Amanda KM, you obvioulsyt have never worked in the restuarnt field. "Chill out everyone, it's just food." What you don't undertand or realizes it's NOT "just" food. Profits are EXTREMEELY THIN in the dog-eat-dog restaurant world and a party fo 6 coming and spending money may be the difference whether Roman actually makes any money that night past the money to keep the lights on, pay the cooks, pay the waitstaff, pay for the food. You don't start making above what it takes to break even, you aren't going to be around long.— Strongbow
- @Strongbow - Quite the contrary. I have worked in the restaurant industry for years at fine dining establishments. I get it. It's hard to make it in the restaurant industry. Restaurants open and close every day. Restaurant workers are overworked and underpaid. Blah, blah, blah...
One 6 top is not going to make the difference. If it somehow really does, your restaurant is surely in danger of closing any day and barely hanging by a thread.
And I'm guessing Chip Roman has investors behind his restaurants and the $$ he's paying his staff is not burning a hole in his personal pocket.— Amanda KM 
@Amanda- Did the "fine dining establishments" you worked at have only 30 seats? That one party killed off 1/5 of his seating. There is no industry outside of government that can take 20% hits on a regular basis. I agree that he shouldn't have come off so negative. A better tact would have been, "Hey guys, it tough on us when you cancel last minute. Could you give us a little more warning, please?" As for the investor angle, you do realize that they just don't throw money at you (if he even has any)? Investment contracts involve guaranteed repayments, often scheduled. Otherwise, the investors take your business after you go bankrupt, or sue you for missing payments.— verve- I think it is rude to not show up for a reservation, especially for a larger size party. That being said, this is the second article that I have read where Chip comes off sounding pretty arrogant and douchy. I make reservations on OT all the time. If I am running late, I call and let the restaurant know. It has nothing to do with the 'intimacy' of a phone call. There are just people that are rude out there. Not a whole lot you can do about it. I suggest Chip re-take Hospitality 101 before he decides to make comments like this or the FB one again.— scargosun
- I didn't love Mica.— richard christy
- I guess once the popularity starts to wane and the phone is ringing a little less, that six top really makes a difference.— Captain Terrific
- The guy sounds like a crybaby and an embarassing one at that. That's the breaks in that business. So no one walks in without reservations? Maybe encourage a little of that instead of crying about the way business is done in that industry and being stuck with your pants down.— Phillies2008WSChamps
- 30 seat restaurant.
If they are LUCKY, they can do 2 full turns a night. 60 people.
6 people are 10% of the guests.
10% OF THE REVENUE, lost.
The most SUCCESSFUL restaurants makes a 10% profit.
10% can mean the difference between making and losing money.
Every one of us would be pissed off.— pismo55 - I think most of you are missing the point. First of all, this wasn't the first time. Second of all, this happens to restaurants thru out the area-- not just to Chip. And third of all, if the public wants to continue to enjoy fine eclectic cuisine, then people need to take some responsibility. Think back 10 years back. Philly had very little in the way of choice for adventurous dining. Now, we compete with NY, Chicago, and other dining destinations. Wake up Philly!!! Chip maybe could have expressed himself differently, but if we want culinary genius to continue to thrive in our city and suburbs, then WE, the public have to step up to the plate (so to speak) and be conscientious when we make our reservations.— Shesha51
- Tough call. I'd remember their name, then deny them next time. Ranting on a social media site will do more harm than good, we all can agree.— Poppys
