While it’s tricky to gauge how this media fanfare will play out for the restaurant, regardless of whether you’re Team Restaurant or taking the side of the customer, it does create an interesting debate around how restaurants are perceived in Britain and that of hospitality as an industry.
Historically, dining out in this country was for special occasions in mainly fine dining restaurants. The sort of places that would require jackets and ties for the men and little handbag stools for the women. It was also at a time when restaurants were not seen as a viable career in this country or perhaps even a proper business. Much has changed over the past 15 years thanks to the likes of Barrafina, POLPO, Jeremy King and Chris Corbin’s restaurants and the general restaurant revolution towards more relaxed, accessible ways to dine out. It’s also attracting a whole new wave of people who want to work in this amazing industry.
While every restaurateur hopes for high-spending customers, the best restaurants should be egalitarian places. A meeting place where people from all walks of life can break bread together, be that spending £30 or £300. It’s often obvious when you walk into a restaurant that purely looks at their customers as £ signs. It’s a two way street - an unwritten mutual respect between restaurateur and customer. The customer is there to order, eat and pay. The restaurant is there to cook food and deliver hospitality. Is the customer always right? Of course not.
Yet, if it was as black and white as this, working in a restaurant and eating in one would be incredibly boring for all concerned. There is so much more to a restaurant than the monetary transaction between the guest and owner. It’s emotive, it’s not a science. The best front of house have empathy. No technology will ever be able to replace this. But, and I think this is something we often forget as we’re there to have fun, a restaurant is a business. It’s a tough business. Margins are tight.
The Yellow Bittern rant is a pertinent reminder that a story always has two sides to it. Controversially, I think sometimes the customer does need a greater understanding of how restaurants work. It is not your job to make a business viable but I think understanding the intricacies of something can put it in a different perspective. And there is one very simple way of doing this - by working in one. A stint in hospitality is one of the best things anyone can do in my opinion. Just don’t tell anyone they’re not spending enough money.
