Monday, February 11, 2008

Hospitality 2

Comuters are great as long as you don't hit the wrong key, and also know how to correct if you do. Anyway to continue:
Thursday I went to the "Oriental Wok" on Buttermilk Pike in Ft. Mitchel KY. It was Chinese New Year and I thought there was no better way to celebrate than with a meal reminisint of my childhood. The "Oriental Wok" is owned and operated by Michael Wong, and his family, who has been in the business over 40 years. He is an ever present owner at this red, gold and steriotipicle Chinese restaurant. He has always been service oriented and his philosophy is to make customers happy, so they return often. The food is good, but not great, but everyone is treated like an Emporer or Emporess. Ones' wish is the Wok's command.
I ordered #6,($8) Chicken Chop Sui, Egg Roll and Fried rice. I ask if I could have Egg Fo Young instead of the rice and that I would gladly pay the difference, if there was any. The waiter, who had been there over 15 years, smiled and told me if it was in the kitchen I could have it. It came, hot, as I desired and remembered down to the heavy brown sauce with much to much Sodium. It took me back 60 years.
On Saturday night, after the Symphony, 4 of us went to "Twist" the new Jean Robert Cocktail lounge, next to Pigall's, on 4th St. I have written about both prevously. The place was jumping. Richard Brown the Matier de, at Pigall's, and one of the best in my opinion, anywhere, greated us and said he was sure there was room. Well there wasn't, so Richard said we should come into the bar at the main restaurant and he would arrange for us to order off the "Twist" menu, which we did. "Twist" price points are considerably lower that their up scale neighbor. As an example, a glass of wine at Pigall startes at $10 while Twist low end is around $6. We were treated wonderfully and the bartender even substitued one of her wines, for the other lady in our party, when she had found the tasting had been more enjoyable than that wine which she eventually ordered.
Sunday inight it was at the other end of the spectrum, from Pigall's. With a young(20's) relative we went to the "Noodle Company" a Boulder Colorado chain which is just opening in our area. You order at the counter and food is delivered to your table. Main courses are $5 to $7 while salads are $2 to $3. The branch we visited is just outside Hyde Park Plaza at the Paxton intersection. As you might guess from the name the stress is on noodle dishes but there are other items available. We had "pot stickers", two different salads, pasta with pesto and pasta with a light white sauce and cheese. Getting back to "hospitalty", the counter lady couldn't have been nicer, expaining the menu and giving us guidence on choices. The young women who brought the food was equally attentive and checked back several times, in an unhurried manor, to see if we wanted additional help, they had already provided extra, warmed, large plates so that we could split easily.
The bottom line, in case you haven't guessed, is that hospitality doesn't necessary come with a price but is an ingrained or taught attitude.
Now to figure out how to work this "darned" computer. Also see if I can make the spell check work, which accounts for my numerous errors, in that department.

1 comment:

drmm said...

You're back from California and I'm back from Mexico. Lots of new restaurants to try, No? You can add me to your regular readers' list. How serious are you about spell check? I'll let you know when you're off, if you want that free service! drmm