Many restaurant kitchens jump through hoops to give a VIP exactly what he wants. Like Yosemite Sam cooking in the king's kitchen.
But just because someone is powerful doesn't mean they know about food. VIPs out there- stick to the menu. Or, since money is no object for you and yet some of your meal will be comped so you feel good and come back, tell the kitchen they can send you whatever they want and they'll love you for letting them show off their finest dishes. Live a little.
Of course, those of us front of house deal with strange requests as well. Bizarre VIP request story of the week: The son of a beloved American actor known for playing a kind of slow but remarkably zeitgeist-y southerner and various generic romantic leads came into the restaurant with friends several months ago. His request? That we put his Americano in a different, larger cup that was "easier to hold." Seeing as we only stock one size of coffee cup, we had to run around like crazy looking for a different mug. But we find one we did. And I hope he found the mug suitably easy on his delicate fingers.
Does the son of a VIP automatically qualify as a VIP. I guess it does, if you indulged son-of-gump's ridiculous request. How did the owners even recognize him?
ReplyDeleteHello Publius,
ReplyDeleteI don't think kids-of-famous people automatically count. This dude does perform on screen occasionally and is sort of a taste maker for a certain social set. I'm not even sure who recognized him first- the hostess told me who he was.
Often, when we have famous people, their assistants or publicity team will contact us ahead of time so we know they're coming and can plan accordingly.
Thanks for reading!