Restaurant Self-Ban

For the most part, there are almost no restaurants I am not willing to visit. From the street vendor (far too few in Vancouver, in my humble opinion) to fast food chain restaurants (I did visit McDonald’s for my Smore’s and Brulee McFlurry posts!) to “casual dining” (whatever that means) restaurants to fine dining. If it is food and I have the cash to afford it, chances are I will go. Of course, unless, that place is in the middle of nowhere (or Richmond!). And, as the name of this blog implies, I am only there for the food; the rest is something I can live with our without.

So, that begs the question, would I return to a restaurant that I have mentioned I won’t go back? Unfortunately, chances are there might be some chances. No, I am not flip-flopping on this now. The truth is that things might have change since my last visit and it can go both ways. Good restaurants might have gone south while those I did not like have improved. Furthermore, some of the restaurants I do not like, unfortunately, are places where people like to gather (mainly because their location and layout favours this type of activities). I might grumble about their selection but, between not meeting them and choosing to give them a second chance, I think I will rather meet them – after all, friends can last a lifetime while restaurants might come and go.

So, that begs the title of this post. Has any restaurant banned me? While I am sure some restaurants can guess who am I, so far, no restaurant has put a mug shot of me saying I should not be allowed in. Instead, in a fashion similar to that of casinos, i.e., where you can tell the local casino/gaming commission to not allow you in, I have decided to ban myself from certain restaurants in Vancouver. In some cases, it has nothing to do with food, rather to something that they did during one of the greatest moments (if not THE greatest moment) of this year (if not for the next couple of years) – The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

What? What some restaurants did? OK, lets quickly reminisce… A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on restaurants people outside of Vancouver should go to eat during the Games. However, thanks to a comment, I was referred to a page mentioning some “interesting” practices of these restaurants. Likewise, local TV and newspapers started to notice a particular behaviours from some local restaurants in the Downtown core and Yaletown areas. What specifically? That of mandatory tipping and, worst of all, price gouging. So, in reference to that post…

• An article in The Globe and Mail from Alexandra Gill, the newspaper’s food critic.
• A site maintaining a naughty or nice list of restaurants.
• An article (and video) from CTV.

The most interesting one is the second link, where an actual list was compiled. I still haven’t received permission from the owner of the site yet to do a full copy-a-paste of the list with explanations for each entry but, in the meantime, here is the list (as for exactly why, please check the link above).

• Academic Public House
• The Hub
• Fairmont Hotel Restaurant
• El Furniture Warehouse
• Cafe Crepe
• Lolita’s Restaurant
• Society Dining Lounge
• Section 3 Restaurant
• Bean Around the World
• Cafe Medina
• Simply Thai
• Moxie’s Grill
• Granville Room Bar
• All Glowbal Group Restaurants
• George Lounge
• Chambar Restaurant
• Lickerish Restaurant
• Morrissey Irish Bar and Restaurant
• The Keg
• Cactus Club
• Hapa Izakawa
• Cambie Bar and Grill
• Earls Restaurants
• Red Card Sports Bar
• Elephant and Castle
• Glowbal Grill Restaurant
• Steamworks
• Megabite Pizza
• Library Square Public House
• Hamilton Street Grill
• Dix Brewery BBQ

As mentioned previously, the issues are related to mandatory gratuity (sometimes not even informed to the customers) and increase of price. So, let’s tackle them separately:

Mandatory gratuity: I have written a blog post in the past (check it here) so feel free to take a look at it. The main argument for this practice during the Olympics was that visitors from other countries who are not used to tipping might, well, not tip at all, which short changes the waiters and waitresses (and who knows who else). In my previous post, I have made reference to that culture of entitlement, i.e., you are NOT entitled to tips. But, see, here is the curve ball against the restaurant’s line of thought: weren’t your restaurants packed full (specially those that are in the Downtown/Yaletown area)? Even one restaurant bragged about it! If so, doesn’t more customers mean more people tipping (assuming they do tip)? If so, doesn’t that curve out at the end of the day? Hell, somebody even did a calculation for the Games – check it here!

And, please, do not bring the “because we are looking over more customers, we are *ahem*entitled*ahem* to more tips” argument. If I were to use that, does that mean that, in an empty restaurant, I can choose not to tip? Oh, wait, I can choose not to but you get the gist of my argument. Also, in other lines of work (read: hourly and salaried), we are not entitled to additional compensation if there is a need to put an additional effort (though, management usually compensate for this with some for of compensation).

There is one thing I must make clear about this argument: It is not directed to waiters and waitresses and bus boy (what would be the feminine of bus boys? Bus girls? Bus ladies???). Unless you are in an union (unless in it is a hotel; in a restaurant business? Unlikely), it is the restaurant who sets the mandatory side of this practice. However, at the same time, I will have to condemn you when you did NOT tell the customers there was a mandatory gratuity was applied (several instances of the restaurants listed above have those comments).

Price increase: In the media, the operator of certain restaurant defended their actions by saying due restrictions imposed to Downtown (in reference to the delivery only during midnight/early hours of the morning bylaw), they had to hire additional staff to tackle this issue. OK, I will have to scratch my head on this one… Long time ago, I had a small business and one thing I learned really fast was the concept of cost of doing business. In a world where change is the only constant, you must always keep yourself prepared for the worst case scenario. In the case of the Olympics, notice of these bylaws were sent out way in advance so you had time to make the appropriate adjustments.

Using that argument as a reference point, does that mean if your stove breaks, you can choose to increase the price of my meal because you need a replacement? Likewise, if you HVAC, dish washer or some other appliance breaks, you will be charging me extra, etc. etc. C’mon people, things like this are things you should have kept into consideration *before* you open for business. But, wait, didn’t I mention there was an increase in business in some of these restaurants? Once again, if that was that case, doesn’t that also mean more business and more revenue to balance the additional staff required?

So, because of the two points above, I have chosen to self-ban myself from the restaurants above for the next 12 months and to be reviewed in the future. This is, of course, a one-man’s thoughts and agenda (*). I will not condemn you if you want there, after all, there is the freedom of choice. Still, I am doing it based on the principle that, during the biggest time of this city, these restaurants chose to be greedy and give a bad impression to visitors. Furthermore, it has set up a precedent and, in the future, they might do this again whenever there is a celebration/event of sorts (like making some streets pedestrians only during weekends in summer). Instead, I will choose to visit those restaurants that played “nice” and did not implement such changes, not to mention those that were hit lightly due to lack of pedestrians in their area (Gastown, West End, et al).

(*) – From a certain extent, except for a couple in the list, it is not a big personal loss, as most of these restaurants are restaurants I wouldn’t have gone by my own choice anyway to begin way *cough*Glowbal*cough*.

Finally, I will leave this space open for restaurants to voice their thoughts, specially if you belong in the list. Likewise if you believe I am wrong, please, let me know.

Tagged under: Random