Interesting review of Joe Bastianich’s new book “Restaurant Man”. It will not endear him to anyone, or Mario for that matter, but it sounds sincere.
Seems like the best book of it’s type since Kitchen Confidential!
Can I have some of that “cancer of a five day work week”???
I wonder if Joe addresses the corkage issue in his book?
I happened to see Bastianich on the Today show today hawking his book: http://bites.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/01/11485065-joe-bastianich-reveals-restaurants-dark-secrets-talks-lawsuit?lite
Among other gems:
No bottle costs more than $5 to produce. “Essentially, wines are fermented grape juice, so I’m trying to make the point that the wine world is about scores, and marketing and kind of creating a scarce resource where they don’t really exist,” he told Lauer after sipping on a glass of his own $30 bottle. “You can enjoy a $15 bottle of wine as much as you can enjoy a $100 bottle of wine. That’s why we’re in the business – to save bad wine from happening to good people like you, Matt.” >
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Selling wine is all about sizing people up, and it takes a certain amount of chutzpah. The tableside bottle sell is a very funny thing — you take a look at the guy’s blazer, what kind of shoes he’s wearing, what kind of broad he’s with. Is he trying to be a hero? Is he a cheap f–k? Who does he want to impress? Maybe he wants it to seem like he’s spending a lot but he’s actually cheap, or maybe he actually wants to spend a lot of money but doesn’t give a s–t what he’s drinking.
Does he need to impress the table? Is he a boss, is he a date, is he f–king around on his wife? … these people have come here to part with their money and your job is to take it and turn it into a great experience for them.
So now you’re the customer. You’re fortyish with a pretty girl your age, sharing the first two plates and having separate entrées — that’s pretty good. I’m guessing based on the way you dressed — you bothered to put on a jacket, but obviously you don’t do that every night; you’re trying to impress your date — I’m going to get you for a couple glasses of sparkling wine or a cocktail in the beginning and maybe two white quartinos. Split them between you with the app. Maybe a heavier white wine going into your first plate of pasta, and then I have you marked for something solid but not too insanely expensive, maybe a Barbera in the eighty-, eighty-five- dollar range, but if I’m feeling it, I’ll upsell you to a Barbaresco for a hundred twenty-five. But I will never rip you off — that would be suicide. You need to leave singing, “Holy s–t, I never knew that a two-hundred fifty-dollar bottle of Barolo could bring me that much sheer f–king joy!” And then you’ll come back and do it again.
And:
The skills of a maître d’ are the same skills a hooker has — to please the clients. Make them come. Make them feel like they’re the only one. Extract as much money as you can.
Maître d’s are all on the take. They get paid a salary, but then there’s the palm variable. A fifty-dollar bill might get you noticed. Depending on the restaurant, they might even take a twenty. For an Upper East Side rip-off joint or a busy midtown steakhouse a hundie should get you in the game, but it’s just as likely that if they don’t know you, they’re going to think you’re a douchebag. It’s not about the cash flash, it’s all about the implicit value of your relationship. >
He says that wisdom like this will help us, the customers, to have a “better restaurant experience”. So, in addition to the cost of the overpriced food and wine, we need to factor in a bribe at the door to really enjoy ourselves (if table location is important anyway). Right. He “excuses” the language and characterizations expressed in the book as “hey Matt, I’m from Queens…that’s how we talk”. I’m from Queens…some of us outgrow that nonsense.
I am fortunate enough to dine out fairly regularly (though certainly not a “foodie”), either for business or with my wife and family, but I don’t think I’ve been to more than a couple of B&B’s collection. After hearing this guy this morning, I will spend my restaurant dollars elsewhere in the future.
What a tool. ![[swearing.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8a0d3f3461d40641d294442fc2be78039bf94d19.gif "[swearing.gif]"){kind=small}
Joe’s “screw them before they can screw you” attitude is very apparent. He does not seem like a happy person, despite all the recent fame and success.
I don’t know him or Mario but I will say this:
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I took a bunch of family members to Felidia one evening for dinner and had a truly memorable dinner, outstanding, friendly and helpful service from all involved including the Somm and
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My wife took her mother and sister to dinner at Del Posto and they described the dinner as magical. Now three ladies, including on elderly matron time grandma, do not look like cash cows, nor did they spend like it, but they were treated like royalty. My wife still talks about how gracious and affable the servers were and how brilliant the cooking was (and my wife knows food, and particularly haute Italian food, extremely well).
That’s great empirical evidence Neal and very helpful. Clearly, those experiences are not unusual or B&B would not so incredibly successful. Perhaps many “Restaurant Man” type owners, if given truth serum, would say the same things as Bastianich. However, there are restauranteurs who are NOT like him in any way, except being successful. And there are many restaurants that would duplicate the wonderful experiences you described. I guess, given that I’ve now seen Joe in “action”, I just prefer to spend my dollars elsewhere rather than transfer my meager “wealth” to Joe’s pockets.
He methodically inspects the restrooms, replacing all toilet seats on a monthly basis: “My father drilled this into my head from the time I was 6 years old. He used to say, ‘We don’t run this place like a f–king Chinese restaurant.’ ”
Read more: > Batali’s paisan partner spills all the beans
I thought this was outrageously funny. No offense to the many on this board who could quite understandaby take offense, even at me for laughing. Sorry.
I had dinner by myself at Babbo’s bar a couple of years ago and it is still on my mind. The staff all knew their sh-t and the food was great. Reading his comments makes me less likely to go back although I loved my experience.
Funny? What do you mean funny? Like funny ha ha?
My wife and I had a really great meal at Del Posto last year, some of the best food we ate last year. The service was a bit shaky with our wine pairings not appearing at all until we reminded our server about them after almost finishing the first coarse. Honestly the book has kinda put me off of their restaurants, especially after having read the Danny Meyer book which seems almost the exact opposite of Joe’s book.
Judging from the last sentence of the article, Restaurant Man is also a thief.
It seems the fallout is in full swing:
http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/bitter_taste_of_bastianich_EG9wI0Y0JmNY0DFOShN4FI
Lidia must be thrilled.
Whew!
I don’t know Joe at all,but I have had a wonderful relationship with Felidia over the years and have had some occasional very friendly words in passing with Lidia,a woman who I respect and appreciate mightily…
She must truly be embarrassed to have seen what has been spewing out of her son’s mouth lately.
“I’m from Queens,that’s how we talk.No problem?”
I don’t think so…
A disgrace to his father and Mother.
I developed and directed a wine program at a small full service restaurant in Manchester Vermont. The restaurant quickly gained acclaim, and its Chef has gone on to receive a James Beard nomination for best chef in his region. We were charging $45 for entrees. White table cloth type of place. The owners were my in-laws, both of whom are/were exceptionally upstanding folks who were very successful in corporate America before “retiring” to purchase, renovate, and run a 22 room upscale-luxury inn and restaurant. They weren’t Queens natives, jackasses, mafiosos, swindlers, or greedy (at all). My experience with their restaurant was eye opening. Your $44 10 oz. prime filet mignon is $9 a lb. Your wine by the glass is the cost of an entire bottle. etc. etc. That’s the background…
Here’s the truth serum: Your entire restaurant experience, start to finish, is about making the restaurant money. Never forget that fundamental rule. Bastianich is telling you EXACTLY what goes through the mind of every restrauteur. “How do I maximize the return/diner while keeping them coming back?” He’s just doing it in swarthy terms with pitiful language. The Maitre D issue wasn’t an issue for us, given the fact that it was the owners’ son, and that was not part of the deal. But, the fact of the matter is that every action is about cost and benefit. Bastianich hits the nail on the head when he says you want to capitalize on your guests in exchange for an incredible evening. Every time you go to a restaurant or purchase a bottle of wine, you are working on a memory. You want to walk with the best memory you could have for the money you spent. You want to tell your husband that the meal you had with your mother at Del Posto was legendary, and a memory you will always cherish. That is what you are selling. If anything, Bastianich makes a few great calls that should assuage your concerns about his restaurants: Never screw your guest, only upsell in cost AND quality and only when appropriate, and always try to blow your guest away.
As for investigating your mark, that’s just the nature of the game. If you oversell, you lose. If you undersell, you lose. Taking into account appearance, taste, etc. isn’t a con artist’s move…it’s about meeting and exceeding your client’s expectations without making them feel embarrassed or small. A guy with a hot date doesn’t want to have to turn down all three suggested bottles because they are two expensive. He doesn’t EVER want to have to ask the sommellier what he has in a lower price point and look like a cheap bastard. It’s the nature of the beast. At the same time, the CEO of a fortune 100 company, who is entertaining his biggest supplier who just flew in from China probably doesn’t have any interest in ordering a bottle Clos du Val Reserve, or an unrecognizeable Barbera. He may, however, reach on that 1994 Harlan, since he’s trying to let his supplier know that he truly appreciates the business. It is what it is. The restaurant wants to sell, and the client wants their expectations blown. To know their expectations, you often have to make an educated guess. That requires sizing up your customer. It’s not deceitful, and if anything, it can make your evening all that much better if their assessment is accurate.
At our restaurant, there was a really nice bar in the area where people waited to be seated. The bartender and the barback, when one was around, would take note of what people were drinking. I’ll be really honest. What cocktail you order is a tell for what wine you’ll order, generally speaking. If you’re ordering an Oban 18, Macallen 20 something, or even a Lagavulin 16, just to name very few reasonably affordable to high end scotchs, you’ll be pitched pricier wines. If you’re ordering Johnny Blacks, you’ll be pitched cheaper wines. If you order a “rum and coke” or a “whiskey coke” or a “vodka soda” and don’t specify what you want, you’ll be handed the by the glass list. Don’t be offended…the restaurant is trying to make YOU comfortable.
If anything, Bastianich’s approach is exactly what we should all hope for in a restaurant. He capitalizes on your experience, and his entire goal is to keep you coming back. He WANTS service to be better than anything you’ve ever had. He WANTS to impress the ever living crap out of you with his wine suggestions. He WANTS to blow your mind if you decide to spend more money than you anticipated, so you feel like you got even more than your bang for your buck. He WANTS you to walk away from his restaurants in awe of the perfect experience, and perfect memory, you obtained.
He’s an abbrasive ass-hole, and he doesn’t know dick about wine, given his $5 per bottle remarks. That said, he’s making mint because he’s taking care of customers during all aspects of the meal. If that’s exactly what his customers’ want, I suppose I don’t understand the vitriol. Contrary to the quote above, all successful restrauteurs are doing what Bastianich does to some degree, and I’d be willing to guess a very, very large degree.
I developed and directed a wine program at a small full service restaurant in Manchester Vermont. The restaurant quickly gained acclaim, and its Chef has gone on to receive a James Beard nomination for best chef in his region.
For clarification, I was not implying that the restaurant gained acclaim from my wine program. You’d have a hard time finding anyone on earth to agree with that statement. It was just a matter of timing, since I began directing the wine program concurrently with my in-laws buying, renovating, upgrading, and reviving the Inn and restaurant. They deserve 100% of the credit (well, and their chef, but they hired him), not me.
For clarification, I get that restaurants are in business to maximize their profits. That’s what I would expect and I have no quarrel with that goal. Presumably that includes making as much as they can from each customer without pissing them off so much that he/she doesn’t return. Reasons could include lousy food (or not worthy of the high $$ anyway), service, attitude, or feeling like they’ve been duped/taken advantage of because he was too meek to resist the somm’s suggestion of a $200 bottle (with a 4x markup). I get that is what Restaurant Man is all about. I’ve tipped maitre’ds (for good “real estate”) and even somms for that matter (usually when providing great recommendations and service for a larger group).
Though I usually byo when corkage is not outrageous (see Batali corkage thread), I’ve also purchased many expensive wines on appropriate occasions, whether business or personal. By the way, I have no problem with any restaurant’s corkage policy. They get to run their business as they wish, but I also get to choose another restaurant if I don’t like that policy. The restaurant is, of course, betting that the rest of its charms will be enough to attract other customers not so concerned with corkage.
Maybe I just don’t like hearing from this jerk (Joe) how the “sausage is made”. It’s like telling a magician’s secrets…and he makes it sound like we are suckers every time we walk in his restaurants. Suffice to say, I won’t be heading to any of Joey’s restaurants because I think he’s a self-righteous, condescending prick (to borrow his comments on Mariani) and a thief. That’s enough for me. ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
I think it’s unfortunate. It does sound like he’s just trying to sell a book by trying to out Bourdain Bourdain.
I have dined at his restaurants over 50 times in the past decade (Babbo, Lupa, Esca, Otto, B&B, P.Mozza, O.Mozza) and the food has always been excellent, the prices very reasonable. Each time I go to Babbo, I feel like I could have paid more and still been happy. At one time, the wine markup at Babbo was consistently 1.5-1.75x when most people in Manhattan were doing 2-2.5x. When budget was tight in graduate school we would do our celebrations at Lupa and always left extremely happy paying $15 for pasta, $23 for an entree, and many bottles of wine around $30-40. These days I go to P.Mozza at least 10 times a year.
To me, it sounds like he’s just trying to sell books by being “shocking tell all” which is unfortunate because his restaurants are really, really good. A horrible miscalculation by someone who really knows how to run a successful restaurant empire. Maybe it has all gone to his head.
I’ve never particularly liked the B&B restaurants (including some awful meals at Babbo and Esca), but on the other hand, I’m completely shocked that anyone in this forum (all of whom presumably eat out frequently) had any illusions that their relationship with the restaurant was anything differnet than as Bastanich described. Sales is sales.