Bad Service or Bad Service

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A few days ago, two friends and I tried out the newly taken-over Marlotte in the 6th and learned the distinction between bad service and bad service.  In the States, one hears people complaining about the “service” when they usually mean the plates are slow to arrive and they sit twiddling their thumbs for inordinate periods.  Francois Simon of Figaro recently complained of waiting an intolerable amount of time at the also recently opened Cotte Roti for his food, that wasn’t much good when it arrived, anyway, and Richard Hesse of the new hit Paris Update is not shy about complaining about it.  But let me ask, whose fault is this and is it really bad service?  Here’s our recent experience.  After a lovely dinner at my place with my two American visitors who’d been touring France for three weeks, I suggested we go out for lunch the next day.  I telephoned immediately, pretty sure that they hadn’t stopped serving at 9 PM.  No answer, only a message from France Telecom saying that they weren’t taking messages, call back later.  I did and kept calling right up to lunch time the next day: same result.    So I hoofed it over a bit early the next day (having made a back-up reservation not too far away in case they were truly closed) and it was obvious from the neon sign and building crowd inside, that they were very much open. I entered and was greeted warmly.  I asked if they were open.  Yes, certainly.  Would I like to be seated? I said I had no reservation because their telephone answering machine didn’t work.  They greeted that as if I had said the sky is above us.  So I cancelled my backup rez and did some window shopping until close to the hour of our rendez-vous.  I then re-entered and was greeted warmly again as were my two guests who speak more halting French than I, which is some comparison.  My friends entered when the place was maybe 10-15% full and I thought it went swimmingly through our ordering (although, in fairness, they hesitatated about ordering a couple of times, and as one has learned, that’s problematic, but more about that later.)  We sat chatting, and waited and waited.  Mind you, the place was 1/4 full with 5-6 folk in the rooms.  After 20 minutes I was puzzled, we’re not eating at a 3-star, it’s just an unrated, new place.  However 30 minuters after we’d ordered, we still hadn’t been served.  Then well, it went on, how long is too long?    The second course arrived even more tardily and long after the mains had been served to the other tables who had come in and ordered after us.  At first we puzzled over whether we might have ordered items that taxed the kitchen or they’d run out of, but no, on reflection, they were all pretty simple – a green salad, two cassolettes of wild mushrooms with a supposedly soft-boiled egg (from the ardoise), an andouillette, frites, a slab of rascasse and tripes in their fashion.  So what was the problem?  Certainly not too few front staff, they were falling all over us; not the kitchen staff, whom I’d observed when I entered early because I had not been able to reserve on the telephone.    Anyone who’s worked in a kitchen, watched a kitchen or even cooked at home, knows how the rhythm and pace works.  This bad service was clearly not a problem of the front-staff but the kitchen-staff.  OK.  After we were finally served and ate our mains, it was too late for my friends both to have dessert and coffee and to make the Louvre in time to see anything, so they started waving around for the check.  Like a miracle, wouldn’t you know, the staff had departed for another planet.  Me, being in no rush, I had nothing else to do that day but scope out another restaurant, was calm, but they were annoyed at (1) being denied dessert and (2) being denied seeing whatever they had it in their hearts to see at the Louvre.  This bad service was the fault of the servers.  So here you have it, the distinction between bad service and bad service!    My favorite in the area, where there’s always good service, is:  Ze Kitchen Galerie 4, rue des Grands Augustins, 6th (Metro: Saint Michel) T: 01 44 32 00 32 Closed Sundays. A la carte 30 €.      ©2007 John A. Talbott  
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