April 4, 2005 - Compassion

The Pope is dead. How sad. I'm not catholic, or even religious - as a matter of fact I despise the church for its corruption and spreading of crazy, outdated values - but I'm still sad that he's gone. I may not even have agreed with much of what he stood for (ok, pretty much nill), but he always seemed like a decent guy, a good human being. Not a jerk Pope. A nice, sincere Pope. You gotta give him points for trying.

And he seemed to have one thing in overflow: compassion for his fellow humans. Some people really should take a clue from him. Like a certain wait staff for a certain Bend Sushi restaurant.

Yes, I know the comparison between the Pope and a sushi restaurant staff may seem far-fetched - but in this crude world, a bit of compassion, nicety and accomodation can really go a long way. When I go to a nice restaurant to drop some dough on eating out, I want to be treated with a bit of respect in the very least. Not told to go wait in the car for my turn.

Shannon's already ranted about it in her blog - but I want to make a point that it's really not ok to treat customers like crap. Under no circumstances. And no matter how hot of a eating-out spot you may be (or think you are) at the time.

The place in question is a fairly new restaurant on the Bend Westside called Kanpai. They serve sushi - which of course in itself is a hip thing to eat. I drove by the place a few weeks ago, on a Saturday night, and it was packed to the gills. So I figured, I'd go some other time.

Last Saturday seemed to be that time. We had a party of 8, and since Kanpai doesn't take reservations on Saturdays, Shannon and I walked down to the place about half an hour early, around 5.45pm, to see if we could score a table. The smallish restaurant was full already, and the waitress didn't heed us much attention. When she finally did come over to talk to us, I instantly knew she had attitude. She told us they didn't have space right now, and to come back in 45 minutes. And since they didn't have standing room space and we were "in the way", we should go out and wait in the car (mind you - it was roughly 40 degrees outside). With that she turned, and walked away.

Uhmmm... WHAT?

I gathered my wits, went after her, and asked if she could at least hold a table for us. The chef standing nearby said they didn't usually do that, but that they'd try if we'd guarantee to be back in 45 minutes. I gave them my name, and said we would.

And so we were. After 5 minutes waving at the waitress, she finally graced us with her presence. And tersely explained that they were just freeing up a table for another party of 7 - *they* had waited outside the restaurant.

Oh, ok. So that means you really don't stick to your word - and really don't give a shit about your customers.
Why?
Because you can.
You don't need your customers. They are merely suckers who should clamor to be allowed inside your hallowed dining establishment.
Right?

Well, guess what. You treat enough people like this, and the word gets out. Bend is a small town. So why again would I want to spend my money there? Exactly. I wouldn't. There is no point. In a town with the highest concentration of restaurants per head in the state, there is no need.

I told them to go f*** off, and instead we went to the Mexican restaurant La Rosa. They were full too, but they had heating umbrellas outside, the staff was cheerful and attentive, and even brought us Margaritas while we waited. The food was great, they had mariachis that took requests, and the waiter went the extra mile and gave us all a taste of some awesome habanero tequila. What a great dining experience.

So if you want sushi - SKIP KANPAI. Go to Sushimoto's in Sunriver instead. Not only is it the best sushi on the West Coast (no kidding), they are also super-friendly.

I'll be looking for Kanpai to bite the culinary dust.
Soon.