He Said:
A couple of weeks ago, I went off on one of my patented rants about a disappointing meal we had at Lebanon, one of our favorite spots.
I’m not linking to it here, and you won’t find it in our archives, because it is now the first thing we’ve ever written that we’ve subsequently taken down.
There wasn’t anything factually wrong with it: We did have a bad experience, and the service wasn’t good. And it prompted some conversation in a forum on NewOrleans.com. Some of those folks, as well as a commenter on our own blog, weren’t too keen on the laborious manner in which we split the check.
Here are some other comments on splitting checks:
…that does make it less likely a calculator will be produced at the table for the hideous purpose of splitting the check, a practice that should be illegal in any civilized country. -January 8, 2011
…there is a special circle of Hell reserved for restaurants who deliberately and grossly overbook (I’m not sure which one, but I think it’s between the check-splitters and the scheduling-a-wedding-during-Jazzfest people). -April 7, 2010
The author of those quotes? Yep, you guessed it: me. So I managed to breezily pass over being guilty of one of my own cardinal dining rules. More importantly, the more I thought about the post, the less good it seemed. I try to keep the humor in my rants, and some of them strike a chord in readers. I try for snarky and funny, but the more I reread this one it seemed like snarky and mean, which isn’t where I want to be, and not what we want our writing to be about.
The other half of this writing duo advised me that if it continued to weigh on me that was all the answer I needed about what was the right thing to do. So my apologies to Lebanon, a very good restaurant, to a server who was probably just having a shitty day, and to you who read us. All of you deserved better than a nasty pile-on.
Today’s leap day, so I take that opportunity for a little do over, and I’ll try to stay on the high road in the future.
Happy Leap Day to you…..and may you never again be stuck in check-splitting purgatory at any restaurant.
Nice. I’m glad you brought that subject of Leap-Day up; I think I’m going to line up a few do-overs myself…
Maybe you’re being a little hard on yourself. Your rant reminded me of the two most unpleasant dining experiences I’ve had in my four decades of restauranting. The first, in Minneapolis, my wife and I took my parents to dinner. The waitress seeming singled out my mother to be rude to, to the point I had to ask the manager to change our server. I still remember the waitress barging in on the conversation with the manager: “Is there a problem?” and me answering “Yes, you are the problem.” My parents weren’t accustomed to dining out much, and the experience was a bad one obviously no easily forgotten.
The second was at Citronelle, probably the most expensive place I’ve ever eaten, during a special night out in D. C. during a convention for my work. The waiter was so condescending and snobby, in contrast to the incredible warmness he treated the table of regulars sitting right next to us, that we ended up finishing our prix fix menu out in the bar, with the guy who filled our water glasses finishing off the service. The first waiter was so full of attitude we didn’t want to be in the same room with him.
These were really egregious examples. And especially in the case of Citronelle, begged the question of how much to tip.
Recently we were in another not inexpensive place, Hakassahn, to celebrate Christmas dinner. We had three small plates on our table before we had any wine in our glasses. And we’d ordered the wine first. We saw the wine guy, our bottle in his hand on his way to our table, stop to talk to a group of people he knew. We watched him and watched our bottle of white slowly warm in his hand. But you know, no real harm was done. No one was rude, we kidded him about it and we all laughed. Some things, though, just can’t be glossed over and I continue to stand with your original account that something went very, very wrong at Lebanon.
Well done. Good man.
Not a big fan of taking down the post. The rant was relevant and insightful, and it had it’s place. Whether you had a change of heart or not about the rant, and whether you’ve matured over time to a place that allows for check-splitting (something technology allows in restaurants) – it was your experience and your opinion – own it. Don’t wipe it away into the dust bin. This is part of being a social journalist – sometimes you get it wrong. Where you are today is better, because where a traditional journalist maybe gets a printed correction by the editor or just has to live with doing something stupid (TV reporters don’t get editor corrections), you get to mea culpa the hell out of your own piece, at whatever level you choose. What’s truly commendable is that you did a political-type outing of yourself (quotes of your opinions from the past that conflicted with today’s statement). Would your commenters be so forgiving if your name was Mitt Romney? I think not. Shame on them, then. Fact is, we are all humans (even politicians with differing views from us), our opinions change with growth, experience, and information. You experienced that, and it doesn’t devalue your rant. I don’t think Lebanon should be left off the hook by erasing the episode cause you’re guilt-ridden about being snarky and you contradicted yourself from times past. It’s a learning for them and for you. You’re a social journalist, this hapens. Also, the damage is done. If they took a PR hit, then taking the post down after it sat for a week is akin to making a false accusation about Santorum’s catholicism and then apologizing after it makes the national headlines and colors our opinions…can’t take it back. So I say repost it in the archives..with pride and all mea culpas you need. And keep up the incredible work.
I think you made the right choice. The article was bothering you. After some soul searching you felt you had not been fair. I agree, the waiter was probably having a shitty day. Hell, we all have shitty days. Maybe by the time it was over you and the waiter were both having a shitty day making one giant turd
We are regulars at the Lebanon also and can’t say enough about the service and food. If I have a bad experience at any restaurant I always try to understand the reason, see if I can fix it at the time and if I can’t. In the name of fairness I try and keep my mouth shut to others until I experience another meal and service at the same restaurant to decide if it was an abominably or if it is time for me to spout off (which my wife claims I do a lot, if it’s about a restaurant or not)