Good fine dining is like art. It's appreciated for the experience. Not the functionality. Some people scoff at it but then will drop a few hundred to go see a concert where they sit relatively close. Some travel to the Louvre or the Met or the Taj Mahal. It's all about experience. I like food. And I like fine dining. I did both Joel Robuchon and Guy Savoy in Vegas in the last year. Picasso, L'Atelier... these places are each like experiencing a different exhibit of culinary art.

I'm not rich. Nor do I really wish to be beyond any reasonable standard. But I love fine dining. I can remember the servers I had at every fine dining restaurant (it's not $$ level that qualifies it. it's like pron, you know it when you see it) by features if not name as well. I can tell you the names of the best ones. The best teams. The Robuchon team had to have been 8 per table if you include the cart workers. Savoy had to have been in the double digits. With this many folks working and no error that I noticed that's amazing to me. Things working in harmony. No hurry. No worry. They turn those tables over probably thrice nightly. But I felt like I could have stayed there all night.

I went back to Picasso after a year away and they remembered me after only one visit. Their asst sommelier talked to us about his wine choices for a solid 20 minutes during my first visit. This is affordable luxury. To be treated as such in a manner that emphasizes personal satisfaction with an expertise on that level is intoxicating to me. I get misty just thinking about it. I know it's pretentious. That's why it's a vice. A few times a year is all it takes though. It makes life that much better.

Now, stingy. Shooting down suggestions for one of these joints for a meh steakhouse in Vegas when we all know we're going to CCR it at the end... and then balking payment when you lose... and then ****ting in a trashcan somewhere in the maze of City Center on your way from ditching the party after throwing a drunken fit and pretending not to remember any of it the next day and incurring no hard feelings. That's the stingiest thing I've seen someone do in Vegas. Knowing that the people with him would ultimately pick up his slack if he acted like enough of a fool. If he had let us go somewhere better than a meh steakhouse I wouldn't have been nearly as angry.

Loose,

That's way more than stingy, that's just being a total piece of ****.

For a server, is wearing less than 15 pieces of flair considered stingy?

Sorry for AIDSing up the thread, guys. I'm done with my part in that derail. Now that I get what is meant by fine dining (like very high end fine dining) I would agree there is a big difference in service. I was including in "fine dining" what El D called I think normal, mid-range sit down places. I can dig that, although if we look at numbers-wise who eats at those, it's a very very small % of the population.

I would guess that in America, casual dining chains are the nicest restaurants that 80%+ of the population EVER eats at in their life. I can assure you that for many of our customers, CCF is the nicest restaurant that they've ever been to. (yikes) So I don't know how "normal" those normal mid-range sit down places are, since for each one of those that exist are dozens and dozens of fast food, casual dining, and mom and pop ethnic joints.

If I could afford normal mid-range places more regularly, I'd definitely do them more. But I may hit one of those up maybe once a week, and then more often if I'm in Vegas. And I'm moderately well off.

Anyway, enough bull**** out of me. Back to stinginess! (I have no stories at the moment but will be on the lookout)

This is a good stingy story.

As for the derail, I think the next step is for El Diablo to eat at Double Down's Cheesecake Factory and do a trip report.

.

My mate is filthy rich. Went around to his house when we were about 16. His mum blasted me for getting a can of coke out of the fridge "I bought the cola for you boys!".

One time I was hungry and had a banana, she blasted me for it. He had been at my house for dinner the previous night.

They don't scoff at flying round the world first class but if you have the $1 can of coke instead of the 30 cent cola you get blasted. His dad is a champ, no idea how he puts up with the mum.

He gets blasted?

I thought coke was cola

it is; so shes rich and ignant. She prob referring to cola as generic brands.

did you not read the last line?

what is the answer to this? very curious.

also, i love fine dining (also love cheap hole in the wall ethnic places) and i appreciate the great service i get, but anyone who actually gives a **** if the wine is poured clockwise vs counterclockwise, or what direction plates are served from etc is a huge douchebag and sucks at life.

i've eaten at really high end places like the french laundry and commanders palace, and i much preferred the service at french laundry, because while it was still impeccable it was a very casual vibe to it and the atmosphere didn't feel super pretentious.

commanders palace was very old school stiff/formal and i didn't like it at all.

places like gary danko have the combination of great service with a relaxed/friendly vibe down perfect.

for stingy, i went to eat with a group of pretty well off poker players like 6 years ago (i wasn't close with any of them really, was invited by one of them i played with a decent amount and didn't know the others).

they acted like the biggest ballers ever, ordered all kinds of good wine, and talked like they were beyond caring about money etc.

then when it was time for the check not only would they not CCR (ok not stingy no prob) they asked for split checks and the waiter accidentally put one guys coke on another guy's bill and the dude made the other guy give him $3 for the coke.

same group invited me to dinner few weeks later i politely declined (they were also super rude to the server).

rbk,

The one thing that Commander's Palace (and some other places also) does that I think is kinda cool is how no matter how many people you have in your group, everyone's plate hits the table at the same time.

BOOM BLASTED

I worked at a card room for a couple years that was small mostly one game with two dealers. One night we had a big tournament and all the winners stayed and played all night I ended up working like 12 hours or something and make the owner an extra $500 in rake. When she finds out we worked overtime she freaks out and says we should have called her at 6am or whenever to save her the overtime,which would have broke the game and cost her more money. I didn't really care, then a few weeks later I look in the office and see she actually paid $60 to the payroll company to get new checks and not pay me and the other guy like $100 in overtime. Place went out of business 6 months after I quit.

Yes. I still remember seeing this at Emeril lagasses NOLA, I was impressed when the gf and I were served and the plates hit the table not even seconds apart, then the same thing at a table close by with a party of 8, and I still remember this today, and I haven't been to New Orleans since before Katrina...

Forgot to quote el Diablo above

Oh I forgot this one,first year I work there a month get $100 christmas bonus next year I work the whole year she tells me I am getting a 20% bonus and then gives me a frozen turkey she bought on blow out from thanksgiving.

As soon as I send in the main courses for a table, I print out the check, find a presenter, and keep it on me. They call it being "check ready." I don't think it's necessarily the industry standard, or even an official policy of how ccf does it, but it's a smart thing to do.

You never know when a guest will have to leave suddenly, if they maybe have to catch a movie and hadn't told you beforehand. Or if they have little kids, half the time through their meal they suddenly have to leave bc of a tantrum or something. And when you're suddenly under the gun like that, you don't want to have to find an emply pos station to print it out, and then an empty check presenter. It also might be bad timing because of whatever else you have going on with other tables. Basically, it's one thing to be able to get out of the way before you HAVE to do it.

Guests really seem to like it as well when they ask you for the check and you have it right there ready for them. It's like a magic trick. As long as you don't go over the line of over-eagerly whipping it out, which could make them feel rushed/like you're trying to get them the hell out and you've just been itching for them to ask you for the check.

especially at ccf, doesn't basically everyone get dessert? Why else would you go there? You must have to reprint like 95% of the bills

CCF, just the same as fine dining!

The intermittent stingy stories are making it difficult to follow the fine dining thread here.

You'd be surprised at how many people don't get dessert. It's because our portions are so mother****ing huge, and since the wait is so long, when people get to their table, they pig out on our bread because they're starving.

Leaves very little room for dessert. Which is fine with me because guests ordering dessert actually hurts our bottom line as servers, since they stay an extra 15-20 minutes for only another $7 in sales.

A lot of people will get cheesecake to go since they don't have room, but that also tends to hurt our tips because a lot of people don't tip out on to go (I'm talking about when they order it through us and not at the front bakery.)

How can you know this? Maybe they're just tipping 15% on everything, rather than 18% on the meal and nothing on the cheesecake.

That cant possibly hurt your tips. Youre getting the same, not less.

DD,

Why do you call it CCF and not CF?