If you delight in holding the door for a stranger, feel an urgent need to fill someone’s glass (literal or proverbial) you’re in hospitality. We’re in this to make people feel good, to make a positive dent in the impersonal, hurried world in which we all live. And sometimes, that only takes a simple gesture, a smile, even.
Hundreds of nuances influence a meal, a stay, or a coffee stop and account for the net experience. Sometimes they’re small, but sometimes there’s a much bigger moment that makes a lasting impact.
Hopefully we’ve all had or at least heard of one of these hospitality bigfoots. Sometimes there’s a kindness so over the top, so thoughtful, that you remember it for life, it draws real emotion.
One of my favorite legends involves Emeril Lagasse (BAM!) as a young, no-name chef. He chose a table of random diners in New Orleans and then blew up their meal with off-menu treasures, cocktails, wine, dessert, personal attention—the five-star VIP rollout. We’re talking the kind of meal and service you might have once or twice in a lifetime—if you’re lucky.
And then, when the awestruck, full-to-the-brim, unsuspecting diners were further shocked because no bill was presented, he would say casually, “You looked like you wanted to go for a ride.”
Folks, that’s passion. And it’s a story people will tell and retell 30 years later.
We need not always commit loads of money or time, but sometimes you’re compelled to make a connection or simply to do someone a kindness. Seize those impulses!
I was at a wine bar about two years ago, enjoying a quiet evening with friends, when the proprietor came by the table with a small decanter of this glowing mystery wine and splashed my glass with a simple, “Here you go, we had a little extra.”
Later he came by to see if we enjoyed the 1956 Cheval Blanc, a wine you could spend the next decade trying to find and not locate. That gesture made me a regular for life, a patron of his next projects, an evangelical for the wine bar, and perhaps as important, I’ve spent way too much money there in the years since. That’s a win on all fronts. Except my bank account, but who cares?
And yet, being on the giving end of that equation is even more satisfying. I once had a young couple come into our café a while back on a busy Saturday morning. It was clear that Mom and Dad needed coffee urgently, as the kids were being difficult and fussy. I overheard the oldest pleading for French toast, a menu item we didn’t have.
They politely ordered from the menu, and without acknowledging the interfamily negotiations for a breakfast item we didn’t have the facilities to make, I found a way to whip up our best version and delivered a killer rendition of French toast to the table a few minutes later. Although I’m not sure Jr. even liked it, I know what it meant to Pops because they’ve been regulars at every project I’ve done since that café.
Smart companies build their culture around this premise, empowering staff to make a guest’s day, as they see fit. When used responsibly, this approach pays dividends. Lifelong relationships are forged and the goodwill generated can withstand the occasional service faux pas or overcooked steak. Hospitality is about being cared for, the feeling of nurture, it feeds the soul in the way French toast just cannot. Because when someone believes you truly care, the rest is just details.