Dine Out Vancouver 2006 - Restauaranteurs POV

[kurtisk]

This was our first time doing Dine Out ever.

First of all, we're ecstatic that everyone honoured their reservation. We sold some good wines, and even a few selections from the cellar. We were able to accomodate a few walk-ins at the bar who weren't aware of DOV but happily dove into it.

Our kitchen were incredibly strong, everything came out timely and now the floor staff know what kind of food-times we're looking at.

The phone is still ringing off the hook, which provides some time obstacles but we're not complaining at all.

The VQA pairings were taken up by about 50% of our guests. We love that.

It's 11:30, our last table just left, and damn it (!) we survived.

One day down. Many more to follow.

k.

[nwyles]

It was strong. We surpassed last year by about 20 % in covers and the average cheque was up as well.

A few hiccups as we were just doing the Dine Out menu and things had not found their proper place yet but Saturday will be even stronger.

Chef Fowke stepped in tonight to help up get up and running at insane speeds again. Glad he was here.

A few adjustments as a few things that I did not think would be the big sellers really rose to the top of the pile.

It just goes to show that the more I think I know, the less I actually do.

We will see what Saturday brings.

Cheers

Neil

[Luciano Loi]

Since we are in our first year this is our first Dine Out at Adesso. We had several no shows but were able to fill them last minute. It was actually a great night. The 8:30 turn was a little hairy since everyone wanted to stay for the night but it worked out and everyone was happy. We managed to peek at some comments on the Dine Out cards and saw only good things! Looking forward to tomorrow.

Ciao

Luciano

[eatbc]

We had a great night at Cru, this is our third year in DOV.

Fully booked, and every last reservation showed up with the exception of a 10pm. duece. (I won that bet). Amazing.

One group of three with a 5:30 booking, promised to be out by 7:00, was complete by 6:00, ordered at 6:15, paid the bill at 7:30 and stayed drinking water until 8:10 pm. Other than that, no glitches whatsoever.

The bar was full all night (we don't book the bar) with regulars, tourists and drop-ins.

Some people drank good wines, only two tables were 53.50 (waitstaff knows what I mean).

Sales were up, average was up, floor staff was great, kitchen was awesome, owner is on closing shift and dog-tired but happy.

Sometimes it feels a little like New Years or a party where you've planned for so much it turns out to be easy.

Did I just say that? Crap, now I've jinxed it.

13 to go.

[SBonner]

I'm drinking a couple bottles of wine right now with several dine out server survivors at our home...and they are all saying it went well for the first night. If we do not drink too much wine hopefully they will say the same Saturday night

Stephen

[Andrew Morrison]

Some miracle of scheduling gave me the night off. They were running 6 servers in a 5 server room. Yikes. Double small potatoes. I heard it was fine despite some menu printing glitches at the last moment, doing two and half turns in total with stragglers for dessert.

Tomorrow night should be interesting. I'm rusty....

[MightyMrQ]

Decided to go for the full-out masochism treatment for Dine-Out this year. Closed for two weeks to do major renovations. Installed a new hardwood floor, baseboards, trim, new prep kitchen, new mural on one wall, fresh coat of paint inside, new table legs and sliders, new computer system, new food running system, etc. It was good to have a nice, slow summer Monday evening to make sure that all the renovations were done and that all the new systems worked properly. Oh wait a second...it was the first F**KIN night of Dine Out Vancouver.

And the Nickelback concert, which lent an, um, interesting dynamic to the room.

Ah well, that's how we roll. Gettin' burned settin' it on fire.

The new floor went 56 minutes before a (lovely) lady went head first into the expo station. Someone forgot to put beer in the fridge. Lost the champagne, the gooseberries and the valet several times through the night. Printers died, others were resurrected. Someone puked in the urinal.

Truthfully, tonight I was a pig in shit. Great to get away from the renos and the office work (how do people do that 8:30am-5pm office hamster wheel?). The staff killed it, the kitchen was great, and the egullet-inspired (although if anyone asks I'll deny it) non-alcoholic drink tasting menu was a smashing success.

Congrats to Aurora and Adesso for the first dine out and to the other participants. See you Feb 3. Until then, I'm forwarding my calls to the Bosman.

[Andrew Morrison]

It was my first Dine Out experience of the year tonight and it was a breeze. I was the second waiter on (5pm start) and I was pleased to find I only had one table for the evening; a wedding party of 22. Quite a nice group, actually, though when they squeezed 6 kids under 4 into a separate 4 top of their own (leaving them largely to their own devices), I was a bit sketched. One of the kids decorated the table with a phalanx of toy soldiers, and due to his hampering for coca-cola a few spazzed out of his sight and fell by the wayside. After all was said and autogratted, a trove of midget combatants was found amidst the flotsam and jetsam of 6 meals left half-eaten (and half-thrown). A grenadier from the Irish Guards, a sombre looking Continental dragoon, and a mean looking Teuton too stiff to pose made their way to the hostess stand and into the Lost and Found drawer. My Jack is going to wake up with a Japanese machine gunner for breakfast and a kickass mountain troll as a drink-all-your-milk bonus.

Good times.

I've worked only 4 shifts in January, the last one being a non-starter a week ago. Consequently, there was some rustiness manifested in several ways. My hands shook some as I poured out 2.5 ounce wine pairings. I also miscounted the number of steak knives prepped for my main course meez. Lastly, I kept referring to the host as Madam. He was most displeased. Still, it was nice to see the whirl and hear the prattle again. I love this business, no matter how much I like to bitch about it. It's in my blood, not unlike a gnarly case of lymphatic filariasis.

There was no point in me sticking around to catch the late turn, so I sat at the bar, ordered the prix fixe, and watched the Canucks get beserker on the Habs while my colleagues kept watch on the floor. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Edited January 22, 2006 by Andrew Morrison (log)

[winegeek]

Tonight went well. Pretty slow from 4-7pm though. We served about 525 guests. Last night was a bit slow(425). Last night the split from DOV and our regular menu was exactly 65.8% DOV, 34.2% regular, almost a 2-1 split. Not sure about tonight. My section was about 50-50. Great crowd. Lots of nice people. Everyone enjoyed their food. Service was amazing as always

Jovo and Matt Cooke were in after the game.

[Cap'n Crunch]

i've enjoyed the juggling of floorplans.

at 3 o'clock, i was told..

"the wineroom is now a 6 top at the 715 turn"

i moved a a 2 person no-show 6 top to a 4 top,

moved wineroom there,

split the wineroom into 3 tables,

moved two 4 tops and a walk-in deuce in there,

used two 4 tops to accommodate last minute call for 10 people at 7pm.

..it was like one of those miracles of dineout

the game is afoot,

best of dineout to all.

Edited January 22, 2006 by Cap'n Crunch (log)

[nwyles]

A few no shows even though we did confirmation calls.

When called again, "Oh, didn't my friend call and cancel" Bullshit , lameass little weasels !

Nice thing about Opentable, it never forgets a no show and I always add little note about needing a serious credit card deposit now. As they have no showed on me, I do not feel bad about asking for it.

Entertainment card user : Can I use my Entertainment card for this ?

Neil : Sorry, not for this already deeply discounted price.

E card user : Oh, are you sure ?

Neil : Positive.

E card user : I guess we will try somewhere else then ( veiled threat )

Neil : Good luck with that, good night. ( Good luck finding a restaurant that would let you in without a reservation ! )

[kurtisk]

Pretty good!

We've really gotten into a good mode with DOV, no nightmares or problems (knock>>wood). No no-shows tonight, we're dealing with larger-than-anticipated gaps between tables, which we're trying to tighten up over the next little bit.

People are still drinkin', nothing too crazy, but I don't see much of a difference to regular evenings. Aurora is brand new to a fair amount of DOVers, so it's quite funny to be welcomed to the neighbourhood (after almost three years) by people who think that they've 'discovered' us.

Calling to confirm resos the day before has been handy, knowing exactly what we're walking into and more opportunity to take walk-ins and last-minute bookers.

Not so bad. Not so bad at all.

k.

[winegeek]

Interesting occurance tonight. Our guest services called EVERY DOV reso today to confirm (if I had to guess how many that was, I would say around 80-100 calls, we had over 300 resos for tonight) When they could not reach a guest, they left a message to please call if you could not honour your reservation. It obvioulsy helped;we only had 13 groups as no show tonight .

[SBonner]

.  It obvioulsy helped;we only had 13 groups as no show tonight    .

←

Derek... was that 13 groups or individuals that were a no show? I cannot believe how Vancouverite's can still get away with no-shows after making a reso. The technique of asking for a credit card and "suggesting" a charge fee for no shows would hopefully prevent this problem. On our recent trip to Australia...all fine dining restaurants asked for a c.c. and promptly mentioned to us that there would be a $25 to $75 cc charge for a no show.

Cheers,

Stephen

[winegeek]

.  It obvioulsy helped;we only had 13 groups as no show tonight    .

←

Derek... was that 13 groups or individuals that were a no show? I cannot believe how Vancouverite's can still get away with no-shows after making a reso. The technique of asking for a credit card and "suggesting" a charge fee for no shows would hopefully prevent this problem. On our recent trip to Australia...all fine dining restaurants asked for a c.c. and promptly mentioned to us that there would be a $25 to $75 cc charge for a no show.

Cheers,

Stephen

←

Steven

That was 13 GROUPS, about 45 guests in total. And that was after confirming all resos.

Because of our size, and the steady stream of walk ins, we are able to obsorb all the no shows, but most places can not. I really feel for them .

[nwyles]

Ah, but the magic of the Open Table system is that now you can flag them and perhaps not take their reservations ever again or get the money up front.

We have had a couple of no shows but not one who has made their reservation on OPen Table with their credit card has no showed yet. Love it.

[fud]

That was 13 GROUPS, about 45 guests in total.  And that was after confirming all resos.

Are you serious? That is INSANE! I didn't think that was possible! I really like Opentable as a restaurant goer too. It makes it easy to book in my skivvy's at 3:00am AND it sends reminders to you the day before. It also emails you a link to their site which sometimes has maps to the restaurant. Not to mention the cute little "insert reservation in outlook" button. Man talk about making it SO easy.

[Mooshmouse]

Are you serious?  That is INSANE!  I didn't think that was possible!  I really like Opentable as a restaurant goer too.  It makes it easy to book in my skivvy's at 3:00am...

←

Oh, Wes. You so don't need to be painting any verbal portraits of you in your skivvies at 3:00 a.m.

[Luciano Loi]

Last night was a new one on us. We had a 12 booked at 8:30, confirmed the night before. When they were 20 minutes late we called the cell number and the man who made the reservation (I recognized his voice) laughed at me when I asked if they were on the way and then hung up. Needless to say they did not show but his name is William and if anyone else has large parties booked under that name please PM me and I will compare phone numbers with you.

We did however fill the spot with some of our great neighbourhood regulars so all was not lost.

Ciao

Luciano

[Ling]

^That's really rude. Is that someone's idea of a joke? Sorry to hear that.

[lauraf]

I think egulleters should band together to identify this 'William' character and have him blackballed from every restaurant in the Lower Mainland

[fud]

^ Somehow by coming back from Norman's today I can make arguments for painting more vivid portraits but I won't

[kurtisk]

Last night we had a fair amount of tables "overlap" timewise. Our night seemed like the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. Tonight was very smooth and everything fell into place.

Ahhh...

k.

[transfattyacid]

Hi all .

DOV was going pretty good, we were hammering out a good solid menu. Meez was keeping me off the streets, and every one seemed to be enjoying the food and service.

That was until friday.

My wife went into labour friday morning. so off to work for me ( kinda distracted tho`).

Got a phone call, calling me away from the impending peak time friday night DOV service.

i`ll spare you the details , but i`d like you all to meet Joe who was born on saturday 28th.

Mum is doing fine and well

BIG thanks to everyone at work for covering for me and being so understanding. and for the well wishes.

I`ll be back with y`all soon :]

[Ling]

Your new baby is adorable! Congratulations!