James Beard Cookbook, Chef, and Restaurant Award Winners

Maestro at the Ritz sounded like a wonderful idea, made dinner reservations days ahead. We had a lot to celebrate; we both had been very busy over the past months, perfect setting to extract ourselves. I even requested a romantic and quiet table. I was definitely looking forward to it. I have stayed and had dinners at a few Ritz Carlton’s around the globe and always appreciated the quality of the service, food and settings. Friends and colleagues told me Maestro was going to be a special experience.

We were getting hungry; our reservation was for 9:30pm. Le Maitre d’Hôtel Emanuele welcomes us and nicely suggests we go have a drink at the bar while our table was getting set. “Someone will come get you” sounded imminent. Surprise, the Maestro’s bar was packed, smoke and a giant TV screen. I was expecting something more like a nice Billy Joel kindda piano bar. The Maestro’s bar is a sports’ bar, reminded me of a few chains. We ordered a couple glasses of wine after eye chasing the barman behind the bar for a few minutes. We were given a plate of recycled peanuts I wonder how many people touched with their fingers going to there mouths in the course of the day. The service was … let’s just say there was no service at the bar. I expect more from the bar of the Ritz Carlton’s Maestro restaurant.

It’s 45 minute later, about 10:15pm, we are getting hungry, walking back to the restaurant’s reception to be shown our table; any table would have been fine at that point. A lady very directly unwelcomes us with shocking arrogance, greated us in Spanish, I am European and tanned but I don’t believe I look Spanish. I would have been impressed, the Ritz’s “wow” factor but that was not the case, displaced and not worth the risk of being wrong. So, I am not sure what she actually first told us; maybe it was nice. No apologies for the delay whatsoever. Before looking up our table and in a weird kind of way questioning our reservation, I am told “no Jeans”. I was wearing $250 Diesel Jeans bought in Paris last month and a Burberry jacket. This is the Ritz Carlton’s restaurant, In, stylish, hospitality, entertainment, right? I am expecting too much, I even felt embarrassed. I just wish they had told me when I first called last Wednesday. I wish they had told me 24 hours before when the Maestro called to confirm their reservation policy, no shows are charged. I wish they had told me about the dress code 45 minutes earlier, we wouldn’t have stopped by the Vallet nor the Maestro’s sports bar.

Le Maitre d’Hôtel shows up another few minutes later all smiley to explain not to bother with the dress code, we’re fine. Maybe it was the jacket or maybe it was my fashion stylist date who looked awesomely European “elegante” that night. Without a reasonable explanation, Emanuele Le Maitre d’Hotel mumbled that we were not going to have a table at all afterall, not really sorry for the wait, the reception, the cancellation policy, …..I did not want a table either at this point. I felt sorry, and embarrassed for taking my date to the Ritz Carlton Maestro restaurant in McLean. Bad idea! It was maybe 10:30pm, standing in front of the podium waiting for a 9:30pm table. I was surprised, stunned and I wish the reservations had been for 6:00pm to actually have time to turn around some plan B. We ended up having a late dinner at O’Connell’s on King Street in Old Town Alexandria. The Irish staff took care of us as if we were at the Ritz’s Maestro restaurant … I mean, no. O’Connell beat my expectations and certainly beat the Ritz. The service at the Ritz’ Maestro restaurant was politely disgusting, not sure about the food, never got a chance to review.

Most customer facing businesses understand customer lifetime value, how much more expensive it is to win back a gone customer than doing right by them in the first place. Sometimes you have to burn through a few customers to learn and make many more happier. Please, make up for it, much cheaper in the long run. I wonder how many times we would have taken people over to the Ritz’ Maestro over the next 40 years in stead of sharing this negative experience. It’s all about your product and branding, baby!

Posted on 10/17/2006 at 10:09 AM