Golden Rules of Dining Out

As a restaurant owner, and a patron of other restaurants, I really believe there are a few golden rules of being a good guest. Whether you are at the neighbourhood burger joint, or a fondue house, or 5 star celebrity monikered eatery the same rules apply.

1. Only order what you can pay for.  Walking out on a bill, or trying to scam a discount is plain wrong.

2. It's not your house. It's a place of business and shared with countless others. Keep your clothes and shoes on, your feet off the furniture and your language clean. Seriously.

3. Keep your hands off the staff and your personal comments to yourself. Telling the waitress how to fix her acne, or that she looks tired, beat up or the like is out of bounds.  She might be working two jobs to pay her rent or having health issues... your personal criticisms solve nothing. She is there to work and do her job. (Believe it or not, I have personally suffered through a patron insisting he has seen me stripping at clubs. I am not, nor ever have been an exotic dancer or the like. Having others hear this conversation was very demeaning and ruined more than that day whether he was just kidding around or not.)

4. Do not deliberately damage restaurant property. Accidentally tipping over a glass or breaking it is not what I'm talking about. That's truly an accident.... happens all the time. No big deal.  Kicking in bathroom stall doors, ripping a paper towel dispenser off the wall, gouging a table with your keys, slashing a fabric booth with your pocket knife for fun.... that's VANDALISM and should be punished in the court system. It's not a joke, nor is it "the cost of doing business." Because you were bored or your "food took too long" is absolutely no excuse.

5. Do enjoy the chef's creations, house specialties and the regional cuisine. You are dining out to experience someone else's expertise, their efforts and their style. Just because they don't make it the same way you do at home doesn't mean it isn't "right." All I'm saying here is be open to trying menu items prepared as the chef intends... not with this or that "held", "on the side" or this "added instead."  You're the guest, you don't need to be the author and creator of the dish. You can do that at home!  (This isn't intended to sound harsh, simply when you have the ingredients at hand for a menu item and then you are tasked with finding new ingredients, and preparing things differently it takes much longer and can throw off your kitchen rhythm. That's when food starts to take "too long" and some diners receive their orders out of sequence etc. Recipes are more than ingredients, they are about timing and cooking methods too.)

DO enjoy yourself at the restaurant. We are happy hosts. We love having you as our guest! That's why restauranteurs do what they do. It's a craft of love. We love to make people happy and care for them with good meals and in a warm, positive environment.