Where do you finally draw the line? Is there a request you simply won\u2019t accommodate?<\/p>\n
We ask ourselves that every night. You stop at the point where you simply can\u2019t possibly run a restaurant and juggle all those things.<\/p>\n
Last Saturday night, we had 65 different special dietary requests while serving a maximum of 100 people. Essentially every table had something. This requires at least one, sometimes two people just to handle the individual preferences.<\/p>\n
Still, we\u2019re in the business of hospitality. We have to make people happy.<\/p>\n
And we now have our secondary restaurant, Patty O\u2019s Caf\u00e9. If someone wants something that\u2019s off our menu, chances are it might be on that menu, and we may be able to pull from it.<\/p>\n
Critics have been declaring fine dining dead for decades, yet it survives. Why does fine dining still matter, and why does it matter to you?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a cycle, a pendulum swing. If you\u2019re in the trenches long enough, you see the cycles go around and repeat themselves. A magazine came out the other day with a headline saying, \u201cMeat is back.\u201d Well, nobody told me meat had gone away.<\/p>\n
Our basic needs \u2014 to be cared for, to be given something delicious \u2014 are constant. And it has helped us enormously to be immune to trends and stay the course. When the first big recession hit, I think in the 1980s, tablecloths disappeared from Washington restaurants. Flowers disappeared. Service was cut, menus were cut, and everything suddenly felt like a diner.<\/p>\n
I said to myself, \u201cThere\u2019s a place for someone who goes in the opposite direction. Let\u2019s make everything more luxurious, more wonderful.\u201d So, we got napkins as big as tablecloths, increased the flowers, and made the place more luxurious. Everyone came in wondering, \u201cWhat did they eliminate?\u201d Instead, they found more of everything.<\/p>\n
There will always be once-in-a-lifetime occasions, romantic occasions when you want to go somewhere extraordinary, somewhere that makes you feel like royalty. That need will always have to be satisfied somehow.<\/p>\n
And I think it\u2019s enormously important that a restaurant reflects the authentic beliefs and feelings of the person behind it. This restaurant always has, and always will, reflect my taste, my style, and what I would hope to find when I go out or travel.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the definition of luxury is changing. It doesn\u2019t necessarily mean foie gras or caviar anymore. How has that changed the way you think about luxury?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re as aware and concerned as anyone about sustainability. In fact, we recently received a rare award for our sustainability efforts.<\/p>\n
But it has always been a natural component of living here. We have an 11-acre farm at the edge of town. So we focus first and foremost on what we\u2019re producing and growing. We\u2019re not dependent on imported luxury products.<\/p>\n
For special occasions, people are still fond of caviar. We have a nice relationship with Petrossian, and we do fascinating things with caviar.<\/p>\n
For me, it\u2019s about finding the balance.<\/p>\n
And how have your guests changed?<\/p>\n
They\u2019re more international than they\u2019ve ever been. We have guests coming from countries I\u2019ve never heard of. Yet everyone still has the same basic needs. They need to be seen, catered to, and appreciated.<\/p>\n
I often remind the staff that what guests are really looking for is interaction, connection \u2014something to take away beyond the food itself.<\/p>\n
I tell my staff: You can make or break a guest\u2019s experience. Once they understand that, they become keyed into their own power.<\/p>\n
Where do you think fine dining and tasting menus go from here? What does the future look like?<\/p>\n
There may be fewer tasting menus because people are discovering how labor-intensive they are. They often require a larger staff, and in the end perhaps you make less money because it takes longer to produce a longer menu.<\/p>\n
But it will not go away. It will morph into different styles.<\/p>\n
People are more interested in having an experience than they\u2019ve ever been. They\u2019re interested in more than simply getting a good plate of food.<\/p>\n
Even though they\u2019re cooking a little less at home, they\u2019re savvier than ever. They eat out far more than they did in the past, and they\u2019re more knowledgeable than they\u2019ve ever been.<\/p>\n
The American public may be the most jaded culinary audience in the world right now. They travel. They\u2019ve been to Japan. They\u2019ve been to France numerous times.<\/p>\n
But they still want the experience to be fun. They want it to be exciting. And they want to learn something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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