Back in May my Husband and I hosted my own Graduation/3oth Birthday dinner at Olive & Sesame II.... see my post.
This was my comment on Dining@Large:
I agree Birches is the correct one. I just "hosted" a party for about 13 people for my graduation and only 1 person paid for the bill. If they really wanted to pay by family just have one person put it on a card and then everyone pay that person. I have done that a million times when getting tickets to things or just eating out with another friend or something. The party themselves started problems right off the bat being an hour late! I also agree that the host should have gone to talk to the owner in person that night and should have asked questions when setting up the reservation.
Wow I can't believe how things turned out... If I was one of the wait staff that was being pestered about the bill I think I would have been in tears. However, like I said the party started off wrong being an hour late with no call. Preparations I am sure were done with food and so forth in the restaurant to have the party run smoothly but then to be an hour late with out calling. I would have called even if the majority of the party was going to be 15 minutes late.
So much is running through my mind- this post could go on forever. Make sure you check out Birches Homepage and read what they say under July Festivities under the menu button. I want to see what you think about this situation- leave a comment and let me know!
1 comments:
Interesting. I side with Birches. However, I think that a change in policy could have avoided the whole mess -- I am surprised that there wasn't a down payment requirement for a party this large. When I hosted my husband's 40th surprise bday at The Palm (Tysons Corner), a deposit was required. The balance was settled the night of the party. Had there been a deposit required this would have been avoided altogether. She would have learned that you can split a deposit 4 ways on 4 credit cards.
For the "host" to refuse to separately discuss this with the owner on the night of the incident is absurd and immature.
My impression is that the members of the party are not well versed in any kind of etiquette, or this would have never happened. Maybe they don't dine often, maybe they didn't have enough cash on hand to reimburse the host, or maybe they left their manners at home.
On the flip side, I think that Birch's email could have been more professional in tone. Communicating with a difficult person isn't a free pass to start name-calling. It's a sticky mess, but he could have kept his head more above ground by watching his choice of words. My two cents.
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