Service is extremely important in a restaurant. I always say that people will come to the restaurant for food, but they'll come back for service. The number one reason someone comes back to a restaurant is recognition. I don't care who you are, there's always that moment when you walk into a restaurant, even if you have a reservation, you confirm that moment of hesitation, do they have my reservation? "Please, they have to have it. I can't go through this." And so you walk in and they say, "Hi, Mr. Smith, welcome back." It's over. You're there. You're there for life.
And so I think that service can be broken down into two things. There's service, which is all the nuts and bolts around service, you know, clearing and serving from the right side of the guest, making sure wine's filled at the proper level, water's filled at the proper level, wine at the proper time, making sure that silver is on the table for the correct course. Those are all the mechanics of service. But then there's the other side of it, and that's the hospitality side of it. And I think most of the time when people mention service, they're talking about hospitality. I've been to restaurants where the service has been excellent and the hospitality is terrible.
And you may look at that and go, "I didn't like the service. It was stuffy," or whatever. It's the hospitality that they're not getting. And I think that when a restaurant gets it right, they're doing all those steps correctly plus they have the hospitality down. And I think the hospitality side of it is the way that you're treated, the way that you're welcomed to a restaurant, the way you're said goodbye to at a restaurant. It is that added value. It's the reason why you're going to make a decision to come back to this restaurant and spend your money again. Because you felt good about the experience. You were happy when you left. That usually happens through great hospitality.