Incremental magic
AKA I didn't have to go to Applebee's
I’ve been working near Orlando the last couple of months. My birthday happens to fall in October and I was, quite frankly, not overly looking forward to this one, with no friends in town and no good food on the horizon. I live in Chicago, so rarely never do I have to rely on national chains. My image. of Orlando, based on childhood Disney trips and lots of conferences, was Denny’s and Applebee’s. Hey, at least I’d maybe get a free sundae.
To the rescue came my NYC bestie, Poddy. You may remember her as my Covid pod - we only saw each other. Anyway, Poddy did some research from NYC and sent me the greatest gift - dinner at a Michelin star omakase sushi restaurant in WINTER PARK FLORIDA! Yes, apparently Michelin made it to Orlando in 2022. [Also I learned that if your tourism board pays them they’ll come to your town too.]
Soseki is a delightfully intimate 10 seat restaurant that has great sushi - and even better hospitality. I’m not afraid to eat alone, never have been, but sometimes a tiny sushi bar is a bit quiet - muted voices, no interaction. My last night in Chicago I went to Midosuji, a new 10 seat omakase restaurant from Boka Group. I went with a friend, it was delightful but it happens that I commented to Ayumi at the time that I couldn’t imagine going alone -it would have been so lonely.
I love good food and great hospitality - no secret there. But what I love even more is the surprise and delight moment. If you can get one of those, then you’re in! I hadn’t seen the dessert table before I went to Alinea [don’t watch videos if you’re ever going] so I was enchanted, but had I known what was coming, can it ever live up?
Hospitality should welcome you, make you feel like part of the group and truly wanted - the best restaurants aren’t snobby at all, but rather, inclusive. Soseki has this fantastic drawer in front of each diner - it’s your silverware and they tell you how to best eat each course, never excluding anyone or judging your first attempt at eel [or your failed attempt]. This drawer already tickled me, but it got better. It was, as I said, my birthday - of the 10 diners, 3 of us were celebrating birthdays. At the end of the meal, after we finished the dessert courses, they asked everyone to open their drawers once again. None of us had realized they could open from the other side - that evening’s menu was inside the drawer along with handwritten birthday cards and a small bottle of local honey as a gift. Absolutely enchanting moment. Remember when Richard Gere is giving Julia Roberts a necklace in Pretty Woman and he closes the box on her fingers and Julia bursts out in that surprised laugh that is her hallmark? That kind of moment.
As a person who thinks a LOT about operations I’m even happier when the surprise is a low lift, an inexpensive effort. I love Unreasonable Hospitality as much as the next person who is completely obsessed with hospitality but hiring staff just to make magic is not cheap - and it continues to raise the bar. Remember the Bear and the deep dish pizza? 2 seasons later it was creating snow in the summer - who knows next time!!!
There are all kinds of ways to perform incremental magic. At UNC we sent onesies to new parent students - enchanting. Quite frankly, probably the best incremental magic was unplanned and in a class one day - the professor announced that the student [online] was wearing the wrong color [Duke] blue and required him to change clothes. Necessary? No. Memorable and building Tarheel pride? Absolutely. It’s always a GDTBATH.
I don’t know who thought of it first but I am tickled EVERY time I go to a “fireside chat” style talk and there is a fireplace flickering away on a screen. That’s clever and takes no time at all, but brings me into the space and mood.
I’m in Chicago this weekend and my dog Ted is still in Florida - I’m going back tomorrow. When I dropped him off at boarding [attached to a veterinary hospital so couldn’t be much better] they showed me the various add ons. I’m used to walks and baths and play time, etc. Those are not unusual. They had me at “bedtime ritual.”
It is often said that you know what people value with how they spend money. [Someone says that, right?]. That is true for weddings and restaurants and events. Friends of mine highly value good food [as they should] and were married at Boka, the delightful quirky delicious Michelin star flagship of the Boka Group. Soseki didn’t have to make a drawer in their sushi bar - tradition would have servers delivering silverware for each course, but how it that magic? They took a need, silverware, and added a spark of joy and surprise. I would have recommended them anyway, but now, 100% if you’re having a birthday and you happen to find yourself in Florida, go there.
Figure out what your customer/client/friend/whatever journey should look like, and add some magic. I read a long time ago that Zappos [pre amazon] had a little remote controlled car that service center employees drove to each other with treats. [To be fair I’m paraphrasing and this might be 40% accurate but it’s a great idea.]. A couple of weeks ago a back-end finance person at the college mentioned his anniversary was coming up - I immediately scheduled an e card for that day. Not a huge effort, but I promise you, he felt seen. That’s really what hospitality is, after all, feeling seen and treasured, just the way we are, eel-lover or not.