Benjamin Jeff - Front of the house: restaurant manners, misbehaviors and secrets

Restaurant Manners,
Misbehaviors and Secrets

JEFF BENJAMIN
WITH
GREG JONES

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROBERT NEUBECKER

IN CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, the concept of yin-yang explains how opposite or contrary forces are actually complementaryeven interconnected. Dark and light, fire and water, sun and moon are all examples of this perfect synergy. I would like to offer one more: Jeff and Marc.

Jeff certainly wasnt the restaurant manager I was looking for. When I was ready to open my first restaurant, Vetri, I had my heart set on some debonair guy from Italy with a cool accent, that endearing way of speaking where theres just enough broken English to make people smile. I was hoping a guy named Roberto from Bergamo would take the job, because he was perfector so I thought. I believed Roberto would move to Philadelphia, but after a couple of months of maybes he finally said no.

I was a few short months from opening, and had just signed the lease at 1312 Spruce Street when my brother called and asked, You know that guy, Jeff Benjamin? The one who works at Restaurant Associates?

Of course, I replied.

Well, he would love to be the manager of your new restaurant.

Really? I thought. That guy?

I dont know, I said to my brother. He doesnt seem like such a good fit.

Just throwing it out there, Marc.

Well, Ill talk to him, but I doubt itll work out

At this point I had known Jeff for a couple of years. Occasionally he would bring dates into Bella Blu, a restaurant at Lexington and 70th in Manhattan where I was the chef before I moved back home to Philly. He was a nice guy, but I just didnt see the front-of-house presence I was looking for. He was certainly no Roberto.

Our meeting went well enough. We talked about wine, which Jeff didnt know much about. We talked about service, which he had only really done for corporate dining. We talked about wardrobe; he owned about thirty blue suits, thirty white shirts and only dark ties. The meeting ended with me saying, Well, Ill let you know in a week or so. I then spent the next week frantically calling all over Italy trying to convince someone to come manage my new restaurant on Spruce Street. Eventually, left with no alternative, I had to call Jeff. This phone call, unbeknownst to me then, would be the single most important decision of my life.

Hi Jeff, listen, I dont know if this is gonna work, but Ive really got no one else. Ill give you 500 bucks a week, youll make some tips and if we make any money, Ill give you 25 percent of it.

Looking back at it now, Im still shocked that he accepted, and two weeks later he moved to Philly. Now after sixteen years, seven restaurants, a charitable foundation, countless research trips to Italy and innumerable hours fine-tuning our craft, we are still the longest relationship either of us has ever had.

A business partnership like ours is not the norm. The staff jokes about us all the time. I turn the volume up on the music at the restaurants, he turns it down. I turn the AC down, he turns it up. On a summer day when Im in shorts and a T-shirt youd be hard-pressed to find him in anything other than a suit and tie. (To his credit, he has graduated to lavender shirts and bright ties these days.) We read each others minds and finish each others sentences daily. I like to say that with my foot on the gas and his on the brakes, we slowly get to where we want and need to go. He is, for sure, the yin to my yang.

Our relationship works because we trust each other implicitly to make the right decisions, based on what we both believe to be the single most important word in the restaurant industry. Im not talking about food, or ambiance, or design of the restaurant or even money; Im talking about hospitality. Not just the hospitality extended to our guests, but to our staff. Jeff and I may come at things from different angles, but our goal is always the same, and its very simple. We want to make people happy.

If this book youre holding were a manual about standard operations management for the restaurant industry, it would probably be laughed out of the room, because Jeffs lessons are not based entirely on achieving the correct profit margins or conventional business decisions for a restaurant.

They are based on what works for the greater good. They are about building great teams and empowering leaders to take charge. They are based on what he sees as the right fit for each restaurant. Whether hes talking about service, guest relations, staffing, social media, healthcare or employee benefits, there are so many thoughtful, powerful lessons here. When I read this book I was reminded of the decisions made in our early years together and how they were so contrary to popular opinionyet for some reason, we couldnt fathom doing it any other way.

This book is a real-life look into the actual workings of the restaurant world, but any lesson in it may be extrapolated to other industries. It is a must-read for any cook or front-of-house person, and for anyone who wants to be successful in business. Jeff teaches you to question conventional wisdom and think about how your decisions affect other people.

I shudder to think what my life would be like if Roberto had said yes. Sometimes you just get lucky and the right decision is made for you before you make the wrong one. If that holds true, Im the luckiest guy in the world.

I will always give you cookies

NECESSITY IS THE mother of invention, right? Well, in my case it was the mother of my career. There was no grand event that propelled me into the hospitality business. I wasnt born into it. Nothing like that. We moved, thats all.

Being the new kid in a new town at age sixteen, I needed something to do on weekends so that my parents would stop nagging me to study. I did the easiest thing available to me at that time and placeI got a job at a catering hall.

Day one, I donned the requisite black pants, clip-on bow tie and maroon blazer before being introduced to my new boss, Ira. A tall, thin sixty-year-old hippie with curly hair and the thickest Brooklyn accent I ever heard, Ira will forever be the reason I do what I do, thirty years later.

After introductions, he bombarded me with questions: Have you ever set a table? Can you French serve? Can you flamb bananas at table side?

No, no and no.

No was my reply to pretty much everything he asked. Never wavering, Ira quickly showed me the ropes of my first double shiftone of hundreds of doubles Id work there over the course of the next year. As formally attired guests arrived in shiny limos, I had an overwhelming feeling that it was opening night of a grand performance. It was a long daytwo hectic five-hour parties with setup and break down in between. Right out of the gate I found myself waiting on dozens of thirteen-year-old bar mitzvah attendees, some trying to sneak booze from the bar, and whats worse, their parents demanded we let them do it! The second party was a wedding reception filled with twenty-somethings who also tried to steal the booze. Through the mayhem, demands and commands were shouted at me from every direction. The frenzied pace and loud live music were dizzying. I loved every minute of it and couldnt wait for more.