Service v. Hospitality

Janet and I were recently pondering the philosophical underpinnings that distinguish us in the marketplace of Washington County restaurants. We concluded that a big piece of this is the extent to which our focus is on hospitality, and not just service. Service is typically an essential component of hospitality, but the inverse is not necessarily true. Hospitality is an art. Service is more of a science.

Restaurants usually define the realms of their operations as front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH). I believe that you would be able to consistently distinguish those restaurants whose focus is on hospitality by looking at the way they regard their BOH staff. If you are a hospitality business your focus must be on creating a great experience for your customers. If you are a service business that pays lip service to hospitality the focus is more on getting people what they want or need without giving them cause for complaint. Of course, these things occur on a spectrum. There are a number of subtleties to creating a great experience for your customers. If you are a business, like we are, that focuses on cultivating relationships with “regular” customers, these subtleties become more pronounced. The gesture of hospitality requires that we meet our customers where we find them with who we are. If the fundaments of this meeting are missing or untrue, the true spirit of hospitality is compromised. If I don't meet you where you are but instead set out rules you have to follow in order to be my customer, then I have compromised hospitality. If I don't meet you with who I am but instead offer you an artifice of who I think you want me to be, then I have compromised hospitality. It's our work to find out who our customers are and learn their criteria are for choosing us, their desires, preferences, etc. It's also our job to know who we are, understand our own values and the core beliefs that determine our decision-making, and then strive to make ourselves and those around us better.

This brings us back to the BOH versus FOH equation. For I believe that we cannot be an organization of people who purport to truly care about the needs and preferences of our customers and have within our organization a class system for how we treat our employees. Likewise we cannot expect our FOH staff to emanate warmth and enjoyment to our customers if the operations behind the curtain are not resonant with these same qualities. That's why we pool tips at Bethany’s Table. And that's why you'll often see the kitchen staff delivering food and drinks to the tables. What also occurs, that the customers don't see, is the extent to which the servers also help out the BOH staff and the warmth and humor that characterizes these relationships.

We have had individuals working out front that were competent servers but not particularly skilled in the art of hospitality. Perhaps they weren't good at tuning into their customers’ needs and unique considerations. Or perhaps they were not inclined to bring themselves genuinely to these relationships, or when they did it wasn't particularly appealing. Similarly, we've had people working in the BOH who were diligent and hard-working but not able to interact well or support their coworkers. The FOH staff can readily step out into the dining room with a smile on their faces, and meet customers with warmth and joy, as the kitchen is filled with that same energy. A restaurant whose focus is hospitality must be staffed with people who enjoy what they do and treat each other well. At Bethany's Table we are in a very fortunate place in our biography. We are not perfect and we are not staffed with perfect people. But we are all getting along wonderfully these days, enjoying our work and enjoying each other. Correspondingly, breakdowns have become less frequent and our well of regular customers continues to fill. It's a nice place to be.