Restaurant Stakeout
As a person with a food allergy, a very strange one, I have learned to judge the wait staff at restaurants very quickly. This probably sounds terrible, but it is the truth. I can easily tell who will be helpful and who will treat me as though they cannot get me out of the restaurant fast enough. The latter I usually do not ask about the ingredients and order something not all that exciting. Then I do not return. Sometimes it is not even my allergy that causes problems. There can be plain, old, bad customer service. That is what Willie Degel, restaurant owner and host of Restaurant Stakeout, is trying to change, one establishment at a time.
For some reason I always come across Restaurant Stakeout five to ten minutes after it has started. I cannot tell you why especially since I know what time the new episodes are airing. Usually when I watch this show, I stumble upon it. This is actually how I found the show in the first place. I was flipping through the channels and came across this show that was featuring a restaurant I swore I went to when I was in Las Vegas. It turned out I was correct. What surprised me the most was that I recognized the restaurant in the first place since I went there years ago, at night, with a large group of people, and did not know where we were going. There was something about the place I remembered and that is how I came to watch this show.
What Willie does is he comes into restaurants that are struggling, or could be doing better, sets up cameras, and figures out where the problems are. Nearly always it is service in some way, shape, or form. I cannot think of any time that the difficulty has been with the kitchen, but I have not seen every episode. Most times Willie sits with the owner in his trailer and they watch the cameras together. It is clear how distressed the owners get when they see what their staff is doing. Some things are not surprising. Not acceptable acts by any means, but very common. Eating behind the counter, playing with cell phones, getting orders wrong, those things happen all over the place and would not take a lot to fix. What floors me is some of the other things that have happened. There has been nails being painted, food fights, drinking on the job, and extreme rudeness. Then there is the flat out stealing. I have a hard time understanding how people can do these things.
After the observation, Willie goes into the restaurant and talks to the staff about what he witnessed. Often the people are sheepish, but sometimes they deny what happened. It is on camera, it would not take long to prove otherwise. Willie then leaves his recommendations and returns weeks later to see how things have been going. I have only seen positive results, but I do wonder if there are some restaurants that cannot grasp what Willie is teaching and completely fall apart.
I really like seeing what is happening in the restaurants, but I do not fully agree with Willie’s philosophy of the customer is always right. Maybe it is too many years in customer service myself, but sometimes the customer is flat out wrong. It is how situations are handled that make a difference. Even when the customer is wrong, it is not right to be rude. One never knows who they are truly being rude too. A bad experience for one person can spread a lot farther than anyone would expect.
For some reason I always come across Restaurant Stakeout five to ten minutes after it has started. I cannot tell you why especially since I know what time the new episodes are airing. Usually when I watch this show, I stumble upon it. This is actually how I found the show in the first place. I was flipping through the channels and came across this show that was featuring a restaurant I swore I went to when I was in Las Vegas. It turned out I was correct. What surprised me the most was that I recognized the restaurant in the first place since I went there years ago, at night, with a large group of people, and did not know where we were going. There was something about the place I remembered and that is how I came to watch this show.
What Willie does is he comes into restaurants that are struggling, or could be doing better, sets up cameras, and figures out where the problems are. Nearly always it is service in some way, shape, or form. I cannot think of any time that the difficulty has been with the kitchen, but I have not seen every episode. Most times Willie sits with the owner in his trailer and they watch the cameras together. It is clear how distressed the owners get when they see what their staff is doing. Some things are not surprising. Not acceptable acts by any means, but very common. Eating behind the counter, playing with cell phones, getting orders wrong, those things happen all over the place and would not take a lot to fix. What floors me is some of the other things that have happened. There has been nails being painted, food fights, drinking on the job, and extreme rudeness. Then there is the flat out stealing. I have a hard time understanding how people can do these things.
After the observation, Willie goes into the restaurant and talks to the staff about what he witnessed. Often the people are sheepish, but sometimes they deny what happened. It is on camera, it would not take long to prove otherwise. Willie then leaves his recommendations and returns weeks later to see how things have been going. I have only seen positive results, but I do wonder if there are some restaurants that cannot grasp what Willie is teaching and completely fall apart.
I really like seeing what is happening in the restaurants, but I do not fully agree with Willie’s philosophy of the customer is always right. Maybe it is too many years in customer service myself, but sometimes the customer is flat out wrong. It is how situations are handled that make a difference. Even when the customer is wrong, it is not right to be rude. One never knows who they are truly being rude too. A bad experience for one person can spread a lot farther than anyone would expect.
It is sometimes sad to see the owners watching the cameras. They have these big dreams and work hard with their restaurants and then they see their employees destroy everything. This is especially hard when theft is involved. As I said before, the ones I have seen have all ended up positively, and I am glad they do.
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