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From: Anonymous
Date: Sunday, March 23
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: Complaints dept.: Comme Ca
___________________________________________
Mere days after reading your piece about messed up reservations I had a similar experience at Comme Ca. We had a 9:30 reservation, confirmed with a phone call the day before. Imagine our surprise when we walked in at 9:30 only to be told by two hostesses that our reservation was for 10:00. We pointed out we'd confirmed 9:30, and they just repeated "no, your reservation is at 10" over and over again. Then we were shooed away: one of the hostesses said with a smirk, "Go grab a cocktail at the bar or, you know, stand around and look at the scenery."
Which would you rather hear: "I'm so sorry, we're running behind tonight/there must have been an error, but please enjoy a (complimentary) cocktail at the bar while you wait and we'll get you in as soon as we can," or "You're wrong, and you're not getting a table any sooner than I say so, so get out of my face"?
We shrugged it off, but nearly an hour after we'd arrived--well after even the time they said we had a reservation--we'd drained our cocktails and still hadn't seen the hostess, though we had watched every other party in the house get seated. I summoned the manager and told her the situation and that we were going across the street to Lucques.
The manager was slightly apologetic, though not much, and magically produced not one but TWO tables we could choose from. She did half-heartedly try to make it up to us by sending out two appetizers, and the service was fine once we were seated. But neither food nor ambience nor table service were worth the mountain of attitude we had to climb to get there.
My takeaway advice: as soon as there's any evidence of a messed-up reservation, escalate. If you're not immediately appeased, go elsewhere. I found myself wishing we'd gone to Lucques the moment we got attitude at the door of Comme Ca.
Sincerely,
Anon
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