CakeageGate: Wilshire Restaurant Responds

Yesterday, we passed along the complaints of a diner who was, shall we say, disappointed with the cakeage policy and its handling at Wilshire Restaurant, leading to an extended debate in the comments. Today, in the interest of sharing both sides of the story, we turn the floor over to the restaurant's GM Nick Fielding, who has penned a response. His words follow:

Dear la eater readers and bloggers,

As the GM of Wilshire Restaurant, I would like to respond to the cake cutting scandal that recently graced the front page of la eater. Ironically, during our weekly managers meeting 3 weeks ago, we discussed the issues of corkage and cake-cutting, and agreed to investigate how other local restaurants approach these fees.

Our Pastry chef called over 15 restaurants and found cake-cutting charges varied between $4 - $15 per person. Some restaurants did not allow guests to bring in cakes at all, others without baking facilities offered to buy one for you, and charge a fee for plating. We tried to create a policy that would encourage guests to take advantage of our outstanding full-time pastry chef, while not charging excessively in the rare instance of diners bringing in there own cake.

To be clear, we greatly value all of our customers, and tirelessly work to ensure they always have a wonderful dining experience. We understand that there are hundreds of restaurants in L.A. and we are truly appreciative of guests who choose to celebrate at Wilshire for a special occasion, or simply come in for a great meal.

There are two sides to every story, and we collectively do not want to get into ‘blog wars’ over this matter. We realize that it was upsetting for the party involved, and I will personally reach out them and try to rectify their experience.

Finally, on a positive note, Wilshire Restaurant is proud to announce FREE CAKE WEEK. During the week of March 23 – 29, our pastry chef, Jenn Shen, will be hand crafting delicious cakes. A free slice of her cake will be given to every dinner customer along with their meal. No cake cutting fee will be applied, we promise!

Thank you.

Nick Fielding
General Manager
Wilshire Restaurant