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How Hospitality Work Wires Your Anxious Brain for Perfection
Why the best bars and restaurants demand perfection — and how it changes you at home
I love the seemingly small moments in life that you never forget. The stories you tell to help illustrate something you’re passionate about.
In this case, it’s a way of doing things — a system you either buy into or you don’t.
It isn’t easy to teach.
And for those who buy into it — and maybe even try to teach it — it’s hard to understand why others don’t get it.
This guy was sitting at my bar one night with his girlfriend… he got it.
After I took their drink order, I jumped onto the back bar — (see the image that anchors this article) — to grab a bottle. When I returned to my station, I put the bottle in front of the two guests.
Label out.
That’s just what I did thousands of times before. What we did. What I was taught to do.
Label out!
What made this time notable was that the guy turned to his girlfriend and quietly said to her —
Did you see what he did? When he set the bottle down, he turned it so the label faced us.
