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Published on GoldenTimes.com on February 06, 2007
Your Favorite Restaurant…Or Is It?!
By Lynette Loomis

In our last issue we asked readers to share what they like and dislike about our local restaurants. This is our second issue devoted to this topic – thank you for your candor!

Good things come in small packages – unless it’s the menu -
“The thing I find odd about restaurants is that the lighting may be low to create a mood and yet the print on the menu is either too small, too crowded or italic. On numerous occasions I have taken advantage of the fact that some restaurants offer reading glasses for those of us that are a bit older and may require more light and a larger font.”

“I’m almost embarrassed to admit it but when they write the ‘specials’ on the chalk board in the entry way, (if I can read the writing) I don’t always remember them all by the time we check our coats, are seated, and have a cocktail. The waitress usually gives us the menu – we make our selection and THEN she tells us what the specials are. For a 2-cent piece of paper to list the specials, I’d like to see all the choices at once”

Tip scam -
One reader relayed an unsettling experience with a local restaurant in Henrietta to which she and her companions will never return. When paying the bill, she had exact change for the bill and then laid the tip amount crosswise over the other bills. The waitress challenged them as to why they had not tipped her, blocked the aisle and their departure and proceeded to yell at the group, despite the explanation that a generous tip had been paid. Our readers and her guests were unsettled by this harangue, received no support from the management, and again tipped the waitress. “We just wanted to get out without being harmed.”

This one’s too big, this one’s too small and this one is just right -
“Some folks complain about the big portions that restaurants serve...personally I think this is a form of snobbery...I think a lot of us depend on big portions because: #1 it’s our only meal of the day; #2 a doggie bag provides another meal; and #3 some Depression era folk see them as value for their money. I say let the tiny portion advocates dine in fancy priced bistros where they can laud the watercress and feel they got value for their money…or not.”

A little more green please -
“We keep hearing about the number of fruits and vegetables we need to consume each day to maintain our health, but it’s impossible to “eat all that.” Restaurant food can play a more helpful role in meeting those requirements. “I would like to see more vegetables and sweet potatoes on the menu, greener salads (not iceberg lettuce), baked potatoes that are not microwaved, and less salt used in cooking.”

Presentation is everything – both the food and the staff -
The restaurant is about the romance of food — the presentation. Being catered to and doted on. It’s about all the love that mothers and grandmothers have bestowed upon their offspring through years of joyous preparation. It’s about nurturing, warmth and inner happiness.

My complaint about many restaurants is that often I end up feeling like I am intruding on THEIR space. I become a necessary evil — something to be dealt with. Maybe it’s the lack of sensitivity or training that is given to a teen or twentysomething. Maybe it is too many hours on duty at too little pay for a host or hostess. Maybe the cook quit this morning and the busboy is back in the kitchen furiously trying to imitate what he has seen before—with the instructions in Spanish.

If you want to read go to the library -
“One of my pet peeves is going to a busy restaurant for breakfast and standing in line endlessly while people who have finished their meal sit there for another half hour reading the paper. This is rude.”

Where everybody knows your name -
“After retirement I didn’t miss the work but I sure missed the people So my friends and I started going to the same restaurant every morning for coffee. We all like the fact that the staff knows our names and greet us like friends. It creates a sense of belonging - without the work.”

I’m here for conversation – not a concert!
“My biggest dislike about many restaurants is the very loud noise level. I particularly dislike loud background music (especially recorded music). I, and most people I know, do not go to restaurants to listen to canned music. I don’t understand why restaurant managers don’t understand this. We go to enjoy good food and, perhaps second but very important, to converse with and enjoy our dining companions, friends or family. In many restaurants today, the design is such as to deliberately create a loud atmosphere (high ceilings, tile walls, loud music). We have often asked that the music level be turned down, but it is not always done or is done minimally and with poor grace.”

Clearly loud music makes it difficult to have a good conversation but age-related hearing loss factors in as well. The number of Americans with a hearing loss has doubled in the last 30 years due to increased noise levels in all areas of our lives. It is estimated that 30-50% of older adults have a hearing loss serious enough to affect the quality of communication. Half of the Baby Boomers are experiencing some degree of hearing loss. If restaurants want our business they need to recognize our need for atmosphere, presentation, nutrition and socialization.

Our next topic- buying, or leasing, a car. What makes it a pleasant experience and what makes it dreadful? (If I receive 25 versions of the same thought, I will condense them.) We try to include as many of your thoughts as possible as space allows. If you would like your name added to your opinion, please let me know. So send your thoughts to The Marketing Strategists, PO Box 663, Mendon, NY 14506 or e-mail me at marketingstrategists@rochester.rr.com.

Lynette M. Loomis is former vice president of Preferred Care Gold and is a long-standing advocate of mature consumers.