Usually, my wife and I avoid trendy restaurants on Friday and Saturday nights since waiting and crowds are just not our thing. However, last Saturday night, we wanted to treat some friends to a special dinner so we proposed uber-popular Toro Bravo in Portland. Unfortunately, the restaurant has a no reservations policy and we knew that we would be in for a wait. Much to our chagrin, when we arrived at 6 PM, the hostess told us that the wait would be about 1-1/2 hours. Lesson #1, never try to "out-early" Portlanders - I'm convinced this town could give retirement communities in Florida a run for the money when it comes to people who dine early. Usually, we don't wait anywhere for more than an hour but our friends were excited about trying Toro Bravo and they had trekked over from the food wasteland of Vancouver, Washington.
We put our name on the reservation list and the hostess told us to check back in 30 minutes to see "where things stood." I asked whether they had a pager that they could give us to let us know when our table would be ready since Toro Bravo has no bar and the waiting area is miniscule for weekend crowds. While there are a couple of nice bars nearby, it's hard to enjoy them when you feel that you might miss being called for a table. When I asked if they could call my cell, the hostess sniffed and said, "We don't usually do that. But, if your wait lasts more than an hour we might take your number." Gee, thank you very much.
After more than an hour, the hostess didn't take my number and we kept having to send somebody in our party rushing out the bar up the street from Toro Bravo to inquire about our reservation status. Ultimately, after nearly two hours, we were seated. We proceeded to have a fantastic meal. You really can't go wrong with any of the creative tapas at Toro Bravo. Even a Spanish friend says that it has some of the best tapas he has had in the U.S.
Yet, leaving Toro Bravo, I wondered whether it or any restaurant with an extremely inconvenient waiting system will sustain its devout following. With technology prices dropping, it would be fairly inexpensive to implement a buzzer system. Surely, Toro Bravo could make up the cost for such a system with the increased goodwill and repeat visits that it would generate. Or, for no expensive, Toro Bravo could train its hostesses to always offer to call patrons on their cell phones when tables become available.
It's alway worth making the lives of your customers easier to keep your buzz growing.
Here's another perfect example of Word of Mouth Marketing.
I recently read about Toro Bravo in the Conde Nast Traveler magazine, where it was voted on the 2008 Hot Tables list. In the review it says "...the wait can be long, but the hostess will happily take your cell phone number so you can slip into the cozy bar next door for an aperitif."
That article really made me want to go to the restaurant during our upcoming visit, but now that I read about your experience, I am thinking about it twice and much rather pick a place that you recommend.
Posted by: Peter Winkler | May 21, 2008 at 07:25 AM
Sorry.. I forgot to add the URL to the Conde Nast Traveler review:
http://www.concierge.com/tools/travelawards/hotlist/2008/restaurants/detail/toro_bravo
Posted by: Peter Winkler | May 21, 2008 at 07:31 AM