As the owner of a restaurant, I deal with many facets of the business when dealing with the public, most of it is great and fantastic, but sometimes I have to deal with disgruntled yelpers, patrons upset with the food, music too loud, service not quick enough, etc, etc. It’s part of the business when dealing with the public and I always try my best to make everyone happy. There are a lot of moving parts and sometimes it’s just impossible to be perfect. But I feel as though we at Christakis try our best.
We have been busier than ever and with volume and with new customers, sometimes we aren’t staffed as fully as we should, we get rushes that we aren’t anticipating and you just cant give the perfect service that we strive for.
I’m happy to say that we do pretty well here, but not always.
So the other day, when I received a call that a customer wanted to come in and see the manager about an issue from a busy Saturday night, I was expecting a complaint and was trying to figure out how to handle it.
The gentleman called and said he would be right over.
Within 10 minutes a very nice and gentle looking man was at the door, at 11:00, a half hour before we opened.
He had a receipt in his hand, and my initial reaction was that he was overcharged for an item as that particular saturday, two days prior was one of our busiest days ever, almost a record night.
I opened the door, fully expecting the worst, and figuring out how to handle it properly and efficiently.
To my surprise this gentleman came into the restaurant to inform me that we FORGOT TO CHARGE HIM FOR A 60 DOLLAR BOTTLE OF WINE. And that he in good conscious couldn’t sleep at night knowing this.
I was BLOWN AWAY by his random act of HONOR.
He continued to tell me how he had come into our restaurant the summer my mom had passed away and that I had waited on him. That he cared about our restaurant and that I had made a nice impression on him. He wanted me to charge him for this wine.
I was moved to tears really, and only charged him half. I actually wasn’t going to charge him anything, as he had just made my day and had instilled faith in me that people still believe in integrity and honor and don’t just use those words as happenstance.
His name is JOHN WAGNER and I just wanted to thank you Mr. Wagner, a veteran of the Military and in my mind a hero.
You should be proud of how you act, and of the man you are, and I really needed to see that act of kindness and in appreciation of your integrity and honesty I’d like to offer any of our patrons a free appetizer of their choice.
I can never thank you for the act that you displayed but you made my day and you gave me faith that valor, integrity and honor are values that we can still believe in.
It was such a beautiful gesture that I want to offer a free appetizer in his name to everyone that makes an online reservation. Offer valid until August 31, 2015.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Michael Christakis Wallace
2017 Award of Excellence
