New York City College of Technology, CUNY
Department of Hospitality Management
Janet Lefler Dining Room
Memorandum
To: Professor Abreu
From: Sthefany Gomez
Date: November 27, 2017
Re: Instead of Making Turkey, They Make Reservations by Pete Wells
In this week’s food article Pete Wells focused mainly in the new custom way of celebrating Thanksgiving around the city. He did not directly target a specific restaurant to criticize, rather he decided to voice his opinion on the growing trend of people making reservations for holidays. In the article, he mentions many motives that would incline people to make these kinds of reservations. He explains that many do not get to spend enough time with their loved ones and this is a perfect way to recover from the lack of family quality time that is missed year round without having to do a little extra cleaning and cooking. Pete Wells also speaks of the popularities of the menus, explaining the prix-fixe menus that will include a variety of options in of which you can actually opt-out of the traditional turkey dinner. Restaurants like Gotham Bar and Grill, Keen, and RedFarm all are fully functioning and heavily reserved for Thanksgiving. They welcome both turkey and non-turkey diners as well as solo and group diners with options for everyone on the menu, it creates a sense of ease to the guest. Wells mentions some of the holiday responsibilities that are alleviated from the host of the diner like the elimination of the whole shopping, cooking, and cleaning process. Besides all of that Wells also speaks of the service each of these restaurants will provided on Thanksgiving. He speaks of having service run all day and stop early in the evening, I found this part of the article interesting because the agenda he spoke about is exactly the same one the restaurant I work at followed on that day. Having their preservice meal at the bar and service running through all day with one server floating to relieve others to go on their breaks.
Wells includes real life experiences from actual diners who make a reservation instead of hosting a gathering at their house. Majority of the excerpts used in the article seem to be satisfied with their decision on how they celebrate the holidays. They are beyond satisfied with having variety of options on the menu and also seem to agree with Mr. Well’s theory of having less to do on that day, however his last interviewee seems to be a bit hesitant. Ann Viney, a retired health care fund-raiser, speaks about her first time going out for thanksgiving because her and her husband didn’t have family in the states so they made a habit of eating at high end restaurants in L.A and New York “You avail yourself of the best chefs with every possible component of the dinner, you can sleep in, you can watch the parade, you can watch the dog show.” However Wells uses Ms. Viney as an example of the downfall to this “the restaurants never sent her home with leftovers.”
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