By Kerry Tyack
(Industry commentator and New Zealand Supreme Sausage Awards judge)
“Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,”
Polonius to Laertes in Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 3
Shakespeare saw fit to include in Hamlet a scene where a father gives advice to his son who is off to make his mark in the world. In his fatherly talk Polonius covers everything from borrowing and lending money, to what his son should wear.
I realise it’s a couple of hundred years later, but its timely for restaurant operators to have a chat to staff about what standard of dress and general grooming is expected, because in my mind the state of your staff tells a lot about how much you care about the customer.
Sadly, too often the haphazard grooming of staff leaves a less than positive impression even on occasions when the service metered out may actually be quite good.
Uniforms can be a useful way of ensuring some control of dress standards but they can also create a formality that is not always desired or appropriate and their effectiveness is undermined if they are dirty, creased or don’t fit properly.
Another option is to adopt a common theme such as the same colour shirt and pants and shoes but allow for individual styles. This is still only effective however, if there is agreement between management and staff that it meets an acceptable standard in terms of fit and cleanliness.
Clearly there are differences in opinion as to what constitutes an appropriate standard of grooming, so management should be very clear about what is expected.
For me the key issues are: whatever the waiter is wearing it must fit properly, it must be clean and in good condition and it should be reasonably discreet. Uniformity matters less.
Hair should be clean and off the face, facial piercings kept to a minimum and hands and fingernails spotless. And, if a staff member turns up for service dishevelled and unkempt then send them away to tidy themselves up.
It works both ways; many diners today don’t dress appropriately. At Antoines recently many guests looked as if they had just walked off the beach, and although they were shown the same high level of service as the rest of us, I thought it disrespectful that they hadn’t made an effort to tidy themselves up before coming out to dinner. Imagine the comments from guests if their waiter came to the table with unkempt hair, shirt unbuttoned almost to the waist revealing pierced nipples and kangaroo tattoo, each sock a different colour and wearing shoes that had recently been tramping through a Viaduct bar.
I should note that the grooming of the waiters at Antoines was impeccable from their hair to their shoes, a clear indication to me that this is a restaurant that takes real pride in the image they create and the standards they set themselves.
Set your standards early and keep to them, and if the personal presentation of your waiters outshines that of the customer, it may result in an improvement in the level of respect and gratitude they show you and your staff.