Starting this thread for a variety of reasons, one of which is to establish a potential parallel line of discussion to the Unions & Bars thread. In my opinion, they are not unrelated.
Last night (a Wednesday), friends and I tried to grab a pre-dinner drink at the lobby bar at the Waldorf-Astoria, and our welcome was that there would be a two drink minimum.
Yeah…
Setting aside that we didn’t want two rounds, didn’t have time for two rounds, and many people shouldn’t or can’t drink that much in one sitting, this is a bar where the drinks already cost north of $30 apiece. I guess some genius at the Waldorf-Astoria decided to it was time to establish a $100 minimum spend per customer (with tax and tip). This, at a hotel lobby bar.
For want of a better term, I would call this experience anti-hospitality. Better suggestion?
Needless to say, we went elsewhere. We bounced off the Monkey Bar (utterly overrun) to the bar at the Modern restaurant at MoMA. There we were welcomed and immediately accommodated. The staff were infallibly gracious, the drinks good (and about $20 each).
This experience was good hospitality. (Danny Meyer style.)
Unfortunately, I am finding that variations on the former experience are becoming more common (in the United States), and the latter rarer. I am souring on bothering to go out.
–
This is a 2.5 hour interview with Angus Winchester from 2025 that many here have already seen, but I encourage everyone interested in this domain to give it the time. It has chapters, so it can be consumed in parts.
Hospitality has suffered a major decline from the Pandemic where loss of senior staff, reliance on QR codes instead of conversation, and 90 minute time limits made the guest feel happy to be out but rushed and feeling a bit cold from the interactions. The QR code thing has mostly gone away, but the time limit aspect is still around in restaurants and bars (even in ones that have opened up in the last 3 years). One place I tried out at as a bartender focused on efficiency over treating the guests well; reviews of the place occasionally mention that service was lacking and they seemed understaffed, but to the owner saving on labor and the FOH team getting the tips split fewer ways, they were “properly” staffed. I’ve seen understaffing at places that I have worked that cut from 3 to 2 bartenders, and the servers just had to deal with 30+ minute ticket times because one bartender was running around dealing with 22 seats plus standing guests waiting for tables and couldn’t assist the service bartender getting slammed with tickets during the dinner rush (and couldn’t help the rail bartender deal with guests either).
It’s gotten to the point I no longer go out for cocktails much anymore and make them at home (I used to go out 2-3x per week back in the day) both for the lack of warm hospitality and the rising costs. When I do go out, it’s to not-award-winning programs but ones that make me feel taken care of and have food at a reasonable price.
I have not seen a drink minimum though save for comedy clubs though. I did have a one drink minimum when I went to see my old barback play jazz at a club (Wally’s in Boston) which served as the cover charge, and even with tip, it was under $10.
I remember as a musician it used to be you lost money touring, but it boosted album sales; now, you never get paid for your music and you have to make it up with tours…. Is this a similar case, where the hotel is ancillary to the bar’s revenue stream now?
Hotels revenue is always coming from rooms. When it comes to their bars, hotels have three choices:
Have a bar under sufferance (need one, don’t want one)
Use it the same way they use fine dining restaurants (we’ll lose money on the bar but its fame will drive up room rates)
Run them as they’ve always run them —guests expect bars, we want to please guests so we run decent bars and if we have have non guest drinking here, amazing.
I think Martin’s experience is part of the overall confusion, where hospitaly venues don’t quite know what their objective clientele want.
