Eatiquette

At Soon-to-Shutter Sensing, Mat Schaffer Experienced the ‘Single Rudest Experience’ of His Career

We're Sensing a problem.
We’re Sensing a problem. Photo: istockphoto

As we reported on Friday, Sensing at the Fairmont Battery Wharf will shut down after two years to make room for Aragosta, an “Italian Mediterranean” restaurant. Mat Schaffer, commenting on the closure for the Herald’s Fork Lift blog, eulogizes Sensing as one of the “best restaurants in the city”…yeah, except for a pesky little service problem. For it was here that he endured the single rudest experience of his 16-year career as a critic. Oh, my! Let’s revisit the incident from his original review, shall we?

You just know things aren’t going well when a critique commences with a mood assessment of the staff: “Guillaume Schmitt, director of food and beverage at Fairmont Battery Wharf, must have been having a bad day.”

The snarly Schmitt apparently “barked” at Schaffer, who had meandered into the restaurant after finding no host available, to “go wait back at the front door.” Really, the only canine reference we ever want to see in a restaurant review should refer to doggie bags. And when a reviewer bothers to slam someone using both first and last names and it’s not the chef, well, you just know he’s out for blood. Rattled, Schaffer declared at the time that “If I hadn’t been working, I would have walked out the door.”

This hostile greeting soured Schaffer’s entire experience, and he partially blames the closure on bad service. Aragosta, are you listening? Only happy people at the host stand! A bad day might not only beget a bad review, it might also ruin your entire virtual reputation! A quick Google of “Guillaume Schmitt” rewards us with several pages recounting the Schmitt-snit.

The full review has been archived by the Herald, but you can relive the horror at Adam’s Hospitality blog.


Sayonara Sensing
[Herald]

Earlier: So Long, Sensing

At Soon-to-Shutter Sensing, Mat Schaffer Experienced the ‘Single Rudest