When Apologies Are in Order

This column receives letters of complaint about restaurants by the carload. Letters of commendation, on the other hand, are rare. After all, we expect things to go right; it’s only when we encounter the dreaded Surly Waiter or The Interminable Wait for our food/table that we fire off a letter. Sometimes, and only sometimes, good emerges from these bad experiences.

Take R.C. Peck of Marina del Rey, who had a disappointing dining experience at the Hotel Bel-Air. He wrote the hotel to complain and was shocked to find that the hotel general manager Paul Zuest not only replied promptly, inviting Peck and a guest back for a complimentary dinner, but came in on his day off to make sure Peck was treated properly when he returned. “Now that ,” notes Peck, “is showing a lot more caring than just refunding a patron’s money.”

Laurie A. Stiver of Duarte had a similar response from the Reef in Long Beach--not a refund, but a prompt, apologetic letter from the restaurant’s general manager, with an invitation to return for dinner at the Reef’s expense. And Bonnie and Joel Weinstein of Sherman Oaks wrote that they had an unpleasant evening at Caioti in Laurel Canyon--long waits, misplaced orders, etc.--but that, when they complained, owner Ed LaDou himself immediately appeared to apologize in a manner “courteous, charming and gracious.” He offered an explanation for the problems without making excuses for them, invited the couple back for a free meal, tried to give them additional food to take home with them “and in general redeemed himself and the restaurant in our eyes with his fair and generous manner and his personal charm and humor.”

Of course, the irony is that Peck, Stiver and the Weinsteins all feel better about the restaurants in question than they would have if nothing had gone wrong in the first place. It’s just further indication of how valuable apologies and conciliatory gestures on the part of management can be for a restaurant, and how self-defeatingly stupid it is for restaurateurs and their employees to ignore or insult disappointed customers.

TABLE SCRAPS: Trader Vic’s at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills introduces a new menu of game dishes this month, including rack of venison smoked in the Chinese ovens, ginger-spiced stir-fried rabbit and sweetbread/pheasant/veal pie in mushroom sauce. . . . Frere Jacques in the City of Industry now serves a three-course prix fixe dinner Tuesday evenings from 5:30 to 10 p.m. at $12.95 per person.

RESTAURANT DATEBOOK: 72 Market Street in Venice has announced its 1988/1989 lecture series (with wine and hors d’oeuvres attached). Among forthcoming speakers are writer and radio performance artist Joe Frank on Oct. 22, actress Anjelica Huston on Nov. 12, poet/priest/author/civil rights and gay rights activist (talk about your hyphenates) Malcolm Boyd on Feb. 25 and the inevitable Ray Bradbury on April 22. Lectures run Saturday afternoons from 1 to 3 p.m. and cost $30 per person. . . . The wines of Ca’ del Bosco, Masut Stelio and Franco Furlan are featured at a five-course “Vendemmia” (Harvest) dinner at Sostanza in West L.A. this Wednesday. The price is $58 per person. . . . Susan Ruttan of “L.A. Law” and James B. Sikking of “Hill Street Blues” are among the hosts of a California wine tasting to benefit the Westside Women’s Health Center, Oct. 18 from 5 to 8 p.m., at the Bel-Air Summit Hotel in West L.A. A restaurant raffle at the event will offer dinners at Michael’s, Tosh, the Pacific Dining Car and other local establishments. . . . And the Pacific Dining Car will offer the wines of Trefethen with a special multicourse dinner on Oct. 19 at 7:30. The price is $75 a head. . . .

WHAT’S NEW: Hy’s in Century City salutes the return of Monday Night Football with a special weekly “Happy Hour” every--well, what did you expect? --Monday night. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres are served, as are several more substantial items (including “build-your-own” steakburgers) in the $1.50-$2.50 range. . . . Yanks in Beverly Hills is now open for lunch Monday through Saturday (and for dinner nightly). . . . Tosh in Santa Monica has changed its operating schedule one more time: In fact, it is not going to close for lunch, as had been previously announced, but will serve the midday meal from Tuesday through Friday--and will open on Sundays for dinner, from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. . . . And Celestino in Beverly Hills has introduced a new menu, including such unusual items as tuna carpaccio with bottarga (cured tuna roe), lamb-stuffed ravioli in goat cheese and mint sauce and breast of duck with walnuts and foie gras. . . . As for what’s old, the Beef ‘n’ Barrel in Northridge has announced that it will close on New Year’s Eve after 15 years in business.