Posted by Jon
We’ve got a new-ish Spanish restaurant in Durham, where we live, which Vic and I decided to try for the first time the other day.
The staff were really friendly: mainly students at the local University trying to avoid sinking ever-deeper into debt. Our server handed us the menus, and explained the choices, describing the wonderful selection of tapas but noting that:
Unfortunately, the paella takes about 45 minutes to prepare. The chef has to prepare it fresh each time.
‘Unfortunately’.
So guess what we had? Yes, that’s right. With our love of fine food, why would we possibly go for the quick-to-serve dishes that they’d grab, pre-prepared, out of the storage jar, when there was a cooked-to-order option for much the same price? And as it was prepared fresh, we were even able to swap out the squid, which I hate, for some extra chorizo.
An interesting indication, this, of the importance of tailoring your story to the specific customer. No doubt plenty of their customers are after rapid refreshment en route to the pub; for them, “steer clear of the paella” would be exactly the right message.
Yet for us, on a Saturday lunchtime with a large pile of newspapers to browse, in no particular hurry to go anywhere? Why, the 45-minute wait for the chef’s special was just the thing.
We’ve got a new-ish Spanish restaurant in Durham, where we live, which Vic and I decided to try for the first time the other day.
The staff were really friendly: mainly students at the local University trying to avoid sinking ever-deeper into debt. Our server handed us the menus, and explained the choices, describing the wonderful selection of tapas but noting that:
Unfortunately, the paella takes about 45 minutes to prepare. The chef has to prepare it fresh each time.
‘Unfortunately’.
So guess what we had? Yes, that’s right. With our love of fine food, why would we possibly go for the quick-to-serve dishes that they’d grab, pre-prepared, out of the storage jar, when there was a cooked-to-order option for much the same price? And as it was prepared fresh, we were even able to swap out the squid, which I hate, for some extra chorizo.
An interesting indication, this, of the importance of tailoring your story to the specific customer. No doubt plenty of their customers are after rapid refreshment en route to the pub; for them, “steer clear of the paella” would be exactly the right message.
Yet for us, on a Saturday lunchtime with a large pile of newspapers to browse, in no particular hurry to go anywhere? Why, the 45-minute wait for the chef’s special was just the thing.
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