We had a really fabulous time on New Year's Eve surrounded by a group of friends. At this point, I have to digress and give a shout out to Alma de Cuba in Philly http://www.almadecubarestaurant.com/
I'm a complete nut about Customer Experience (a topic that I'm sure I'll rant about more at some point), and the manager there turned what could have been a really bad experience into a great one.
Specifically, we had a group of 6 and had pre-paid the $90/person for dinner. We had a 9pm seating (there were 3 that night), and we arrived promptly. Our table wasn't ready when we arrived, so we got a table in the bar/dance floor area. That's was OK for awhile, since we were comfortable, able to get drinks, and the servers were walking around with appetizers. After about an hour or so, the natives started to get restless. When we inquired about our table, we were informed that the prior party hadn't yet left, but that they were hopeful that it would be soon. Well, as they say at Hertz, "not exactly".
At the 2 hour mark, the natives were both hungry and restless and we started making inquiries into the availability at other nearby restaurants (I know, I know….I can almost hear you saying, "what, you were trying to get ressies at a restaurant in Philly at 11pm on New Year's Eve, are you crazy?") Well yes, but I chock that up to hunger and impatience. We told the manager that we were exploring other options and that we expected to get a full refund for the night. In case you've been wondering, here's the part where he swoops in and saves the day. He apologized for the umpteenth time and told us that he'd absolutely refund our $$ and pick up the cost of all of our drinks that we had up to that point if we decided to go elsewhere. However (and this is the really cool part), he really hoped that we would stay since our table was really almost ready, and he'd be happy to cover the cost of the entire night for all of us.
Well, the natives might have been hungry and restless, but we're not stupid, and we knew a good deal when we heard one, so we stayed. True to his promise, we were seated shortly thereafter and had a fabulous dinner. In addition to the prix fixe meal and the drinks beforehand, we ordered 2 bottles of wine which he picked up as well – pretty cool. Other than the rather hefty tip we left (as a former waitress, I would never penalize the staff if I got good service), the night was completely free, which is an awesome thing in this economy.
As a result, I will absolutely go back to Alma de Cuba and will recommend it to all my friends and anyone else who will listen.
Back to the topic at hand though, I ate and drank pretty steadily from 9pm until around 1am (it was a multi-course meal, and the main entrée was served at midnight), and so I rolled into January 1st like an overstuffed turkey. Other than the fact that I felt like crap, it was OK, since I was really looking forward to starting our program and getting back into a healthy lifestyle.
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