Token of gratitude: restaurants give gifts to thank diners for their presence

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 2, 2002 by Pamela Parseghian

My birthday is approaching fast, and since I've had a good number of such events, I'd think the excitement would have worn off.

Still, no matter how old I get, I love to receive presents. Well, who doesn't? Nevertheless, most of us lie to our gift-bearing friends, saying, "Oh, you shouldn't have."

I have a reason for sharing that secret passion for gifts: Savvy restaurateurs offering guests departing gifts seems to be a growing trend, and that delights me.

We're not talking about silver candlestick holders, of course, just small tokens of appreciation given to customers in thanks for their business.

Just this morning, for example, I received a sample of delectable chocolate-hazelnut, coffee and vanilla caramels that are given to guests at The Dining Room restaurant at The Ritz-Canton, San Francisco. Diners appreciate such treats more the day after a fancy meal when they are less full, explains Angela Jackson, director of the hotel's public relations.

A bag holding a house-made brioche is given to guests as they leave Alain Ducasse in New York and the renowned chefs other high-end establishments overseas. However, a friend told me Ducasse "ought to give you something at those prices."

I disagree. Ducasse, who arguably is dishing up some of the best food on the planet, really doesn't have to give away extras. He already has a fantastic reputation. So why does he provide the gifts?

"Mr. Ducasse loves the idea of people waking up the next day and having their brioche for breakfast," says Marion Walsh, the chefs spokeswoman in New York. "The idea is we are looking after [the customers'] happiness while they are here, and this continues the whole experience in some way."

Besides Ducasse's brioche de la Riviera, which is sort of a cross between yeast bread and panettone with dried fruit, guests can pack up fancy candies or lollipops from the restaurant's dessert cart, Walsh says. First-time guests enjoy the treat most, the spokeswoman explains, "because they don't expect it."

And who doesn't like happy surprises?

I noticed only smiles the last time I visited Tru in Chicago, when a handsome man behind the front desk offered sophisticated-tasting lollipops to customers as they left.

The latest issue of Food & Wine magazine reported the freebie trend in restaurants, citing that Masa's in San Francisco is doling out house-made lollipops, while Compass in New York is offering scones.

"It is a promotional thing," says Compass' pastry chef, Jerhangir Mehta. "You get people in by doing little special things."

Mehta fills bags labeled with the restaurant's logo, which "is advertising," he says. "If you were going to put an ad in a paper, it would cost more than [the scones.] And who knows who will see [the ad]?"

The fact is that your target audience probably consists of the very folks leaving your restaurant.

Compass seems to be doing something right. After opening little more than four months ago, the 140-seat eatery has received favorable reviews and, more important, is running about 180 covers on an average day. The scones certainly couldn't hurt.

Many of my co-workers have said they enjoyed the goodie bags filled with muffins, cookies and other delights that were distributed after our company's holiday party a few years ago at Restaurant Associate's Cucina & Co. in midtown Manhattan.

Of course Cucina, which also does a substantial breakfast takeout business on weekdays, had little to lose by distributing the bags, since most likely they featured items from earlier in the day.

But timing is everything. A colleague warned that Corner Bakery in Santa Ana, Calif., lost business by being generous.

"You sit with your self-service tray of food and eye the pastries, muffins, etc., thinking maybe you'll buy something extra to take home on the way out," he says. "But before you're done eating, a Corner Bakery guy comes around with a bag and says, 'Would you like a free muffin?'"

The pastry was an act of "goodwill for the future," admits my co-worker, "but it killed at least one then-and-there sale."

As for me, if I had such a generous restaurant around the corner, I'd frequent it often--partly for the parting gift.