Last night I joined two old pals at an upscale restaurant bar in South Deerfield. It was Chandler’s and the walls were lined floor to ceiling with bottles of American wines. The light came through the glass and created a warm atmosphere. The place was empty as we took our seats. The bartender was mixing drinks, busy, and took a while to notice us. He was about 25, tall, with curly blond hair.
We asked for dry martinis, straight up. Eventually he brought us our drinks, in tiny wedge-shaped martini glasses, filled up about two thirds. We were shocked. Outraged. These expensive cocktails were just too small!
We complained to the curly headed ‘tender. “These drinks are not filled up,” we lamented. he said, ‘I am only allowed to put in two ounces, that’s the rule.”
We got our check for $33 and left him $33 on the nose.
My mother Valerie Hartshorne found this item in her local paper in Blawenburg New Jersey. “What happens if you release the odor of lavender into a restaurant? In the case of a small shop in France, at least, it led to customers staying longer and spending more, researchers say. In the past, studies have suggested that peppermint oil may help athletic performance and that pleasant smells make people more cooperative and even induce them to gamble more at casinos.
Some smell scientists put lavender into a restarant, and saw the average customer stay 15 minutes longer…and spend $5 more as well. Sounds like a plan.
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unbelievable! i can’t believe that the martinis were $11 each, and that small… but… no tip? it sounds like it was the managements fault for telling him how big to make the drinks, which is unfortunate. i bet he gets barked at all the time (i would have also) but he still deserved a tip… cheers to the friday night drink!