Every few years Dick and I visit an establishment that appeals to us on every level. Such places have been hotels, guides, restaurants etc. Last week we had the pleasure of experiencing bliss once more, and I wanted to share it with you.
The cycle of CX (Customer Experience) has come and gone. It was the last word a decade ago, blossomed into CX departments that ended up becoming customer complaints aggregators and resolvers, and eventually, in many banks, was quietly retired.
The lessons from our experience at Disfrutar, a world-class restaurant in Barcelona, are instructive to every person involved in serving people – from your CEO to the person who checks IDs at your headquarters.
For context, Disfrutar is a 3 Michelin starred restaurant that has also been named the best restaurant in the world last year by the Pellegrino Top 50 Restaurants. Our experiences with molecular cuisine have been mixed at best, and especially so in Spain. While we always enjoy nearly every dish in San Sebastián (Basque country and a haven for foodies), we haven’t done so at Sant Pau, Cellar Can Roca and other venerable restaurants in Spain and elsewhere that have perfected molecular cuisine. We concluded that our own palates are at fault. We apparently couldn’t change with the times. And then came Disfrutar.
The restaurant opens its booked every day for the same day a year hence. We were lucky to get a table at lunch a year ago. Considering this demand, we expected Disfrutar to fall into the fold of the typical 3 Michelin starred molecular restaurants.
The first thing I find off putting about molecular cuisine is its apparent pomposity. You’re told how to eat the food, typically by a very well-dressed server, and you know the presentation took tweezers as well as inordinate amount of time assembling tiny quantities of delicious ingredients. Disfrutar was different.
We were half an hour late (train problems), yet we were received with a smile. All staff was well-dressed but not over the top. The diners were exceedingly comfortable in their jeans, khakis and shorts. This was an auspicious start. My initial impression was: this place is about food and not about status.
Having been seated, a server came to inquire what foods do we enjoy eating and are there ingredients we simply don’t like. I was stunned. In my countless years of indulgence I have never found a restaurant that actually asked whether we like certain ingredients and then design the menu accordingly. Disfrutar did.
Then came a sheet of paper introduced as the restaurant menu. It had roughly 40 words, each in one of three fonts: large, medium and small, that included the following:
Experience; creativity; technique; enjoy; aromas; memories; illusion; colors; feelings etc.
The page title was: Menu: what lies behind our food? Think of it as a mission and vision statement. It didn’t connect the words. The font size communicated the level of importance of each word, and the guiding principles behind the restaurant became clear. The typical “farm-to-table”, “day-boat fish”, “sustainability” were replaced with specific words that reflected the restaurant go-to-market approach and philosophy. I fell in love with it even before my lips touched any food.
The uniqueness of this restaurant isn’t just in the originality of food ideas, techniques and preparations. It is in the atmosphere that is obvious from the minute we entered: this place is about us, not about the chefs and their reputation.
I can see you rolling your eyes – “banking is not a restaurant”, you’re thinking. You’re right, of course, but yet the parallels are present and relevant. As you consider your service model and the physical layout of the branch, start with the feelings you want to evoke and go from there.