Hospitality has a lot to do with culture. I’m talking about your home culture and the culture of your community. Recently, I had an opportunity to reflect on the culture of hospitality and the huge impact a little empathy can have.
Last week Sunday concluded a one month, 11-event run for me, coordinating mixologists for a festival celebrating food, wine and craft cocktails. These past four weeks proved particularly challenging. First, my refrigerator broke down, and it was a month before I could get a new one delivered. My apartment flooded not once but twice, and moving in and out wreaked havoc on my pets’ routines. All that, combined with trying to keep everyone and everything on schedule during 17-hour workdays and weekends, caused me to lose both sleep and patience.
Years working in restaurants has taught me that, as a hospitality worker, from the moment you clock-in, it’s no longer about you; it’s about your team and your guests.It’s our job to smile and make everyone feel welcome and appreciated.
Coordinating 16 mixologists may sound like a daunting task, but I found myself in tears for an entirely unexpected reason. I was meeting most of the jet-setting mixologists for the first time. This was the one time when “meeting your heroes” was everything I envisioned it to be and more.
During my most vulnerable moments — usually while I was apologizing for some oversight of mine — several of them pulled me aside, hugged me and told me what an amazing job I was doing at this difficult task. Two of them even said, “… and if anyone else says otherwise, tell them to come talk to me!” I felt seen by industry icons, and the waterworks flowed like champagne.
One mixologist who couldn’t make the festival texted me all the way from New York City, while she was in the middle of her own grand opening, and invited me to visit her new bar. As a gift to myself for getting through this month, in a silent auction at one of the events, I bid on — and won — two tickets to see Andrea Bocelli in concert at Madison Square Garden! While I was signing for the winning bid, my boss walked up and asked what I had won. When I told him it was tickets to a concert for which I needed his vacation approval to attend, he fist-bumped me and said, “Have fun!”
In the spirit of giving thanks, I’d like to raise a glass to my real-life heroes and the standard they set, showing how powerful it can be when you build a culture based in hospitality, and lead with love, inclusion and humility.
Fuyu Highball
Ingredients:
* 0.75 ounces Haiken Lychee Vodka
* 0.25 ounces Suntory Haku Vodka
* 0.75 ounces Aperol
* 1 ounce fresh-pressed lime juice
* 2.5 ounces Fever Tree sparkling pink grapefruit
Directions:
Build and pour over ice into Champagne flute.
Garnish with mint sprig and pink grapefruit slice.
