The Emerald Rose

How do I tell thee, let me count the ways,….I’ll just hit the top ones. If you agree, or have more, please let me know.

(CAVEAT: I love all kinds of music, but I’m sure to piss off a bunch of folks,…..my apologies,….but music, like women and fine wines, are a matter of taste, and timing!)

When I used to be in the nightclub and “Pub” business, and in the restaurant business, as well as being a successful businessman where my wife and I had open accounts at the best restaurants in the City, and were very supportive of the hard working owners, Chefs, wait folks and Bartenders, right down to the valet. Sounds like an “over-tipper”,….but we paid for services that were impeccably rendered,….and that is what TIPS are all about. (To Improve Professsional Service) Most of the above mentioned are extremely hard working people, wives, mothers, and skilled in their field and make relatively nothing, but the tips they get. Everybody should burn that little “tip guide” card in their wallet, or instead of moving the decimal point on your bill one place to the left, (10%) take one more step and DOUBLE it to 20%.

We all know money does not grow on trees, but I can tell you of instances I have watched, know the waitstaff well enough that they will tell me things like, “a twelve top” (twelve people at the table) and they leave a $6.00 tip on a bill of $325.00!

“Ok, shut up Tom, get to the point”, as my wife says,…..oh yeah, the music!

When I was in the business in the 80’s and 90’s background music was an important component. I allege that it is CRITICAL to the customer, client, diner, or anyone walking through the door to an establishment. It is also firmly attached to your menu, as the noisier and more raucous the music is, the more the client opinion is that it is tending to just being a “joint”. For example you go to a top seafood restaurant, the last thing you want to do is listen to Gladys Knight and the Pips, KISS!

Perhaps a “lower assault level” , would go better with your sautéed fresh Salmon with Beurre Blanc and a medley of fresh picked vegetables, particularly if you are charging $19.95 per plate!!

And I have to say, as a worker bee when I was younger and working in Boston proper, going out to lunch was where we went for “lunch”, on the cheap, and was an escape for 30 to 60 minutes, and would NEVER be a place to bring the wife or girl friend! LUNCH is not DINNER!!! And for most folks working in offices it is an escape where they want to have the little peace, quiet, and ‘down-time” before going “back to the grind for the rest of the day. (That’s why BARS do so well immediately after the closing time begins in the evening,…plus as a “quasi” or “professional” (ie. Banker, Attorney, Doctor, or business “wannabe”)

So why assault them? I’m not saying do “elevator music”, but a great deal of the “ambient” type music is perfect, not only do they fell more relaxed, but have “free” think time, not a chance to “sing-a-long” with Jimmy Buffet, The Rolling Stones, and a hundred more Night time club and dance joint places. Even after hours it is perfect to provide a “Frontal Lobotomy” from the past 8 hours of problems, situations, personnel problems and “Office Shit”!! (Sorry for the language, but I know whereof I speak!!)

Nothing is more exciting than sitting down to dinner at home and discussing bills, the need for more “take home” money, and new brakes on the Van to take the kids to Soccer, do the shopping and the OTHER side of your life.

If you live in a HEAVY tourist area, or God help you, a “Senior” or “Snowbird” area the music will serve to drive them away!! Yes Chicago, KISS, Grateful Dead, The Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffet, and that 60’s thru 80’s ilk, is the surest way to a) kill your lunch business, prevent your evening, “Dinner” business, AND categorize you as an OVERPRICED joint, or “BAR” if you serve alcoholic beverages, and angers the wife as you are “assumed”to be “out partying” not just having “lunch” or “waiting for the train, bus, car pool.

So what should be happening? My opinion, at lunch a “decompression chamber” to relax, re-think your afternoon work coming when you leave the Oasis, OR to think about your wife or significant other, and what they have put up with since you went to work this morning instead of helping feed the kids breakfast, walk the dog, talking nice to the cat, and kissing them good bye for the day! Lunch is your VALIUM to maintain sanity and the inevitable so you can go home at the end of the day , give her a kiss and say “Call Ginny to babysit and I’ll take you to dinner!

If you take her to one of those “previously great” background rock band places for dinner,….well trust me you are simply pouring gasoline on a smoldering fire. Even a champagne is not going to “chill” the fire,….but the background music WILL!!!

Anyway that’s my two cents worth, this is a very opinionated subject so please drop me a note by hitting the “comment” button below.

OH!! One last thought, I am reminded of the old expression which is so valid and really sums it all up ,……”Music soothes the savage beast!”.

You think AC/DC, the Grateful dead, the Beatles or The Rolling Stones will “Sooth the savage beast”?

Just saying!!

-30-

February 22, 2019