Restaurant Nico in San Francisco forgets it’s closed for Thanksgiving dinner and books reservations it has to cancel at the very last minute.
Getting a reservation for a nice dinner on Thanksgiving is hard. Many top tier restaurants are closed reducing the number of options. Add to that fact, the many people who travel to the Bay Area and the growing trend of natives who choose to forgoing the pains of preparing a full traditional dinner. All of this, makes it so that you have to make a reservation one to two months in advance if you hope to secure a fine dining option for a foodie Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I learned my lesson the hard way a couple of years ago when I tried to make reservations just two weeks in advance – never again, I swore!
Lesson learned: This year, in mid-October, I decided to make my Thanksgiving dinner reservation. In fact, we decided to make an evening in the City out of the occasion and so I also booked a lovely room at one of the Union Square hotels – we were going to enjoy this one day in style. I carefully researched the dining options and selected a wonderful Michelin starred restaurant that shall go nameless. A two person reservation for 5:00pm was easily secured on a popular reservation system – not surprising given that I was clearly the “early bird”. Two days later, I got a personal call from the chef/owner of the restaurant, profusely apologizing because the restaurant was going to be closed on Thanksgiving day – they had just not inputted that into the reservation system because it was 6 weeks away. They graciously offered to move my reservation to ANY day in the coming year and told me that if I ever needed a last minute reservation in the future (on a day they were open) I could simply email the chef and he would guarantee me a two-person slot – the restaurant would figure out a way to make it work. He then immediately followed up with the same by email to ensure it wasn’t an empty offer. Now, contrast his response to the tale I am about to share with you…
I waited a week or so because I was a bit too busy to do more research on dining options. Eventually, I settled on Nico, a modern French bistro in Jackson Square run by husband and wife pair Nicolas and Andrea Delaroque. A quick visit to Resy and I had secured a reservation at 5:30pm since it was still over a month to Thanksgiving. Sure this reservation was a bit later (and might cut into post-dinner Thanksgiving evening shopping) and a bit farther, from the hotel but you can’t be too choosy on Thanksgiving day. With dinner and hotel reservations comfortably in hand, I spent the rest of October and November in a worry-less state of bliss. As others complained about how hard it was to get a reservation or otherwise make dinner plans, I nodded sympathetically and offered advice for future years – 4-6 weeks in advance, I shared. They generally vowed to do the same, although a few did take out voodoo dolls (of restaurant owners who were closing on Thanksgiving, I assumed) and proceeded to poke away.
Now, lets fast forward to two (that’s right, TWO) days before Thanksgiving. At 8:15pm, while packing for my eagerly anticipated trip, I get a call from Restaurant Nico, presumably to confirm the reservation and ask about allergies. However, when I pick up, the person on the other end, informs me that they are in fact closed on Thanksgiving day and so WON’T be able to honor my reservation (oof – remember the aforementioned voodoo dolls). I was stunned… My response in my shock was a simple question “Well, where will I eat that day?” The response equally simple, but a little cruel was “Well, I don’t know, but it sure in shit isn’t going to be here”. Thanks A-hole! Still in shock, I wondered aloud how it took so long for them to realize this error? The manager I was speaking to was more than happy to throw the faceless big, bad reservation system under the bus – It’s Resy’s fault. “But, don’t you check for reservations?” I asked? They certainly did, but this reservation was “hidden” he informed me. Ahhh… Hidden… Days later, when I decided to write about this, I did a bit of investigating: I contacted Resy and asked about this particular reservation. It turns out that the restaurant hadn’t informed Resy about the closure till two days before Thanksgiving. Hmmmm!!!
I did mention to the manager from Nico that since there was less than 48 hours to Thanksgiving evening, it would be very hard for someone without any connections to secure dinner reservations at a comparable establishment. I told him how we were traveling to SF and how we had planned to stay the night, and his first suggestion is that we move our hotel stay (and trip) to another day so that we could still eat at Nico. I did express my skepticism about attempting to move Thanksgiving day. I asked if he could help in any other capacity. At first he simply stated that “he had limited reach” within the San Francisco dining scene so it would be very hard to get reservations at this late juncture. I pointed out that he had much more “reach” than I did, given that I wasn’t even in the restaurant business. Moreover, the owners who have had previous Michelin starred restaurants in the city must have connections of some sort. Nope – unwilling to call in any favors, I guess. After about 10 minutes of making my case, the manager said, he’d make a couple of calls and get back to me.
Less then 3 minutes later, he called back – the only thing he could find was a 8:30pm reservation at a second rate restaurant. Try hard, did ya? Exhaust all options, I’m sure? Guess he was being literal about the “couple of calls.” I explained that the reservation he was offering was much later than we had originally intended to eat and it would interfere with plans we had for later in the evening. We had wanted an early dinner. “Well, its the best I can do,” was the response. “with such a minimal effort” was the unspoken end to that statement. He assured me he could cancel the option if we didn’t find it suitable…
I decided to take matters into my own hands. After a frantic hour and half of calling at least 45 places, a kind hostess from a restaurant that was going to be closed on Thanksgiving actually called a friend at a wonderful establishment – Le Colonial. She was eventually able to secure me a reservation for two at 6:15pm. If you want to read about that amazing meal, you can do so HERE.
In my frustration, the next morning I sent an email of complaint to the owners of Nico. To their credit, I did get a response from Andrea Delaroque by 2:30 that afternoon- while she apologized for the “inconvenience”, she placed the blame squarely at Resy’s feet. She went as far as to let me know she has been “on the phone twice that day to understand what happened”. As I was reading, I thought to myself, “Gee, twice? I was on the phone for 2 hours trying to make sure I wouldn’t be eating at McDonalds or Burger King (are they even open on Thanksgiving? Post note: yes they are).” The Resy team of technical experts were still working tirelessly to find an explanation she assured me. And after I spoke to the rep from Resy, Andrea’s explanation fell a bit flat – I’m guessing the issue was that you forgot you were closed on Thanksgiving and didn’t inform Resy. Technical Problem Solved! My bill is in the mail.
Never once, was there an offer to try and help me get a reservation that I’d actually be able to use – one that was within a couple of hours of my original reservation. No acknowledgement of how difficult it would be for me to get a reservation at such a late juncture. She touted the fact that they had found me a place to eat (you won’t be hungry, buddy!) never appreciating that it wasn’t a viable option given that it was over 3 hours later. She concluded her message with a cheery “Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving”. Same to you sweetheart…
But, all’s well that ends well – we did enjoy a great meal at Le Colonial. I don’t get a vote for Michelin Stars, but if I did, Le Colonial would be in contention based on quality of the meal and the fantastic service. If you are in Union Square and are looking for an amazing French-Vietnamese meal at an incredible price, give it a shot. You won’t be disappointed.
As for Nico, what can I say? I can’t review the restaurant, because some muckups happen so early, you havn’t even made it to the restaurant before they earn a reputation in infamy…