The first rule of newly-launched restaurant discount scheme Table7 is that you do not have to talk about Table7. Emma Sturgess lets the cat out of the bag
We all love (and need) a bargain from time to time, but how publicly will we pursue them? For some, rummaging in supermarket bins is the outer limit, and I've known others to furtively photograph tasty-looking recipes in bookshops. While using a coupon at a restaurant is now not uncommon, some delicate souls still blush at the prospect. Now there's good news for these shrinking violets ? and restaurants who share their fondness for discretion.
Ashwin Jain, a former banker, has just launched table7.com, a restaurant booking service which deals in reservations for high-end London restaurants like the Marylebone Indian seafood specialist Trishna, L'Autre Pied and Club Gascon, which both have Michelin stars, and St John Hotel, which has buns.
You join and pay �7 to make a booking at a restaurant, and then you get up to 30% knocked off your bill. Discretion is the watchword, and the idea is that the money comes off as if by magic. There is no waving of crumpled coupons, no urgently muttered "Groupon" or "OpenTable". The first rule of Table7 is that you do not have to talk about Table7.
Why ever not? There's been a recession on, and it's not as if we're unaccustomed to the two-for-a-tenner tango. Deep discounting and voucher schemes are now commonplace at high street restaurants such as The Real Greek, Pizza Express, Carluccio's, Yo! Sushi, Masala Zone, Loch Fyne, Strada, Zizzi, Prezzo and Ask: it's so entrenched that some restaurateurs now doubt that customers will ever willingly pay full price again.
But a lot depends on the kind of restaurant you're in, and the kind of experience you're looking for. Having discussed with your waiter the nether reaches of the wine list or weighed up the merits of Quicke's versus Keen's over the cheeseboard, are you willing to look him in the eye come totting-up time and say, "Hang on, I've got a voucher"? We are, of course, eager to hear your tales of successful and unsuccessful coupon-brandishing and possible mortification therein, but Jain believes that there's a time and a place for discretion.
"If I was out to dinner with someone I'd been dating for a year and a half," he says, "I'd be bragging about getting money off. But if it was a second date, it might be different." There are many other occasions, work and social, when it's feasible that the host or hostess might not want their guests to know that they are being wined and dined at a discount. And, of course, the smarter the restaurant, the less willing they may be to cheapen themselves in public by offering explicit deals despite a pressing need to get bums on seats. There's a complicity here - the restaurant needs the business, the customer needs the discount, but neither necessarily wish to shout about it.
What's the catch? Jain's model operates on the same lines as flight ticketing, with prices lower at quiet times. Like airlines restaurants have a high level of fixed costs, but varied demand ? and Table7 is designed to entice customers into restaurants at off-peak times. Our explorations reveal some slots you'd want: 12.15pm for lunch and 7pm for dinner at L'Autre Pied on a Thursday, with 30% off the bill, or a 1.30pm lunch or 7pm dinner at Maze with 20% off. Of course, there are also some more eccentric timeslots, like dinner at 6.30pm or 10pm at Eight Over Eight. Would you want to know whether your date or host is an insatiable but discreet bargain hunter (which some consider an excellent quality for a future ally in business or love)? If so, try checking your watch.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/sep/23/table7-time-for-discreet-discount
Economics Property Mergers and acquisitions Doctor Who Allied Irish Banks Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment