The wine nazi
Published: Sun, 07/26/15
The names and places have been changed due to living in an overly
litigious society full of losers, whine-bags, and mush cookies
always tugging at Uncle Sam’s boob when someone is “mean” to them
or a business doesn’t want to serve them. But, other than that,
it’s all true and serves as a nice example of my
“anti-professional” teachings.
Anyway, here goes:
Back in July I visited one of my favorite towns on the planet.
Specifically, a classy wine bar.
This place not only has great wine, but the owner personally cooks
your meal on the spot, there is nobody else cooking but him, and he
is one of the best cooks I’ve ever met. Anyway, when you go inside
the first thing you see on all the tables is a little “reserved”
sign. Thus, when you walk in, your first thought is, “crap! did I
need a reservation?”
But alas, no.
You see, the owner doesn’t want *everyone* as a customer.
And, as he said:
“I just put those on the tables
to keep the riff-raff out.”
Riff-raff being anyone he doesn’t want to serve.
Example:
After sitting down, a man and a woman came in with two kids. The
owner really doesn’t like kids in his restaurant because he said
they tend to be boring customers that want basic food items he
doesn’t serve, which parents then demand him to create off-menu
items just for them. And, he said, even if they do order something,
they don’t spend enough money to make it worth it.
Long story short:
The owner shoos them out and says all the tables are reserved.
Then, he says:
“You’re welcome” to the rest of us.
Moral of the story?
This guy runs his business the way HE wants to. He serves ONLY the
customers he wants. And, plays on HIS terms. He’s quite prosperous,
too, and is kind of like Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi (the Wine Nazi?) in
his own way.
Anyway, he’s the quint-essential anti-professional.
It’s the way I run my business as well.
And, so do a lot of smart folks these days.
If this way of doing bid’niz appeals to you, then check out the
podcast episode I did about anti-professionals over yonder here:
http://bensettleshow.com/bsa35/
Ben Settle