Don't Just Tell Me About Your Product/Service -- SHOW ME

This past weekend I went to the Delicious Food Fest in Toronto, held at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds.

The Delicious Food Show in Toronto.

A three-day long convention, where foodies munched on zillions of samples of everything from organic burgers, free-range cookies, and wine that won't hurt your liver.

Well, maybe not quite the last two, but everywhere we went, we kept hearing how everything was organic, gluten-free, all natural, free-range, herbal, holistic, and sugar free.

Obviously, these are the trendy buzz words when marketing food stuffs today.

And for the most part, the people peddling these ultra healthy foods looked to be in great shape themselves.

Maybe the show should have been called the Good Food Fest, instead of the Delicious Food Fest? 

Oh, wait, they have that show too. I think it's held later in the year.

My biggest problem with the Delicious Food Fest is one I find common among entrepreneurs -- if you are going to say something -- show it.

Tossing trendy buzz words about is impressive, but show me how your food will make me a healthier person, don't just tell me.

Free-range cookies?

If I cut gluten out of my diet, what will I look like?

Ah -- there lies the problem of saying something without showing it. Unless you have a real medical condition, like celiacs disease, cutting gluten out of your diet doesn't do much for your health.

Gluten is a protein complex in wheat products, and is the only known treatment for celiacs disease, where people lack the enzyme to break down this complex protein.

Despite all the health hype about gluten-free diets, there isn't any scientific, medically sound evidence to support those diets in those that don't have celiacs disease.

Makes it hard to show me how gluten-free cookies, cakes and even pasta will make me a better person.

As most of us our visual people, if we can't be shown something, we won't buy into it, which means we won't whip out our cash and pay for it.

And if people don't pay for your product or service, good luck making any money out of it.

The key is to find something within your products that you can show. I tell people pushing products to me all the time -- don't tell me -- SHOW ME.

Show me how your healthy cookies will cut my waistline. Show me how your new fangled gizmo can save lives. 

Show me -- and then show everyone else.

Because end of day, the companies that excel are the ones showing us how their products and services benefit us in some way.

So don't tell me -- SHOW ME.

When Old Faithful Let’s You Down

For over nine-years, we've considered the Pickle BarrelRestaurant at Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue in Toronto, ‘Old Faithful.’

That’s what we call our favourite place to go, when we just can’t think of anywhere else we’d like to be for a night on the town. Old Faithful. It’s our regular family restaurant visit to celebrate the start of the weekend.

Actually, I've been going to the Pickle Barrel long before they had more than one location, as I grew up going to this great Jewish deli with my family when I was a kid.

It was – and for many still is – the place to go after Saturday services for lunch for many Jewish families in Toronto.

My girlfriend and I have been going to the Pickle Barrel for as long as we've been dating – over nine years, be it weekly or sometimes more or slightly less. Whenever we can’t think of any place else to go for a night out, we always fall back on what we call ‘old faithful’ – the Pickle Barrel.

We've come to know many of the staff by name at the Yonge/Eglinton location in mid-town Toronto, and we always get exceptional food and service there.

Our favourite waiter – Peter up at the Yonge/Eglinton location always says hi, and chats us up a bit, even if we’re not able to get seated in his section.

We've always enjoyed the wonderful service and great feel-good comfort foods of the Pickle Barrel.

Which is why we were shocked and dismayed when we didn't receive the same calibre of food or service at the downtown Toronto location in the Atrium across from the Eaton Centre.

Our waiter – Bob—seemed friendly and upbeat at first, giving us plenty of time to figure out what we want. Even though we probably know the menu by memory (after almost a decade we should!) we still take a bit of time to decide on what we want.

We always share an appetizer, and one of our old favourites happens to be the warm pumpernickel bread which has been served since I was a kid. I love the onions baked in the top, and it comes as a mini-loaf, and is always served warm with butter.

Or at least that’s how we've always had it – this past Friday night when it came to our table it was cold, stale, and hard as a brick.

When the waiter came by to check on us, I told him the bread was stale and asked if he could get us another one.

He told us he could, but because they freeze them, it would be exactly the same. He said he could heat it up for us – in the microwave.

Now, I’m not a professional chef, but I know stale bread when I see it. I also know that if you heat up bread in a microwave, it just becomes soggy – not very good at all.

And certainly not up to what we've ever witnessed in our nine-plus-years of enjoyment of the Pickle Barrel over the years. We've had the occasional bump along the way, but it has always been corrected right away, and without any question.

However, Bob, our waiter – didn't appear to think anything was wrong with serving cold stale bread to customers.

Bob, not knowing we’re regular customers, did say that the bread would be on the house.

The bread is always on the house! This appetizer isn't one we've ever been charged for in all the years we've been visiting this Toronto restaurant chain.

It’s one of those appetizers not on the menu, that I suppose original customers always ask for, so they have kept it available.

We occasionally do get some of the other appetizers which you have to pay for – the Asian Nachos with little bits of chicken, veggies and a sweet teriyaki sauce and cheese is one of our favourites.

Perhaps Bob was trying to up sell us to another appetizer, because he wanted a bigger tip?

Or maybe the restaurant just didn't have much of the pumpernickel bread left. Or maybe Bob was just lazy?

Who knows – regardless of the reason – serving stale cold bread in any restaurant is wrong. Mistakes happen, and occasionally something stale may get served. But in that instance, the staff should admit the mistake, and correct it right away.

They shouldn't tell the customer that’s just the way it is –deal with it – which essentially was Bob’s answer.

As Bob wasn't willing to do anything and I didn't want to make a big deal over bread, we let it go. That loaf of uneaten, stale cold bread just sat between my girlfriend and myself, glaring up at us throughout the remainder of our meal.

Our meal also wasn't up to the usual Pickle Barrel standards we've come to expect in our nine-years of being regular customers.

My girlfriend’s eggs Benedict was luke-warm when it arrived – not hot as it should be. My Hot BBQ Beef sandwich, which is supposed to be smothered with gravy had gravy on the side. The dill pickle which accompanies my meal looked like it was barely a baby dill – not the usual big deli one we get up at the Yonge/Eglinton location. And the bowl of coleslaw on the side of my order was barely half full – in fact it looked like it was left over from someone else’s meal.

Typically when we eat at the Pickle Barrel at Yonge/Eglinton we’re there on average about three-hours for dinner, racking up a bill over of $170 for just the two of us. We see other couples and families come and go around us. We just keep ordering drinks as we enjoy a long lazy dinner. We always get desert, no matter how full we feel, because it’s tradition.

Last Friday, it was as if we couldn't get out of that place fast enough. We only got iced teas, wolfed down our dinners, and skipping our tradition of desert. We paid our bill and were out of the restaurant in a record-breaking 45-minutes or less.

My girlfriend was very upset – after nine-years of wonderful dining experiences, old faithful had let us down. She kept telling me how she couldn't believe what just happened, and worried about going to our usual location ever again, for fear of it happening again.

I was also appalled at the whole situation, and wondered if this was the end of an almost decade long relationship with Old Faithful?

A Night Out with Hookers?

I love a nice night out with friends. Usually we go out to a fine dinning restaurant, because you can’t have a nice night out with friends without great food.

Maybe as I get older, I've lost touch with young people, as kids these days are showing a lot more skin than we ever did when I was a kid.

Wait a sec . . . why are parents letting their kids dress like hookers?

There seems to be a trend with teen – and what appears in some cases pre-teen – girls to dress in exceptionally short tight skirts, with low necklines, working in fine dinning establishments as hostesses.

Though you’d swear from their outfits they were women of the night, waiting for their ‘Johns.’

I understand in many sports bars the waitresses often wear outfits which show off their – ahem – assets – because the mostly male clientele tip higher if they think the pretty girls are flirting with them.

But at a fine dinning restaurant, where men, women and families go for a pleasant night out, that’s not cool.

What’s worse, is these kids are just that – kids. They don’t know any better – my hunch is their managers are advising them – or telling them – to show some skin.

What kind of sicko tells a pre-teen girl it’s okay to dress like a whore in a family restaurant? What kind of message are we telling kids today?

Sex sells – but sexualizing children – and that’s what they are – is wrong.

When the health and safety inspectors go into these places, they shouldn’t just  write up restaurants for unhealthy conditions, they should be able to shut a place down that is exploiting our youth.

Because in the end, that’s what these fine dinning restaurants are doing – exploiting young girls.

It isn’t right that these kids are being paraded about like street walkers.

There are restaurants – like Hooters – where the wait staff intentionally dress revealing. But from my understanding, they have to be at least 21 years old, and they choose to work at that restaurant, knowing the dress code, and all that goes with that dress code.

Pre-teen girls don’t know what wearing such skimpy outfits really says in our highly sexualized society. They don’t understand that when people are eyeing them up and down, it isn't because they are cute kids, but because they are dressed like sluts.

These high-end eating establishments are selling sex, off the backs of children that don’t know any better.

It’s almost like pimping out your own daughter, only there isn’t any sex act involved. You can look but you can’t touch.

Yet.

Wait until she’s legal.

Wait . . .. that’s just sick.