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Image
Hotel Greene, a restaurant, bar and mini-golf space in Virginia, is decorated
with nonfunctional vintage telephones, but the co-owners, Jim Gottier and Andrea
Ball, are among a number of restaurateurs around the country choosing to
eliminate their business’ public phone number.Credit...Parker Michels-Boyce for
The New York Times

RESTAURANTS TO CUSTOMERS: DON’T CALL US, WE WON’T CALL YOU

When restaurants abandon their phone lines, it can make the lives of employees
easier but leave diners confused and frustrated — or relieved.

* Share on Facebook
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By Victoria Petersen

* Jan. 28, 2022

Harley Esposito, 30, was surprised when she couldn’t find a phone number for
Hotel Greene, a mini-golf, bar and restaurant space near her home in Richmond,
Va. After going to Hotel Greene for a work event, she needed a copy of her
receipt. Looking through Hotel Greene’s website, she saw a small note: “We do
not have a phone line.”

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“I Googled them and didn’t see a phone number listed, and I was like: Oh, that’s
weird,” she said. “I was just surprised by it more than anything, because I’ve
never seen it before. I was like: How do they expect people to get in touch with
them?”

Like Hotel Greene, restaurants around the country are pulling the plug on their
phone lines. Channeling all communication through emails, direct messages on
social media and reservations apps might frustrate diners and deter those who
are technology averse, but restaurants are finding that communicating this way
frees up time for front-of-house employees, is more efficient for restaurant
administrators and gives flexibility to restaurants operating with a small team
or through Covid-related staffing shortages.

In their first month of business in the summer of 2019, Hotel Greene would get a
stream of calls to the front desk asking about the wait for a table. Mr. Gottier
said that a host offering people wait times in advance can be fruitless since
the waits can change quickly in real time.

“It was just this constant barrage,” said Jim Gottier, 67, a co-owner of Hotel
Greene, adding, “to pay someone $15 an hour, or whatever, to do that is just
outrageous.”

Image
Michael Thibodeau, who is a front desk associate at Hotel Greene, manages the
restaurant’s reservations, which are all made made online through its
website.Credit...Parker Michels-Boyce for The New York Times

This approach is not universally appreciated, however. In December, for
instance, Hotel Greene received an email from a frustrated potential customer
who complained about being unable to play mini-golf because of the wait time.

“Another option would be to have a phone to call ahead. Instead I wasted 25
minutes to drive there and $3 to park to be turned away by someone who frankly
didn’t seem to even feel bad about their decision,” the email said.

“People get so angry,” Mr. Gottier said. “You wouldn’t believe it.”

For some restaurants, the decision to forgo the phone is an easy one. The
co-owners of the vegan Singaporean restaurant Lion Dance Cafe in Oakland,
Calif., have never liked talking on the phone. After hosting pop-ups around the
Bay Area for about a decade, C-Y Chia, 32, and Shane Stanbridge, 32, opened Lion
Dance Cafe in September 2020, and for months they were the only employees.

“Since we were running around shopping and making all the food, it felt like
also having to deal with picking up the phone would just be too much of a
hindrance,” Mx. Chia said. “It wasn’t even a big decision for us. It was just an
obvious call.”

To reach Lion Dance Cafe, people send emails or direct messages to its Instagram
account, even though this can be discouraging for older potential customers, Mx.
Chia said.

At Ugly Baby, a Thai restaurant in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, nearly all of the
customers are millennials or younger, said Sirichai Sreparplarn, 52, the chef
and a co-owner of the restaurant. You have to be on Instagram to reserve a
table, see the menu or communicate with the restaurant. Mr. Sreparplarn said
this system makes it easier for the small staff and keeps the restaurant
low-key.

“We just want to be a hole-in-the-wall restaurant,” he said. “I personally think
websites are not for 2021, anyway. We don’t need a website, and this is my
opinion. I would take the IG as a website where we can interact with our own
clients right away, wherever you are, with much more information. We can do it
really quickly.”

Image
Diners at Ugly Baby, a Thai restaurant in Brooklyn, N.Y., tend to skew younger
since all of the restaurant’s reservations, menu and contact info are managed
through an Instagram account.Credit...Jane Beiles for The New York Times
Image
Because only a handful of people work at Ugly Baby, the simplified reservations
and preordering system makes prepping food and serving diners more efficient for
Sirichai Sreparplarn, the restaurant’s chef and a co-owner.Credit...Jane Beiles
for The New York Times

Gregory Ryan, 39, owns and operates two restaurants in California’s Santa
Barbara County: Bell’s and Bar Le Côte. Neither of the restaurants has a phone
line, a decision Mr. Ryan said was made because they have small teams. People
reach Mr. Ryan and the restaurants through email and Instagram direct messages,
which he said “are a good way to be able to connect and speak with people in
very, very quick ways.” After being in the restaurant business for 15 years, Mr.
Ryan said about 80 percent of phone calls are “typically a waste of time.”

“That’s not anyone’s fault,” he said. “I’m sure it’s annoying for folks. We try
not to be. What is better for my business is my day-to-day mental health and my
staff’s mental health — for me, it’s not answering the phone.”

Mr. Ryan said that even when the restaurant could afford to hire someone to
answer the phone, it still did not make sense for the efficiency of the
business. Focusing on the guests inside the restaurant, especially in a
pandemic, is more important, Mr. Ryan said.

“I think post-Covid, there is such a focus and a concern on the guests that are
in the dining room, and trying to make sure that they feel like they are being
taken care of and engaged with, and it is something that you’ll continue to see
more and more,” Mr. Ryan said.

His no-phone philosophy has spread to at least two other restaurants in
California. Charlotte Lansbury, 29, does administrative work for Horses, a Los
Angeles restaurant that opened in October. After eating at Bell’s and getting to
know Mr. Ryan, Ms. Lansbury said she brought the idea of no phones to her former
workplace, Gigi’s, another Hollywood restaurant. When she started working at
Horses last fall, Ms. Lansbury said she wrote a “long, strongly worded” email to
the owners and management explaining why Horses also should not have a phone.
They agreed.

“It’s just a waste,” she said. “I’m glad that other restaurants are doing it,
too, to spare their poor hosts and hostesses from having to deal with people on
the phone saying, ‘I’m just running late.’ It’s definitely controversial, but
from a restaurant perspective it’s the best.”

Ms. Lansbury said she manages the restaurant’s email and Instagram during
service in case any messages come in from people who may be late for their
reservation or have other questions.

Image
Since people are not able to call Bell’s in Los Alamos, Calif., the owner of the
restaurant, Gregory Ryan, frequently checks his phone during service for any
orders, reservations or questions that come through in emails or direct messages
on social media.Credit...Daniel Dreifuss for The New York Times

Still, there are plenty of restaurants that see the value in having a phone and
a dedicated reservationist. Lisa Blount, 56, who does marketing and public
relations for Antoine’s Restaurant in New Orleans, said having a phone line is
“really important,” even though it is not the only way diners are making
reservations these days.

“If I can get my customer on the phone and talk to them, there’s nothing
better,” she said. “As much as I love OpenTable and that it’s helping us get
online reservations, it doesn’t replace that phone call.”

Available staff members at Antoine’s have had to take turns answering phone
calls when the reservationist was sick with Covid-19. Ms. Blount said it has
been especially helpful during the pandemic to talk to people on the phone, and
explain safety precautions and the dining setup.

“I think the world right now has missed this human touch,” she said. “We’ve
dehumanized everything.”

Communicating with restaurants through email, text and direct messages can be
more convenient for some customers as well, including Tricia Dado, 22, who lives
in Vancouver, British Columbia, and works as a merchandiser at a furniture
store. A day before New Year’s Eve, she posted on Twitter: “wdym i have to call
the restaurants?? pls no i’d rather cook all day for nye than make phone calls.”
She ended her tweet with a smiling face with tear emoji.

“Personally, I find it very convenient to just go on my phone and order food to
be delivered or to make reservations on a website,” she said. “I also think that
digital communication would benefit the restaurants on their end, as they would
get orders online, instead of a person taking phone orders one at a time, which
can be exhausting.”

Ms. Esposito — who was slightly inconvenienced by having to wait three days for
an email response from Hotel Greene — still was understanding about the choice.

“One of my first thoughts was how lucky for those employees that they don’t have
to worry about answering the phone during their shift,” she said. “I know how
much time that can take away from doing your job when you work in a restaurant,
and especially if it’s a busy night and the phone is ringing off the hook. That
can really take the time away from the folks who are already there and trying to
enjoy themselves.”

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