A hundred years ago Mark Twain said, “We picked up one excellent word – a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get… It is the thirteenth roll in a baker’s dozen. It is something thrown in gratis for good measure.” I also learned the word on my first trip to New Orleans. It was used to describe the little something extra that makes all the difference. It is the reason that the gumbo at one restaurant is better than that at another and you can’t determine why from the recipe. I am a critic of lousy service. Several years ago I decided that I should be equally aggressive in recognizing something extra service. Each month I pick one business that has provided extraordinary customer service and make a donation to a charity of their choice.
With a bit of basic math applied to 2016, it is apparent that I eat in over 100 restaurants a year in a combination of business, family, and friend outings. As a well-experienced diner and a guy who likes to cook, I may well be overly critical when dining out. There is one restauranteur in Seattle that has never disappointed. Both the mission, “Deliciousness served with graciousness is the axis of our mission statement; everything we do starts there and gets better,” and the Leadership ethic, “No one can out-effort us” are evident in each visit in each visit to a Tom Douglas restaurant.
I became a fan over twenty-five years ago during our first visit to the new Dahlia Lounge, his first restaurant.
Over the past 25+ years Tom Douglas and his wife and partner Jackie Cross have created a thousand-employee enterprise including sixteen Seattle restaurants, culinary products, a radio show, and a 20-acre farm in Eastern Washington where food is grown for the restaurants. In the process, Tom has become a celebrity chef and has received multiple James Beard and other prestigious awards including Puget Sound Business Journal’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2012.
There is a something extra in a dining experience at a Tom Douglas restaurant and in the way in which the Douglas/Cross enterprises business is run. In recognition of that something extra that makes all the difference, this Lagniappe contribution is made to Food Lifeline.
