October 2019 Digital Issue
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When I arrive at The Restaurant<br />
at Pearl Morissette, it’s midafternoon<br />
and the staff are<br />
as welcoming as ever, but it’s<br />
been a long and busy summer<br />
and it shows. I spend time catching up with<br />
chef Eric Robertson, who informs me they’re short<br />
a few bodies in the kitchen. A turned ankle during<br />
a lunchtime soccer game, knee surgery for another<br />
staff member and they’re down two cooks. “The<br />
guests don’t notice any difference, but we work a<br />
little harder to get a 10-course tasting menu out.”<br />
Maitre d’ Roisin Fagin comes over to say hello<br />
as I wait to speak to chef Daniel Hadida. I ask<br />
Fagin if she saw the last story I’d written about<br />
the restaurant. I’m pleased to hear she’d seen<br />
and enjoyed it but, she points out that I referred<br />
to their patrons as customers — something they<br />
never do. Fagin says they refer to people who dine<br />
with them as guests. This exchange cements what<br />
I’ve come to know about this restaurant — leadership’s<br />
commitment to the guest experience is<br />
not just rhetoric, it’s something that starts at the<br />
top. If it didn’t, the kind of ‘escapism’ the team is<br />
trying to provide would not be possible.<br />
ONE WITH NATURE The idyllic view from the restaurant’s dining room<br />
26 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY OCTOBER <strong>2019</strong><br />
FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM
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