Indulge your guests with special privilegeIndulge your guests with special privilege

Bret Thorn

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Luxury sales have reportedly taken a hit during the current economic downturn, and some fine-dining establishments have responded by slashing prices or introducing deals.

But some restaurants continue to offer special high-end dinners that do robust business. The key, say chefs who get customers to spend upward of $100 per person on a meal, is to make them feel like they are getting an insider’s view of the kitchen.

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at The London NYC hotel in New York, has a chef’s table in the kitchen. It’s not advertised and is booked by word of mouth for $1,000 for a five-course lunch or $1,900 for an eight-course dinner, serving up to eight guests.

“It’s really popular,” says executive chef Josh Emett. “We generally do dinners six or seven nights a week, and a couple of lunches.

“It’s smack-bang in the kitchen, right in front of the stove,” Emett says. “Guests are encouraged to come down and mess with us a little bit. They can maybe plate one of their courses, or see a soufflé being made.

“I think it’s the access behind the scenes, and the privilege that’s involved,” that attracts customers, he says.

Corbett’s in Louisville, Ky., has an eight-seat tasting room with a large-screen television that lets customers watch the action from five cameras set up in the kitchen. Cooks wear microphones as they’re plating the dish and explain to guests what they’re doing.

Chef-owner Dean Corbett charges $135 per person for a 10-course dinner with paired wine. Less extravagant deals are available as well, but for the full audio-visual treatment guests buy the 10-course.

Corbett says the room is booked pretty much every night, and about half of the parties go for the 10-course, audio-visual extravaganza.

In Brenham, Texas, at the Inn at Dos Brisas, executive chef Jason Robinson offers a Chef’s Grand Collection tasting menu for $145 per person. Nonalcoholic beverage pairings are an additional $45, and alcoholic ones are usually around $100. Robinson says about 65 percent of his guests order the grand collection or the $125 “Vegetable Collection,” which isn’t vegetarian but highlights seasonal produce from the inn’s garden.

Robinson says one key to the tasting menus’ success is the fact that they aren’t printed.

He explains that if customers saw one item, like duck or rabbit, that they didn’t care for, they wouldn’t order the tasting. So instead now he makes off-the-cuff tastings according to the likes, dislikes and dietary restrictions of each customer. He tries to make different courses for each person at the table.

“We can generally do that for up to a four-top,” he says.

Robinson also teaches cooking classes, which he says helps him to get to know the customers and offer menu items that respond to their personalities.