I'll let you ask me this question once
I had a great meal the other day.
You know what I’m talking about: one of those dining experiences where absolutely everything – the setting, the food, the service – hit the mark.
The thing is, even before I tasted the first mouthful, I knew that this restaurant – Shell House Dining Room and Terrace in Sydney, as it happens – was going to be terrific.
And you know why?
Because they asked the Big Question just once.
What’s the Big Question?
It’s my surefire way of telling whether a restaurant is at the top of its game.
Every good restaurant should ask you this question once - just once.
The Big Question is: still or sparkling?
I can remember a time when even the best restaurants would repeatedly check when they were refilling your glass which type of water you were drinking.
I also remember the first time it didn’t happen.
It was down at Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island, not long after it opened.
(If you haven’t caught up on the lodge’s recent reopening, take a look here.)
There were six of us travelling together and the first time we sat at the table, the waiter checked our water preferences.
They never asked again.
For the next three days, each of us automatically received our water of choice.
I remember being very impressed, while simultaneously realising it wasn’t actually that difficult a thing to get right.
A Post-It on the kitchen wall would do the job.
Since then, I’ve noticed how this simple trick has been adopted by most of the world’s best restaurants.
Sometimes you can see how they do it.
It can be as simple as different glasses for different types of water, or perhaps different coasters.
Nothing obvious, but it’s there if you look.
Other times you can’t work out how they do it.
But every time it happens it reminds me of one simple truth: luxury is in the details.
One more thing
If you thought crazy costumes were the only things Elton John collected, think again. Together with his husband David Furnish he has put together one of the world’s finest photography collections. More than 300 images from the collection will be on display in Fragile Beauty, an exhibition opening at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum on May 18 and running until next January.
Pics: Steve Johnson on Unsplash; Nan Goldin