Will Guidara’s Post

Transcript

And we are back with another edition of Unreasonable Hospitality out in the world, this one submitted by Surrey Malim of Santa Rosa, CA. I want to share with you a story of unreasonable hospitality that has stayed with me for the last seven years. In 2017, my friend Jenny and I worked together at a winery in Sonoma County. Jenny was the concierge, and in her role she was responsible for helping our members get dinner reservations at the most popular restaurants around wine country, including Single Thread. Single Thread had only just opened and had yet to receive a nod from the Michelin Guide. In October of that same year, a wind storm started a horrible wildfire that destroyed thousands of homes in Santa Rosa. Jenny's was one of them. Her family of four, including two young daughters, ages two and five, were instantly stranded with nowhere to go. All of their belongings were gone. She took some time off work and once she was resettled in a new short term rental home, she returned to work, but only part time. In early N1 afternoon. Soon thereafter, Jenny called me from work on my mobile. She asked if I was busy that night and explained that Single Thread had called her. One of their dinner guests had cancelled their trip to Sonoma County, and instead of giving up their reservation, the guests asked Single Thread to find someone who worked in hospitality, someone who had lost their home. Of fire and offer them the dinner that they had already paid for, free of charge. Single threads. Concierge immediately thought of Jenny, and because her husband was under the weather, Jenny asked me to join her. That night we experienced something truly magical, a measure of love that I will never forget. I noticed it about 10 minutes into the meal and paid attention to it for the rest of the night. Because what happened? Well. Was absolutely nothing. You see, at the time, the fire was all anyone talked about in Sonoma County, and everyone at Single Thread that night knew who Jenny was. They had talked about us, why we were there in their meeting before the doors open for service. Everyone knew Jenny had lost her home. Everyone knew she was still recovering from an awful tragedy. And yet no one said a word. Instead of making the main topic of conversation, the team at Single Thread never once mentioned the word fire. They treated Jenny as they would have anyone else with luxury level hospitality and love. That night, Jenny was given the ultimate gift. For a few hours, she didn't have to think about what she was going through. As it turned out appropriately, just ten days before our meal that year, Michelin had awarded single Thread with a coveted 2 stars. OK. This is beautiful. First, the gesture from the people who paid that meal forward, Who made the choice to just extend that generosity Who to a stranger who had gone through something horrible. I love that. I think we can all agree it would be lovely to see more of that in the world. But then how single thread handled the meal? And it's amazing. We talk about the nobility of service and how in bestowing hospitality upon others, we can help them celebrate some of the most important moments of their lives, but that as importantly as importantly, we can give them the grace, if only for a few hours, to forget about their most difficult moments. You know, in luxury I often say that more is not more. Being more thoughtful is more. And the same is true about hospitality. Sometimes to make people feel loved. It's not always about doing this over the top gestures, it's just about recognizing what you can do to make them feel seem and held in a moment. I believe relationships are relationships and some of the lessons we learn from those in life can be applied to those and work. And this is a great example. I think we've been, all of us have been in one of these situations at one point or another where a good friend is going through something difficult and the best role you can play as a friend is just to be with them. They don't want to talk about it, They just want to be around someone who loves them and well, just to feel some sense of normalcy. The single thread understands the nuance of personal connection enough to recognize that doing nothing was the best way to kind of do everything. Well, it's pretty amazing. Single Thread, by the way, is one of my favorite restaurants in America, and this story only makes me love it more. Sorry, thank you for sending this along to the team of single thread. You guys rock. Keep the stories coming. Info and unreasonablehospitality.com.