(light upbeat music) - [Chris] When most people
think about fine dining they imagine a rather
buttoned-up experience. - I think for a long time what that probably looked like to people was a scene out of Downton Abbey. - It's so buttoned-up and so stuffy you're afraid that you're
going to do something wrong. Did I put my water glass
in the wrong place? Did I not use the right
fork or the right spoon? - [Chris] But at Eleven Madison Park, rated one of the best
restaurants in the world, fine dining looks a little different. - We turned the elevator
(elevator ding) into a spaceship. And we served the balance of their meal as if they were dining in space. (upbeat orchestral music) - [Chris] Eleven Madison Park, owned by restaurant group Make It Nice, is a three-star Michelin
rated establishment in New York City. At $335.00 a plate, it's seen by many as the height of fine dining. - Each table has a team of
four dedicated to their zone. They have a captain, a server, an assistant-server, and a sommelier, explicitly for them. - [Chris] After years of
growing the restaurant and building its reputation, owners Will Guidara and Chef Daniel Humm, were struck with a unique idea. - I had been dropping food
and as I was walking away, I overheard them saying,
we had a great vacation, we got to go to Daniel, to
Per Se, to Jean-Georges, and now here, Eleven Madison
Park, what an amazing trip. And then one of the people said, yeah, but we never got to
have a dirty-water hot dog, which is kind of a thing in New York City, and they had missed that opportunity. And so I ran out to the street, got two hot-dogs, brought
'em back to the kitchen. Daniel cut them up perfectly. Plated them with a swoosh of mustard and a quenelle of sauerkraut. And we brought them
out as the next course. We put that dish down and
the looks on their faces and the volume of their laughter. We had spent months planning every other detail of their meal, but the thing that took
10 minutes to put together was going to be the thing
that they remembered most. (light upbeat music) That's where we're like, oh my gosh, we need to start doing more of this. - [Chris] Guidara and Chef Humm hired a staff of three
employees called Dreamweavers, whose sole task was to create these unique experiences for guests. It all starts when someone
makes a reservation. (soft pensive music) - We like to get little details from them, so if a guest calls and they're
celebrating an anniversary, you find out where did you get married, what is one of the best memories you have, and we sort of connect the dots to pass it on to the service team, who then creates the
memorable experience for them. - The guy who set up his reservation gave us a literal essay
about his relationship. - [Chris] Danielle is a
Dreamweaver at Eleven Madison. She's putting together a
special experience for a couple coming in this evening. - His girlfriend is really
into astrology and tarot cards. - [Chris] Wow, this is one, two, three, nine pages of correspondence that this person had
with the Maître D, wow. - So, I have a lot to
work with, which is great. And I'm going to make tarot cards to drop with each course
as they're eating. - Huh. - To sort of celebrate the
different parts of the story that he's given us. - [Chris] Danielle tries
to prep all the experiences before the start of service. But oftentimes things happen on the spot. - Part of the fun is, during
the night, the captains and sommeliers, and sometimes
even kitchen servers, will pick up on little
pieces of information about the guests, or jokes that they have. - Yeah. - And come back and tell me about them, and I'll make something on the spot. - [Chris] The experiences have
come to be called legends. And no two are alike. - Whether we're creating
a mini-golf course for dad on father's day that
made the one-off comment that said I'd rather be
golfing, quite frankly, than eating lunch, or can we throw a couple of
sleds in the back of a limo and have that waiting for you outside, because your kids just saw
snow for the first time. And they would love nothing
more than to go sledding. - [Chris] Some legends are big. Some are small and simple. But not every guest is a fan. - There's certainly been times when have like old-school guests here, maybe who have traveled from Europe and are used to a certain style of three-Michelin star restaurant and they just don't like it. They don't like our style of service, they think it's too casual. But I think if you're trying
to do anything of significance you can never appeal to everyone. What are people gonna want in 10 years? I don't know, it's hard for me to tell. I do know that there's a basic
human desire to feel seen. There's a basic human
desire to feel cared for, to feel understood, to feel welcomed. And all I know, is for us, in 10 years I hope we're a hell of
a lot better at it then than we are now.
“Man I wish I was smoking weed with a homeless man”
Sir right this way to the back alley
3 Stars
I’ve eaten at a place like this in Italy. Star rated many month reservation you know , swanky.
Anyway, it was the best food I’ve ever had and it was because of the care and details that go into everything.
These little details are not things that everyone can appreciate (as the above comment suggests) but to those who can it’s something you will never forget.
We ate and laughed and drank all over 5 hours of dining and paid about the same per plate as at this restaurant and I would do it again (if I could afford to) everyday.
Some might say it’s just food, but those are the same people who say a pollock is just drips and a kid could that.
Went a few years ago and treated it as an event. We got a beer pairing instead of a wine pairing and it was incredible. The amount of thought they put into it (we had asked a week prior) was impressive.
This is not a regular event for us but we save up and have a fancy restaurant fund that we have dipped into a few times.
https://imgur.com/5bLHds4
I had the chance to eat at a 3 Michelin star place (Igniv) in Switzerland on my honeymoon. I saved for it for a while, because for the expanded tasting menu plus a bottle of wine and tip, I paid about 700 Euro.
It was by far the best meal I have ever eaten and likely will ever eat. It is a damned lot of money, but you are eating some amazing food.
I have seen some places receive Michelin stars for perfecting simpler cuisine and am not sure I would want to pay that kind of cash for a "everyday" dish.
ETA: linky, plus I guess it was only 1 star, I think the chef has 3 total.
http://www.igniv-badragaz.ch/
Boring as hell video.
Bunch of talking heads.
It's about a restaurant show some food ffs.
Ive eating here and its pretty legit.
I grew up poor eating beans and rice 5+ days a week (poor people don't eat ramen, that's college kid stuff). One of the few things I started to splurge on once I had a solid income (I'm a doctor) was food. Let me tell you as someone who has eaten cow brain in Mexico to 3 star Michelin restaurants.
Its just food.
The food quality doesn't get any better between a one star or 3 star Michelin restaurant, between a $100 and $300 steak house. The difference after a certain point is the presentation and service. Good food is good food, the rest is just fluff.
To me the food that has impressed me the most and had the longest lasting memories was good that was still affordable. I would rather spend money traveling eating food around the world than drop $500 per person on fine dining. Some of the best escargot I ever had was in Phan Thiet, some of the best ramen was in Hawaii, best Korean food in Los Angeles, etc.
There's a series on Netflix called 7 Days Out that shows the happenings of an event one week until launch.One episode was Westminster dog show, and another was the renovation of this restaurant. The amount of detail that went into the relaunch of this space was insane.
I would tell the most vile stories during the diner to see what surprise the eavesdropping waiters could come up with.