It might be wise to support new businesses by giving them personal and direct feedback

Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2011 07:21:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: stephanie talbott
Subject: GSC, new restaurants and business

It saddens me to read so much criticism about the GSC along with criticisms toward the new restaurants in town.  I regularly eat at the GSC and I have been treated well.  I am satisfied with the food, and I enjoy the ambiance of the place…. a casual place to hang out, listen to music, be on the Internet, and read the paper. 

I can stay as long as I want… wait staff aren’t pushing me out the door so they can fill the table. I like that the GSC is not a formal/proper dining experience as a more upscale restaurant, as I’m generally not in the mood to be formal/proper when I really just want to hang out and be casual myself.
 
As for new restaurants and or new business in town; would we not expect a certain level of initial chaos, problems in the kitchen, wait staff in training, chef’s adaptations to the cookware and appliance behaviors???  Needless to say, a staff of people new to each other are thrown together to churn out and serve food…. I think we can reasonably expect it will take a little time for them to develop and coordinate their team efforts. If people need an established, well coordinated food service, it might be better to wait until the new restaurants are better established. 
 
We seem to live in a social and political world of entitlements and black or white thinking:  my way, or no way or it’s either all right or all wrong. Subscribing to rigid polarities in thinking and experience must be very limiting to simply enjoying life and accepting a broad range of experiences. 
 
I read a great deal on the on-line Chatham Bulletin Board how government interferes with the development of small business and challenges toward our local government regarding business development and bringing jobs to our county.  Than once having new businesses in town, public criticism is rampant.  Yet, if criticism was directed toward the proprietor in private, and when they can assess that feedback in the moment it occurred, they will be more likely to target the source of the problem and correct it.  Otherwise, general broadcasts of business blemishes and warts undermine the success for that business, and we as a community will suffer the most. 
 
The PGS has a new investor and chef.  We have a new Japanese and Greek restaurant.  I’m sure there are other new businesses in town with which I am not familiar.  If you really want to serve your and this community interests, it might be wise to support new businesses by giving them personal and direct feedback, which would include what is working well and what is not, and support their relationship and tenure in our community.  Otherwise, we keep shooting ourselves in the foot running business and jobs out of town.  
 
Don’t like what I have to say??….. meet me at the GSC and we can talk about it.  : )
 
 Stephanie Talbott