Simon Stilwell

@Jarritos Gingerbread VILLAGES forget one house, we grew up building tabletop towns and now continue the tradition with our kids!

Ok let's make some Christmas dreams come true 🎅 5 winners can receive a 24-pack of their favorite flavor! How to enter: 1. Follow @jarritos 2. Be on the nice list 3. Like & repost this 4. Comment your fave holiday tradition below

@BarredinDC Correct, P12 is doing okay, mostly flat with last year but the losses earlier are a hole hard to dig out of

Heard from one restaurant group that they were bracing for the holidays to be weak like it has been since August but said they’re flat with last year which is a win for them. I Feel there’s may be a bit of rebound spending that doesn’t make up for the losses earlier tho

@BarredinDC I recall NYT (and impact of Chang) awarding 1 Star to say a bodega *but* the writing, the writing made it seem like most incredible place. Similarly, four stars being given to a fine dining spot where the write up *read* like a take on Yankees/Patriots/etc that has all the tools

@BarredinDC Because the words are all subjective, it’s less about which word is assigned to which star, but a clear, understandable and most importantly actionable detailing of each level.

POLL - which food critic rating system would you prefer 1) 0-poor 1-satisfactory 2-good 3-excellent 4-superlative 2) 1-good 2-very good 3-outstanding 4-extraordinary 3) no stars 4) 1-not good 2-could’ve been better 3-ok 4-good 5-great

@saintjudejones @BarredinDC I think stars help consumers and businesses alike. However, lack of definition and heightened subjectiveness will cause confusion and discord. Maybe that’s intentional, in this day and age attention is the currency after all?

@simonmstilwell @BarredinDC Correct, which I cannot believe she doesn’t instinctively understand. IMO better to just highlight the best of the best and not rate everything else if the intent is not to harm their middling but not bad spots.

Elazar Sontag, the Post’s new food critic is bringing back star ratings to the paper after nearly 6 year hiatus. Interesting metric here, I’m intrigued how well the public and restaurants will adjust to this (imo better to use a 3 star system if recalibrating like this)

@jsidman Love the stars! I think they help consumers and businesses alike. However, lack of definition and heightened subjectiveness will cause confusion and discord. Maybe that’s intentional, in this day and age attention is the currency after all.

What do we think? Yay stars? Nay stars?

@jsidman Hooks for jackets in men’s room too

My biggest restaurant pet peeve lately is no purse hooks in the restrooms. Or broken hooks. Please please please you can’t have too many hooks!

@jsidman Doubt you’ll have a long line of people saying “yes we do that!” But it’s not that uncommon

This is the first time I've seen "passed midnight gratuity" on a check! The owner tells me a manager added this without his knowledge or permission because people weren't tipping late-night. It's since been removed from checks.

@vacasarentals @Casagovacations I did, it’s been in over 24hrs and no response. At least the awful service is consistent across all platforms

@simonmstilwell @Casagovacations Hello! Please reach out via DM so that we may look further into this.

.@vacasarentals @Casagovacations we checked into this health and safety hazard of a house and immediately reported it’s hazardous condition (also remarkably unclean). Instead of customer service and empathy we were told that our request to be relocated was denied.

If you care at all, please contact me. @vacasarentals @Casagovacations

SHOCKER! they don’t have a direct number and couldn’t be reached. I was only told from the superior manager that she’d leave them a note to call me. I moved my family to a safe and clean vacation rental I had to book since there’s no empowered service at your company.

@Eyestimesthr33 @WashProbs Fiola Mare the best

@WashProbs I’m looking for the best lobster ravioli in DC if anyone has a recommendation

Hey DC, which restaurant in the city has a pasta dish you still think about?

@jsidman Colada Shop has a 4%

What DC restaurants still have the small 3-5% service fees? I was trying to look but seems most have gone to 20% or nothing.

@benecoleman @BarredinDC @charlesallen @shawnjtownsend @RAMWdc ….they are. This thread started with a DC based restaurant association and a DC bar influencer. DC has passed a bill eliminating tip credit pay. 🤦‍♂️

@simonmstilwell @BarredinDC @charlesallen @shawnjtownsend @RAMWdc Well they can always just get rid of the tip and pay their employees like every other business

.@charlesallen and @shawnjtownsend for @RAMWdc will be announcing at a press conference/happy hour tomorrow “a new bill that will lower costs for local DC restaurants, retailers, and ultimately, customers.” Event is billed “Main Street Takes on Wall Street Press Event”

@benecoleman @BarredinDC @charlesallen @shawnjtownsend @RAMWdc Unfortunately, every city/state is different, tip portion of wage will not go up, as while back it was deemed that CC fees = “cost of doing biz” & couldn’t be charged to staff. Restaurants &other biz remit sales tax &tips so PAY to PAY taxes/tips. Has nothing to do with wages…

@simonmstilwell @BarredinDC @charlesallen @shawnjtownsend @RAMWdc Right, so the tip portion of wage will go up by 3% while the base wage stays flat. That means servers depend on customer generosity for a higher portion of their total pay. Lets restauranteurs pretend they have given a raise to their staff when it’s just us paying for it.

@benecoleman @BarredinDC @charlesallen @shawnjtownsend @RAMWdc Maybe I read it wrong, my understanding was that credit card companies could not charge a fee on sales tax/gratuity - essentially anything that’s not revenue. So instead of the total payment, it would be just for the products sold. Did I miss something?

@BarredinDC @charlesallen @shawnjtownsend @RAMWdc Geez they will do anything to avoid paying their staff fairly huh