STORYTIME (6) - Googling a Broken Ballerina

Summary

Podcast Summary: RESTAURANT STRATEGY — STORYTIME (6): Googling a Broken Ballerina
Host: Chip Klose
Date: July 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this story-driven installment of his “Storytime” series, Chip Klose highlights the power and importance of truly knowing your guests in the restaurant hospitality business. Through an engaging personal anecdote from his days as a maitre d’ in a Michelin-starred, celebrity-frequented Manhattan restaurant, Chip illustrates how taking a little extra time to learn about diners—beyond just celebrities—can create lifelong regulars and deeply impactful experiences, benefiting both guest and business.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Recognizing the Knowledge Gap in Hospitality

• Chip opens by challenging listeners: Most restaurants know a lot about a few guests (celebrities, regulars), but “most of our guests, we know basically nothing about them. And I think it's a problem.” [00:00]
• He reflects on his past experience as a maitre d’, noting the difference between how much staff knows about celebrities (“We knew quite a bit about Dustin Hoffman… John Lithgow”) versus regular customers. [07:20, 07:53]
• Chip adapts an old saying with a hospitality twist: “Shame on you. It costs very little, takes very little to go above and beyond and learn something about all of your guests.” [13:14]

The Google Trick: Knowing Your Dining Room

• To address this knowledge gap, Chip developed a nightly habit: “I would sit down and Google the entire nightly reservation list… It was probably only like 50 reservations… Usually it was very easy to find who people were, where they worked, what they did for a living.” [06:56, 07:53]
• He emphasizes the goal is not to invade privacy but to “know the room and maximize the revenue that was generated.” [08:03]
• Example: Understanding a guest’s “playing level” (e.g., suggesting a $500 bottle of wine for a CEO used to fine dining, rather than defaulting to cheaper options). [08:03]

Story Highlight: The Broken Ballerina

• Chip shares a standout personal story: While Googling guests, he finds one notable reservation—a woman who is “either the CFO of a pharmaceutical company or a soloist with the New York City Ballet.” [09:03]
• Upon her arrival—with clear hints (young, crutches)—he knows it’s the ballerina. Research revealed she’d “just blown out her knee… her season was done… she had just gotten engaged the previous week.” [09:36]
• Drawing on his own ballet background, Chip welcomed her: “Hey, two things. I’m so sorry. I heard about your accident… but I also heard the good news… I'd like to be the first one to greet you with a little bit of champagne. Is it okay if I sit here and toast with you?” [10:11]

Result & Emotional Impact

• “She welled up with tears… her fiancé got up at one point and said, ‘How did you know all that?’ I said, ‘Well, it's my job to know the people who are in my dining room.’” [11:43]
• The guest: “This has been a really hard week, but I just wanted you to know… I feel seen. Like, I feel seen for the good parts, and I feel seen for the bad parts.” [11:53]
• The experience forged a powerful connection: “She became a lifelong regular… She’s now going to celebrate anniversaries there, she’s now going to celebrate birthdays there, on and on and on.” [11:51]

The Lesson: Making Guests Feel Seen

• Chip’s mantra: “Our job is not to feed people. They can get food a lot of places. Our job is to make people feel seen—as Will Guidara says, our job is to make people feel important, because guess what? They are.” [13:14]
• He urges listeners to adopt this approach: “Do this enough times at scale, you will make a meaningful impact. And it will impact your business. It will impact your revenue, and, yes, it will impact your profitability.” [13:14]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Need to Know Your Guests:
  “We know a lot about a handful of people in our dining room… but the majority of the people in your dining room, you know very little about.” — Chip Klose [12:43]

• On Hospitality Principles:
  “I created regulars for life. But also from a personal standpoint, I made their life better, which is really… what our job is.” — Chip Klose [13:14]

• On Guest Connection:
  “I feel seen for the good parts, and I feel seen for the bad parts.” — Ballerina guest (quoted by Chip) [11:53]

• On Making an Impact:
  “Do this enough times at scale, you will make a meaningful impact. And it will impact your business. It will impact your revenue, and, yes, it will impact your profitability.” — Chip Klose [13:14]

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Timestamps for Key Sections

• [00:00] - The dilemma: Knowing only a few guests deeply
• [05:43] - Hospitality stories: Background and context for Google research
• [06:56] - Why and how Chip researched every reservation
• [09:03] - The broken ballerina: Spotlight story begins
• [10:11] - The special welcome (champagne toast)
• [11:43] - Emotional reaction and its impact on regular business
• [12:43] - Moral: It's your job to know your guests; shame on the industry if we don’t
• [13:14] - Strategic and emotional benefits for business owners

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Practical Takeaways for Restaurant Owners

• Develop systems to quickly and ethically research guests before service, especially in high-touch or fine dining environments
• Personalized gestures—even small ones—create lasting emotional impact and drive guest loyalty far beyond traditional hospitality
• Make guests feel seen, known, and valued—not just “served”—to differentiate your offering and increase repeat business
• Realize that the return on caring (through knowledge and thoughtful action) affects both lives and the bottom line

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Conclusion

This episode powerfully reinforces a core tenet of hospitality: going above and beyond to treat every guest as notable, not just the famous or frequent. Chip’s detailed story and practical wisdom show that genuine care, supported by a little smart research, can transform a single meal into a lifelong relationship—and that's the path to true, sustainable restaurant profitability.

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Transcript

[Chip Close]

I think when it comes to our restaurants, we know a lot about a very small number of our guests. But I think most of our guests, we know basically nothing about them. And I think it's a problem. And I want to talk about what I used to do way back when, now going on 15, 20 years ago when I was running the front door when I was a maitre d in New York City, I used to do something crazy. Now a lot of people do it, but I used to Google the entire nightly reservation book and I did so for a very specific reason. I want to share one particular story of the night that that really helped me all of that on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.

[Sam Ra]

There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's.

[Chip Close]

Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy Podcast. The whole point of this show is to help you increase the profitability of your restaurant. We put out two new episodes every single week. If you don't know me, I wrote a book. It's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. My second book, the Restaurant Profit Playbook, actually comes out in just a couple of months. I give talks. I run a coaching program called the P3 mastermind. I also host one big live event every single year. It's called the Restaurant Profitability Summit. The next one happens in October 2026 Minneapolis and I would love for you to be there. We cap this event at 200 people. For the first time ever, we've got a headliner. Gavin Casen, two time James Beard Award winner, will be our keynote speaker will be on stage with me on day one at the end of the day to answer your questions about how he's grown his business, what he thinks about profitability, sustainability and success in our industry. The whole point, the reason you would come to this event is to learn a series of playbooks, tried and true, paint by number, how tos for how to increase revenue in your business, how to manage expenses more, more consistently, how to make more money from your business. So ultimately I think you can work less. That's the point of the of the weekend. We have again only 200 tickets. If you want to secure your spot, you'll find the link in the show notes. Go. There's general admission or vip. Doesn't matter which one you general admission and VIP get both days Monday And Tuesday, six hour, I'm sorry, ten to six. So almost eight hours of content. Plus the party on Monday night. Everyone gets into that food, open bar, it's a great time. VIPs then also get a welcome dinner on Sunday night, get catered lunch both Monday and Tuesday, get front row seats. Tons of reasons to do either of those. Tons of reasons to be there. If you want to be there, go click the link in the show notes and secure your spot today.

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

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[Chip Close]

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[Chip Close]

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[Chip Close]

Okay, so we're talking about stories, right? We're in the middle of a 20 episode arc. We're talking about all the stories that I tell. The stories I tell more than just about any other. And I wanna talk about a story. So way back when, I helped open a restaurant on the Upper west side for chef John Fraz. And I was the maitre d. So I ran the front door. My whole job was to fill the seats, was to fill the reservation book. If somebody called in, it was my job to figure out a way to get them in. In Manhattan, especially in the Upper west side, tons of celebrities. It was not an easy job because we also had a relatively small dining room. It was a very popular restaurant, got rave reviews, had a Michelin star, three stars in the New York Times. Everybody wanted to dine there. My job is to get in as many as we possibly could and to make sure that the people who wanted to come knew that they can't come at 7, 7:30. They got to come at like. That was how we did it. It was a very difficult job. I loved every bit of it. I did that. I was a mat for a very long time. There's something I used to do that at the time I never saw anybody do. Now it's more common practice, especially for upscale restaurants or fine dining. But every single day I would sit down in front of. At the time, it was open table. Now there's other platforms, but we used open table. I would sit down and Google the entire nightly reservation list, which was probably only like 50 reservations, right? A lot more covers, but maybe 50 people that I had to Google because basically I said to myself, we know a bunch about a handful of people. The reason I brought up celebrities is like Dustin Hoffman would come in. Well, we knew quite a bit about Dustin Hoffman. We knew where he lived, what he did for a living, who he was dining with. Like, we know Dustin Hoffman. John Lithgow was right across the street.

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

He dined with us a lot.

[Chip Close]

We knew him. Tons of other celebrities, whether they were CEOs, you know, finance people, famous actors, sports stars, we knew these people, but mostly we didn't know a lot about a lot of people. So I just said, I think that's a problem. Now, I was operating under the assumption that on the Upper west side in Manhattan, at an upscale restaurant, anybody dining out of the restaurant like that was probably going to be someone of note. So I was probably going to be able to find them when I googled them. But I would do this every single night. I would sit down and spend about 90 minutes googling the entire reservation book. And usually it was very easy to find where, you know, who people were,

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

where they worked, what they did for

[Chip Close]

a living, who they were married to. You know, I would find something notable about that, whether it would ever make its way into the in person hospitality. I had to know who these people were because maybe it was some fancy CEO, maybe it was some important senator or state senator, some. They were people that I should know. That was my job. My job was to fill the room, but also know the room and maximize the revenue that was generated. So if we had some big fancy CEO from some, you know, company that just had their ipo, this person has money. So I'm not going to talk to them as if they don't have money. So I'm going to make sure the wine people know that this person probably is used to dining at a higher level, drinking at a higher level. So let's not insult them by talking to them about an $80 bottle of wine. They're probably used to drinking two, three, four, $500 bottles of wine. It's not to gouge them, it's just to understand where they're playing at.

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

Right?

[Chip Close]

We used to do this over and over and over again. There was one night where, and I want to tell a very, very personal story. There was one night where we. I was googling the list and there

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

was one person on the list.

[Chip Close]

And this was almost 20 years ago, so I forget the name, but it was a woman. And I was like, oh, either it's the CFO of some pharmaceutical company or she is a soloist with the New York City Ballet. It was one or the other. And I was like, oh, wow. Well, this is a, this is a pretty big. Both of them are notable. We should know them. But we're going to know right away whether it's a, you know, 55 year old woman who's the CFO of some big pharmaceutical company or probably a 26 year old woman who's a ballerina. They will be pretty obvious.

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

And I have pictures of both of

[Chip Close]

them that I was able to find on Google and I sort of had the notes myself. Well, fast forward the, you know, woman walks in and it's very obvious that it's the, it's the ballerina. So it was really interesting. In doing my research, I discovered that this particular ballerina had just blown out her knee. She just had blown her acl, her season was done, question mark on her career. Interestingly enough, from doing a little bit further research, I found out that she had just gotten engaged the previous week. So in the same week she had gotten engaged, one of the happiest moments

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

of her life and her career was,

[Chip Close]

let's say, in jeopardy, right. She had a pretty traumatic accident. So when a woman who walks in who looks like a ballerina on crutches, right. It was very obvious that I had the right person and I was able to then address it like that. Now, one of the things you guys should know is a million years ago, I used to be in theater and dance world and I knew a bunch of people over at City Ballet. And so I had a connection because I danced with them back at Pennsylvania Ballet, back when I was at the Pennsylvania Ballet School, the Rock School in Philadelphia. You don't care about any of that. It's ancient history. Buy me a drink. I'll tell you all about that. But when I looked at this woman, it was like, oh. And what I did is I said, hey, two things. I'm so sorry. I heard about your accident. Obviously I can see. But I'd like to start you off with two glasses of champagne. And I poured champagne for her right there in the front vestibule, which we sort of did that. We would pour people sherry when they came in as like an aperitif, especially if we were out of time with their table. But I greeted them with champagne. I said, I heard about your accident. I'm so sorry. But I also heard the good news. And so I'd like to be the first one to greet you with a little bit of champagne. Is it okay if I sit here and toast with you? So I poured them each a glass. I poured me a little taste and I toasted them. And we all took a sip. I put my glass down. I took her glass and I walked her into the dining room. She welled up with tears and she told me like. So she told me later. But her fiance got up at one point and said, how did you know, all that. I said, well, it's my job to know the people who are in my dining room. And he said, no, but, like, this

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

is such a bittersweet week for her.

[Chip Close]

And, like, you just made this night. I can't believe you did that. She became a lifelong regular because she's

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

an Upper West Sider. She lives there.

[Chip Close]

She was right around the corner that she's now going to celebrate anniversaries there. She's now going to celebrate birthdays there, on and on and on. And he told me as much. And on the way out, she even told me she grabbed me while he was getting their coats. And she said, this has been a really hard week, but I just wanted to know. I can't believe you knew this thing. And she basically said, I feel seen. Like, I feel seen for the good parts, and I feel seen for the bad parts. And we talked about ballet because we sort of both grew up in that world. And again, we. I know that world, and we know so many of the same people that I understand the impact of that. My wife had, you know, was a dancer, and she suffered. She ruptured her ACL earlier in her career, but I was able to tell her, nope, she was out. She booked a national tour three weeks after, you know, coming back, after getting the all clear, like, she was. Like, she was fine. And you will be fine. Like, you will.

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

You just have to push through it.

[Chip Close]

And, like, I was able to connect with her on such a deeper level. I tell you that to remind you of how I started this episode. I think we know a lot about a handful of people in our dining room. When Tom Cruise comes in, when DiCaprio comes in, when Derek Jeter comes in, when Dustin Hoffman comes in. Yes, I know these people, and I know where they live, and I know who they're going out with, and I know all the movies they've done. I know what they do for a living. But the majority of the people in your dining room, you know very little about. And I mean this with most, most respect possible. Shame on you.

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

It costs very little, takes very little

[Chip Close]

to go above and beyond and learn something about all of your guests, right? Yes. You can Google them. You can also just engage with them and have a conversation. So I give you this story because I share this story all the time about how we need to know more about our guests. And here's the impact of, number one, how that was just a good business decision. I created regulars for life. But also from a personal standpoint, I made their life better, which is really, really what our job is. Our job is not to feed people. They can get food a lot of places. Our job is to make people feel seen as Will Godara says. Our job is to make people feel important because guess what? They are. And on this night at this restaurant on the Upper west side, I made her feel seen. I'd like to think I made her feel important. Now, I don't own this. I own this story. I don't own that tactic. I give it freely to you. I promise you do this enough times at scale, you will make a meaningful impact. And it will impact, impact your business. It will impact your revenue, and yes, it will impact your profitability, literally, how you make a living. It will help. That's the point of today's story. I hope you're getting something out of this. I really appreciate you guys making time for this Again, a friendly reminder, the restaurant profitability summit is coming October. It's in Minneapolis. We only have 200 tickets available. A little more than half of those are sold as of the time of this recording. Go find the link in the show notes. Secure your spot today. Come with any partners. Come with your managers. I'm telling you, they will get a ton out of this. Again, that link is in the show notes. My name is Chip Close. I'm the founder and CEO of Restaurant Strategy. I love being here every single week. 550 plus episodes and I am still here. I love being a part of it. Thank you guys very much and I will see you next time.

[Sam Ra]

Sam, Ra.