Posted on 10/15/2010 4:34:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Attire deemed inappropriate for Five Sixty
As if suffering the indignities of being held prisoner in a World War II POW camp weren’t enough, six Air Force veterans who flew one of the most dangerous missions of the war suffered yet another at the hands of a restaurant hostess.
She turned away the six members of the Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association, all fellow war prisoners, at the door of Five Sixty, Wolfgang Puck’s schmancy restaurant atop Reunion Tower because they showed up dressed in T-shirts commemorating their past ordeal, ball caps, and shorts. According to today’s article in The Dallas Morning News, the guys shrugged it off, joked about being bad-boys, and ambled off. Some of the wives and children accompanying them pitched a fit and scored the old boys a couple of bottles of Scotch courtesy of the restaurant’s, likely, embarrassed general manager, Marcus Cascio.
Mayor Tom Leppert sent the guys a letter dripping of schmaltzy PR and gave them each a gold-colored lapel pin depicting the Dallas seal.
Leppert’s chief of staff, Chris Heinbaugh, was quoted in the story as suggesting, “They can add it to their hats," which seems a bit cavalier.
Maybe next year when the Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association guys get together for their annual, um, get-together, they’ll have new T-shirts commemorating their most recent ordeal.
Not appropriate attire, and I don't care who you are.
Since it’s one of my favorite restaurants, here is the dress code, just to be clear:
Dress code at Five Sixty is business casual, collared shirt for gentlemen. Jeans are acceptable as long as they are not torn. No sandals or flip-flops for gentlemen.
more years ago than I care to admit, I worked in a country club restaurant. There were always spare jackets for clientele who may not have known about the dress code. Was there no private party room that could have accommodated this group?
I have eaten at Wolfgang Pucks many times and its a very swanky restaurant. They do have a dress code.
I have also dined at Spago’s in Hollywood.They have a dress code there too.
Antoines in New Orleans has the highest dress code I have ever seen. You have to have a suit and tie. I was eating there once and saw a couple turned out because the man was wearing dress slacks, polo shirt tucked in, and a nice belt. I couldn’t believe it. Great food and decent prices, but dress up.
At Spago’s annd Wolfgang Puck’s menn must wear a suit and tie.
No honor among the youth. The 20 something twit
probably thought WWII was in 1968. Sorry but this is a big PR mistake by Ms. “I must enforce Business casual dress”.
There are some situations where enforcing the rules is not the right thing to do.
There very few of these men left to tell the story. Veterans used to get a place at the head of the table
but not at a snotty trendy yuppie enclave.
No honor among the youth. The 20 something twit
probably thought WWII was in 1968. Sorry but this is a big PR mistake by Ms. “I must enforce Business casual dress”.
There are some situations where enforcing the rules is not the right thing to do.
There very few of these men left to tell the story. Veterans used to get a place at the head of the table
but not at a snotty trendy yuppie enclave.
Class acts, all the way. Kudos to the manager for the complimentary scotch.
The restaurant has rules.
Unimaginative restaurant manager - this situation could have been parlayed into a gigantic public relations coup -
“Gentlemen, I’m obliged to inform you that your attire violates our restaurant’s dress code in a number of ways, but considering how well you served our nation, Restaurant Five Sixty will be pleased make a special exception and to seat you.” The Schweinfurt party is then ushered into the center of the restaurant, where the manager gets the attention of the other diners and announces - “Despite their inadvertently inappropriate attire, we are seating these gentlemen in special recognition of their outstanding and selfless WW2 service to the nation; please take a moment and give our heroes a round of applause.”
A free bottle or two of champagne on the house puts the cherry on top.
Guaranteed to make the newspaper next next and word of mouth alone would have attracted a surge of new customers.
- - -
..... however, this is all presuming that the restaurant manager had the remotest idea what the Schweinfurt Raid was.
If you do not like the “house” rules you can always go somewhere else
LLS
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I bet Wolfie will NOT like this and he do something to make amends to these men. I hope I am right.
The polo shirt guy was behaving like a total jerk. I was wondering if you can put a tie and jacket on a polo shirt, but he threw a fit and left. Dinner and a show.
If they’d turned up in their dress uniforms with their medals and been turned away for failing to meet some pecadillo in the restaurant dress code, I’d be offended. But t-shirts and ball caps, even emblazoned with signs of honorable service to country, are not appropriate at a fine restaurant which specifies even “business casual” as its dress code.
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