A Kitchen of Distinction: Restaurant Week with Miss Kim
From the Other Side of the Table: A Server’s Perspective on Restaurant Week
By Jill Murdock
Image courtesy of The Ravens Club.
Ann Arbor Restaurant Week, a biannual event where local restaurants serve up their best dishes often at a fraction of the usual price, is in full swing, and food lovers and students alike are feasting upon the city’s finest dining and cheapest deals. However, diners often forget about the hands that feed them.
Though Restaurant Week sounds like a win-win for everybody, anybody who has worked a day in foodservice is bound to wonder: what’s the catch? Are there smaller portions? How many new customers do the specials bring in? Does the rush ever make you want to throw in the towel altogether? What does the business gain from essentially volunteering to be jam-packed for a week straight? (Though this sounds like the ideal situation for a business owner, some waitstaff would attest otherwise.)
To find out more about what really goes on behind the scenes during Restaurant Week, I decided to do some digging on one of my favorite Ann Arbor dining establishments: Miss Kim. A contemporary Korean spot nestled in a Kerrytown alleyway, Miss Kim is a part of the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. Founded in 2016 by chef Ji Hye Kim, the restaurant prides itself on its marriage of beloved Korean culinary traditions and local Michigan produce. Chefs trained in Korean cooking use only the freshest food without cutting corners, serving up stellar dishes like pork belly tteokbokki and sizzling stone bowl kimchi fried rice.
I had the opportunity to speak with Terance Gordon, a server and shift supervisor at Miss Kim, who has been with the restaurant since its inception. “I’ve worked at Miss Kim for a little longer than two years, and I am one of the original starting staff,” he says of his position. “I started as a server and now I’m a supervisor who works with hiring and training, as well as creating systems for making hiring and training easier.”
As a supervisor, the Restaurant Week buzz brings its own logistical issues, but Gordon has no complaints about the hustle and bustle. Protocol stays pretty standard. “We honestly just staff a little heavier for dinner and lunch,” Gordon said. “I know it’s going to be busy [during Restaurant Week]… we are a pretty new restaurant still. so we’re still figuring out the best ways to handle all the increased traffic. Aside from adding a few buttons, it’s more just going over the new menu format.” But what about the pre-work jitters? “It’s a mix of both [anticipation and dread], honestly. But I’m happy that the restaurant is doing well! Plus when it’s busy the day goes by really quickly.”
The uptake in business also doesn’t interfere with the top-notch employee care that Miss Kim prides itself on. Quite notably, Miss Kim is a no-tip establishment—made possible through the business’s dedication to fighting the stigma that restaurant employees are usually underpaid, depending greatly on money made from tips to compose a sizable amount of their paycheck. However, Gordon recognizes that this isn’t representative of other establishments’ Restaurant Week experiences. “Unfortunately I haven’t talked to other restaurant workers,” he says. “I tend to cook all of my meals at home to save money. I would imagine the feelings [about Restaurant Week] are mixed; because we work in a no-tip restaurant we don’t see the same advantages or disadvantages that other restaurants might endure.”
“A lot more new faces and out of towners come in [during Restaurant Week,]” Gordon says of the shift in clientele. “We usually have a ‘townie preview’ before Restaurant Week for all the people who live in town before it gets to be too crowded.” So, most importantly, does Restaurant Week turn anybody into a return customer? “A lot of new visitors are from all over the place and while I don’t see a lot of them return or becoming regulars, I do hear new [local] regulars saying that they heard our place was good from out of towners,” Gordon says of the week’s aftermath.
But the regular clientele of Miss Kim are nothing if not faithful, its most dedicated of customers braving their way among the influx of first-timers. “We tend to generally be busier for dinner, but I can say that a lot of the clientele remains pretty consistent,” Gordon says. “Sometimes we’ll even have guests who come in for lunch and then later come in for dinner too!”
So, the question that’s on every Restaurant Week foodie’s mind: What’s the difference between the Restaurant Week fare and the regular menu, if any? How is the menu decided? Is it to display the restaurant’s star dishes, their uniqueness, the value of the food, or a broad scope of what they have to offer overall?
At Miss Kim, Gordon pegs the restaurant as belonging to the latter camp. “We have an abbreviated menu set up into three courses,” he explains. “The food [is] the same but in a slightly smaller quantity for a significantly reduced price. We take our more popular options and also our most vegan- and vegetarian-friendly items and make sure everyone has a chance to experience some of the best seasonal and permanent items on the menu. The idea is to give the guest a brief introduction of the items we hold dear… at the same time we still allow guests to order off of a smaller menu with more items. So we have a Restaurant Week menu, alongside a small prix fixe menu with more options.”
The restaurant also takes customer feedback to heart. “We got a lot more guests this year and with it a lot of feedback, mostly positive. A lot of our guests loved the fried chicken and others really appreciated the vegan and vegetarian options,” Gordon said.
Restaurant Week is an excellent way for Ann Arborites to get a taste of cuisines and restaurants they may not otherwise find themselves dining at. With its delectable dishes, frugal deals, and premier customer service and employee care, Miss Kim is at the forefront of Restaurant Week heavyweights.