Michael Cecchi-Azzolina has worked in several of New York City's hottest restaurants, where he encountered celebrities, captains of finance and one bonafide mobster. Originally broadcast Dec. 6, 2022.
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Author Interviews At your service: A restaurant maître d' tells all in 'Your Table Is Ready'
DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Bianculli.
Across his career, Michael Cecchi-Azzolina says he's been threatened, cursed at, punched and called every ugly name imaginable. He's also had people press a hundred dollar bill into his hand, sometimes more than one of them. That's because for years he controlled a very valuable commodity - the tables at high-end Manhattan restaurants. He's written about his experience in his memoir, "Your Table Is Ready: Tales Of A New York City Maitre D'," now out in paperback. Cecchi-Azzolina has encountered celebrities, captains of finance, plenty of nice regular folks and one bona fide mobster who repeatedly threatened him due to a perceived slight. In his book, Cecchi-Azzolina takes us behind the scenes of the restaurant world where we learn who gets choice tables and who doesn't, but also how restaurant staffs in the 1980s and '90s worked, fought and loved in adrenaline-fuelled workplaces where booze and cocaine were plentiful. Michael Cecchi-Azzolina has worked as a server, maitre d' and manager in several exclusive restaurants. Last year, he opened his own bar and grill in New York called Cecchi’s. He spoke with NPR contributor Dave Davies in 2022.
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DAVE DAVIES: Well, Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, welcome to FRESH AIR.
MICHAEL CECCHI-AZZOLINA: Thank you so much. It's great to be here, Dave.
DAVIES: So when you were a maitre d' at a lot of pretty exclusive place - there was one called The River Cafe, which had this - was on a barge in the East River - had this spectacular view of Manhattan. And people would come in and ask for a window table - you know, normal folks who are there on a special occasion - and they would see all the window tables are empty. And you would be steering them to the middle of the room, and they would say, hey, hey, can't you help me here? Don't we - we'd love to do this. What would you do?
CECCHI-AZZOLINA: You know, it was one of the hardest things in the world to do. There were nine window tables, and generally, every evening, each table was spoken for. Now, were they spoken for when we opened at 5:30? No. Would people start coming 6:30, at 7? Absolutely.
So you have a guest that's waited a month for a reservation. It's the wife's anniversary or birthday or the husband's anniversary or birthday. And they see these incredible tables, staring at probably the most incredible view of any restaurant in the world, and they're not allowed to sit there. Well, people get really, really angry. And what do you do?
First, you tell them I'm so sorry, but those tables are already reserved. What do you mean they're reserved? There's no one in the restaurant. Well, they've been spoken for by a number of people. Well, who? Well, you can't tell who the tables are for. You're not allowed to do that. It's bad policy.
So you can't say who they're for. You can't say - especially at The River Cafe, the owner never wanted us to say it was held by the owner. So you just have to really deal with irate people quite a bit. And so, you know, you try to get them a nicer table. I'm so sorry. I can't do this - which leads to a lot of anger, hence me being punched, cursed at, yelled at, screamed at. Most people are very nice about it. And when you can, you'll give them that window table.
Now, someone walks in, and they want a window table, hands me a hundred dollar bill. What do I do here? Can I give a table up? Sometimes, yes, you can do that because you know that they're there at 5:30 or 6 o'clock and you need a table at 8 o'clock for, oh, let's say Barbra Streisand. You'll say, look, I can do this for you. I'll need the table back at a certain time. Or you just go for it and say, hopefully somebody's going to be late.
So, yeah, so tipping absolutely always helps. Being nice always helps. I've given a window table and gotten myself into trouble because this lovely couple was there for their 30th or 40th anniversary, and there's no way I wasn't going to give them the best table in the restaurant. That's where you take the risks, and it comes back and haunts you sometimes.
DAVIES: So you've got some discretion here. What should we know about whether to tip the maitre d' or not? Should you always do it? Should you do it when you're looking for a special favor? How much should you tip?
