What Do You Think Of This --

[Daxx]

From Good Housekeeping, Aug. 26, 2006:

The dining room at The W, a swanky hotel in downtown NYC doesn't open till 5:30. But since this is where Rachael Ray has arranged to be interviewed, management reluctantly agrees to make a table available. Yet, when Ray walks over to the bar to ask for a glasss of water - flashing her trademark grin and offering to bring it to the table herself - word comes down from above: nothing doing. It's 5:07, and the dining room is closed. Ray can go ahead and sit there, but a beverage is not allowed.

"We. Are. Leaving," says Ray firmly, her words as separate and distinct as pistol shots. But not before she politely registers her displeasure with the hotel concierge. "I've been in the restuarant business all my life, and I don't understand this," she says ...

*note - bolding of word is mine, not the magazine's.

Who is out of line here? Rachael for expecting them to convenience her every whim (after all, they reluctantly allowed the use of the table) ... or the restaurant for not giving her a glass of water?

Did Rachael push it too far?

 

[AprilShowers]

I don't know who is WRONG here, but if I owned a restaurant and a famous chef from Food Network wanted to be interviewed there......
Well let's just say she wouldn't have to ASK for water.

Maybe there's more to this story. Maybe she or her handlers were rude or demanding and the restaurant had enough.

 

[dustysky]

I think if she had asked for anything that needed to be prepaired then they would have been justified but pul-ezz a glasss of water??

I think they were rude, not her.

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

I personally don't like her much (she gets on my nerves), but I don't think she was out of line at all. It's a glass of water, not a cocktail, appetizer or a meal. I can see her being very polite and offering to take it with her, rather than having it served. I think it was silly for them to deny her this very simple request and I do not blame her at all for leaving.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

I'm sort of confused. So Good Housekeeping arranged this interview at The W?? I don't know why they would reluctantly agree to make a table available. Isn't it good press for them?? Once they did commit though, I don't think they should have a problem with supplying a glass of water.

 

[kidzmom3]

Thats just bad business on the hotel/resteraunts side.

 

[robertsmom]

I don't know who is WRONG here, but if I owned a restaurant and a famous chef from Food Network wanted to be interviewed there......
Well let's just say she wouldn't have to ASK for water.

Maybe there's more to this story. Maybe she or her handlers were rude or demanding and the restaurant had enough.

Geez, amen to this. If I were a restaurant owner, I think I'd be falling over myself to make her happy. As far as the story, if they let her in anyway, what would a glass of water have hurt? She wasn't asking to be waited on or anything....

 

[Daxx]

I'm sort of confused. So Good Housekeeping arranged this interview at The W?? I don't know why they would reluctantly agree to make a table available. Isn't it good press for them?? Once they did commit though, I don't think they should have a problem with supplying a glass of water.

Sounds like Rachael Ray arranged the location for the interview herself. In the interview, it stated that "this is where Rachael Ray has arranged to be interviewed" not where GH arranged to have it.

If the hotel was initially reluctant to have you, wouldn't you find another place that would be thrilled to have you?!

I don't think it necessarily had to do w/the restaurant not wanting to give her the water ... the interview said that "word came from above" -- meaning someone higher up than the restaurant portion of the hotel nixed the water!