{Photograph} courtesy of Carol Rey
When you name Carol Rey, CEO and founding father of the Elite Faculty of Etiquette, you might get her voicemail, which ends with the next mantra: “Nice manners and eating abilities can take you locations that your family and friends can’t.”
Rey works as a third-grade schoolteacher at Henderson Mill Elementary through the week. Outdoors of her instructing duties, she runs an etiquette college to assist motivated Atlantans purchase or refine abilities for social {and professional} success, oftentimes in a eating setting, a crucial proving floor for some. She recounts how two purchasers got here in search of counsel after shows of poor eating abilities proved disastrous; one was shunned on the nation membership, and one other misplaced out within the remaining spherical of making use of to a personal college.
She affords one-on-one and group courses, generally in a personal setting, different occasions partnering with Maggiano’s or The Capital Grille. “That is our lab,” Rey tells purchasers after they meet at a restaurant. “At this lab, we get to make errors. And if I see them, I’m going to right you instantly. As a result of how else will we be taught?”
With eating in thoughts, we requested Rey a number of questions from Atlanta journal staffers:
Atlanta: Is “no elbows on the desk” nonetheless a factor?
Carol Rey: Sure, it’s nonetheless a factor, however the one distinction is that if there’s no meals on the desk, elbows are allowed. However as quickly as meals touches the desk, then the elbows are off.
Atlanta: I hate gadgets on the desk whereas eating out. What are another methods to interact my little one which can be restaurant acceptable?
Rey: In dialog, discuss their day. So which means you may must be ready your self, as a result of numerous occasions, we could also be coming from work. We simply decide the youngsters up, take them to eat, after which it’s type of like, Oh, I want some down time, so we put the cell telephones of their faces. Attempt to put together some enjoyable questions, or perhaps play tic-tac-toe, one thing that’s participating, particularly if it’s an off-the-cuff scenario.
Atlanta: What do you do if somebody in your celebration is impolite or abusive to the waitstaff?
Rey: I’d truly converse to that individual and say, “You already know, it will be a good suggestion for us to do issues which can be constructive in order that we will benefit from the night.”
Atlanta: What do you do together with your serviette when you have to stand up in the course of the meal? Desk or chair?
Rey: You’d put it in your chair and guarantee that your utensils are crossed and positioned on the base of the plate. It tells the server to maintain out and that you simply’re coming again.
Atlanta: What do you do when somebody in your celebration picks up the examine and leaves what you suppose is an insufficient tip?
Rey: In case you really feel moved to take action and you’ve got money, I’d say that if the individual has left already, then you may add to the tip. But when the individual remains to be there, you might make a suggestion and say, “I actually felt as if they did a tremendous job. I’d love so as to add to that.”
This text seems in our Could 2025 concern.
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