Congratulations to Tina Vaughn of Eulalie, the 2024 MICHELIN Guide New York Outstanding Service Award Winner!
There is something really special about the level of service happening at Eulalie that evokes a time when service felt more personal. Inspired by their first travels to French countryside villages in 1997, Tina Vaughn and Chef Chip Smith have recreated a similar atmosphere, but in the heart of New York City. The service is delivered with the primary goal of making guests feel happy. The menu is handwritten, and throughout the evening, small details make the experience even more enriching.
What is a typical night at the restaurant?
We usually try to do about 36 to 45 people a night. It starts at 5:45. Every 15 minutes, I take two tables or a certain number of people, and it just keeps flowing until about 8:45.We don't turn tables unless it happens organically. I take reservations on how I think the kitchen can best manage your meal without making you feel like you're waiting for something, or that you're being rushed, and that the chef is not stressed out preparing it. Chip does all the protein, he’s got one guy helping with the vegetables, and another guy helping with the appetizers.
What does "really good service" mean to you?
To read what the table needs from you and to provide it, whether it is a lot of attention and smiles, jokes, and playfulness, or if it's a discrete amount of perfect service, making sure every detail is covered, but not getting in their way.Even if you don't have the right answer, you never say, ‘I don't know.’ You say, let me get Tina or let me ask Chef. I'll get you the right answer.’ Not being impatient, not forgetting what was asked for, making sure the table is kept neat and clean, and dirty glasses are removed.
It's as if magic should happen. Like little elves. Sneak in, and sneak out, and they never saw you coming. My favorite thing is if I start bussing a table, or I'm pouring the next wine pairing, I love the fact that the guests never stop talking to each other. They don't even notice I'm there. They just notice it's happening. To me, that's the most incredible thing. I don't interrupt them. They don't think they have to stop their evening. It’s flowing, it’s fluid.
How are you able to keep the team calm?
I explain to my team every night: no matter what your troubles are for the day, and everyone has troubles outside of work, remember that you have to leave them at the door because your sole goal for the evening is to make other people forget their troubles. It's to make other people not be unhappy anymore.We have to take a deep breath and remember to have fun with them, because they're here to have fun with us. They're here to enjoy. Even when we get busy and when you get too stressed out, come to me, come to each other. Just communicate with each other.
What is the biggest misconception about your role?
Some people think it's so glamorous. Part of it is, there are nights when it is amazing. The happy factor is wide open if you allow it to seep into your body.For the front of the house, guests don't think it's that hard a job, that it's just playing hostess. But if they threw a dinner party in their home, they can remember how stressful it is to have guests to your house every night and get dinner ready and make sure the guests are happy.
Sometimes, some people forget that team members’ whole intent is to try to give you what you want, but they're not your servant there. They don't work in your household. They are trying to do the best to read what you need.
And guests don't understand how expensive it is to run a little restaurant.
Do you have any sustainable initiatives at the restaurant? How do you communicate these with the guests?
Sustainability, in regard to the product of food, is easy. We try to only work in a three-state radius. We don't do farmed fish. There's so much wild fish that is not the sexy, popular fish, but it's still delicious. We only do pasture-raised local meats. Our vegetable comes from a farm in Albany. We try to be mindful of the environment regarding using recyclables only, and not throw- aways. We do the same thing with wine – smaller, family-owned wines.A restaurant of a certain level, if they're not doing sustainable, I would be surprised. Years ago, I would want to write the menu with every farmer. Chip finally said, ‘if they don't think that we're using local with the kind of food I'm producing for them, then they don't know who we are.’ You don't have to write every single farmer or every single thing. We're proud to support the local people around us, and we've always done that.
What advice would you give to someone who wants a career like yours?
You have to look at it like it's a lifestyle. Like a farmer or a winemaker or an artist. It is a chosen vocation that is your avocation. Chip and I are lucky that we found both. Understand that as tired as you are and as much work as it is, if you look at it as if it's a lifestyle and not a job, it will take a lot of pressure off you, and you too can enjoy it.Hero image: ©2023 Juan Patino Photography / Tina Vaughn and Chip Smith
