Congratulations to Allison Anderson of One MICHELIN Star Beckon, the 2024 MICHELIN Guide Colorado Outstanding Service Award Winner!
As Director of Experience, Allison Anderson, a Denver native, brings her years of hospitality expertise (including seven as bar manager at One MICHELIN Star Frasca Food and Wine) to oversee the warm, immersive service at One Star Beckon.
What is a typical night like at the restaurant?
It is very much about getting everyone in the same mindset for service. We have our pre-service. We talk about the menu, the incoming guests that night, service the night before. We set up the dining room. We detail. The chefs set up their stations.
Then we set the mood. That's often something that's overlooked, or maybe under appreciated. That moment when your first guest comes in, everybody is just so excited. This day's worth of effort comes down to that five o'clock moment when the first guests are brought inside, and everyone is there to welcome them.
They sit down at the counter, and you give them this pause so they can take it all in. Service starts. They go through their menu of different courses introduced by the chefs as well as their service captain, and they're offered wine pairings, zero proof pairing, cocktail pairing. There's not one true formula for each guest.
And then the menu concludes. We send them out the door, hopefully feeling so great, and hopefully wanting to come back. And then we bring in a whole other seating, starting at eight o'clock, and then we do it all over again.
What's your favorite part of the guest experience?
Introducing them to flavors that they've never tasted, wine that they haven't been exposed to, grape varieties that they've never heard of. It’s exquisitely well thought out and intentional care from our team. The opportunity to introduce people to a dining culture in Denver that is now at a place people are taking seriously and showing people that fine dining doesn't have to be stuffy or pretentious.
I love that at Beckon, there's such a sense of calm, and people are so soothed, and they're just happy to be there. The number of people that say coming to Beckon feels like going home to family…that is an enormous compliment.
How do you motivate your team?
We try to motivate each other by using examples that we tell each other about if we've traveled. I collect these little stories, little vignettes to bring back, in hopes of keeping people fresh minded, and keeping people thinking about things they wouldn't have thought about before.
And also pointing out all of the moments throughout a day where the team was successful and saying, “look how incredible you guys are.” Even on the hardest night, when half of your team is gone, the team has to band together and get through it, but we do it because we believe in each other. We have to have each other's back. We're all there for the same reason, which is to provide that memorable night for the guest. Nothing motivates a team more than seeing people on either side of you hustling, working their tails off, and knowing that they're there to support you.
What is the biggest misconception about your role?
In my mind, I adopted the term Director of Experience because it is so much more than just what happens when I’m at Beckon. I think of Beckon all of the time. Some people think it’s all just about guest relations, but it's about the chefs. It's about the cooks. It's about my team. It's about anybody coming to deliver to the restaurant. It's everybody that interacts with the restaurant. It's anybody that walks by Beckon. What is Beckon to the neighborhood? What do people think about Beckon?
What does "really good service" mean to you?
It's everything from being warmly welcomed to leaving that night knowing that you were not just another person through the door.
Good service comes in so many different ways. It's understanding exactly what your guest is looking for. What does that night mean to them? Understanding that if somebody wants something a certain way, then that's how they want it, and it can't be your way. It needs to be their way.
Understanding that Beckon is such an enormous investment for some people and making right on that investment and knowing that it's not like getting a slice of pizza. It's a big deal. It's a huge financial and time obligation, and those are two things that you know are in short supply.
You take care of people just like you would if they were your own family. Maybe they flew to Denver or drove from Oklahoma or took the night off from work or they're paying a babysitter. People make a lot of sacrifices or commitments, and it's our responsibility to make sure that we hear them every step of the way, that they have a great time with us, and they are getting everything that they hoped for.
What should new diners expect at Beckon?
Something that is at once very concise but also elaborated on in ways that feel genuine and very thoughtful. In some ways, we color outside of the lines, just with a little bit more humility and connection with our guests. We are really making an effort. I think we leave people feeling like they were part of something very special.
The first time people walk through the door, it packs a punch for sure. The second you walk through the door, you're at the chef's counter. You see all the cooks in the kitchen, the dim lighting, the candlelight.
It's very charming. It is very unassuming. It’s very darling. It's super impactful and captivating. In a kind of poetic way, Beckon is this representation of my husband, who is the Executive Chef, and myself, and all the lovely people that we work with. It's our story.
Hero image: Jonnie Sirotek / Allison Anderson
