Image via Fat City/Pitch.com
I’m not one to broadcast culinary misunderstandings, especially when it comes to someone’s livelihood. But in this case, I just can’t refrain — mostly because it seems like the other character in this story is actively trying to NOT make money.
Last night, my friend and I decided to try Peanches, the new-ish 39th Street restaurant from chef and apparent crazy person Pete Peterman. This was in spite of its very polarizing reviews on Yelp.
As we approached Peanches’ storefront, there was a sign posted near the door that read: “Reservations Necessary To Dine. Walk-in’s Are Welcome To Cocktail At The Bar.” I guess I was too busy copyediting the sign in my head to comprehend that I was only allowed “to cocktail” at the bar. Oops.
Upon entering Peanches, I was surprised to find it’s actually much nicer than it looked from the outside. Good sign. It was the last good sign of the night.
We shimmied up to the bar at 7:57 p.m., and were “greeted” with, “Do you have a reservation?”
I explained that we did not have a reservation, but that we were hungry and we’d love to eat at the bar. The bartender told us she wouldn’t be able “to do anything” before 8:30. “Nothing. At all?” I asked, clearly disappointed and confused.
She explained that Peanches is a one-man kitchen and the night was booked — even though there were only about four or five seated tables at the time. We were seriously considering staying; the food looked great. And had she tried to lure us with a wine list or even a freaking piece of bread, we probably would have stayed and waited. But she didn’t, so we left.
Because it’s my “job,” to do such things, I relayed my story this morning on the Food Critics edition of KCUR’s Central Standard Friday.
A few hours later, I got this message from Peanches chef and owner, Pete Peterman, on Facebook:
Emily this is Pete from Peanches, sorry for the misunderstanding last night. We don’t take walk-ins it hard for some people to understand. It was quite embarrassing from the time you walked in last night. I’m not going to go into detail about it. We had a full house last night meaning every table was reserved. I don’t think we are your type of restaurant, that’s fine we don’t want to be everyone’s type of restaurant. With saying that I going to have to ask you please don’t return.
Thanks for understanding. Pete
Call me Queen of the Obvious if you want, but I probably wasn’t going to return anyway. And had he not sent that message, this post wouldn’t even exist. Given the fact that he has a whopping five Facebook friends combined with what I’ve read on Yelp, I’m guessing it’s an account he set up to harass people like me.
Now, don’t get me wrong — I do understand not wanting to overburden a chef so that the seated guests with reservations get the best experience possible. And I understand having a system and sticking to it. But also, aren’t restaurants supposed to, like, draw in people and make money? But this is not a business advice blog, so I’ll stop there. (Cough, cough; hire a line cook, cough. Cough, cough; call it a “supper club,” cough.)
In the end, though, it’s all good, P-Dog. There are plenty of other great restaurants in this city that welcome my business regularly and without advance notice. I always over order, generally get at least a bottle of wine with every dinner out, and I’m a good tipper. Perhaps most importantly, though, when I love a place, I support it with my patronage and my voice.
As Pete Peterman so articulately stated, Peanches is just not my type of restaurant.
Update: Holy comments, Batman!
I’ve been once, to use a Groupon with a friend about a month or two ago. It was dinner time on a Friday. We were the only table when we ordered, and the food took FOREVER to get out to us. And then it was only kind of OK. I believe we had an appetizer of mussels, and my main dish was a duck breast. The duck breast was good, the mussels were not.
The server told us they’re going to “change their philosophy” in the coming weeks, and become more of a “prix fixe” type of place, from what I can remember. The food wasn’t enough to impress me, and after this, I’m in no hurry to go back
WOW! I can guarantee he won’t stay in business too long. That’s sad. That poor location is cursed.
Thanks for sharing so I won’t make the mistake of going in there!
I’ve seen a few restaurants killed by this sort of arrogance and blatent misunderstanding of how to run a business. Sounds like I don’t need to waste my time there next visit.
Too bad for you. The food and service are outstanding! I completely understand the philosophy behind the policy. It is truly a fabulous place and the prices are more than fair. Readers, don’t miss it, but do make a reservation! BTW, cocktails at the bar are quite nice, too.
I had dinner at Peanches the weekend after Thankgiving. They offered four and six course Pre Fixe and for an additional fee you could do a wine pairing. I highly recommend the wine pairings. Reservations have more to do with the amount of food purchased since everything is fresh and locally grown. Also with nine tables while they may not have been busy at the moment in a half hour they might have been full of those that called in advance. When I was there tables were open, but I don’t know what was going on later in the evening.
I had a great experience. Peanches is a place where you want to leisurly dine – don’t be in a hurry. Enjoy the food and the wine pairing. I made online reservations using my smart phone and it was super easy.
He has hundreds of personal fans and a long, loyal list of people who will return week after week for his exquisite craftsmanship.
He cares for his patrons, the quality of the food he serves and obviously the quality of the people he serves, since he’s banned you. Since I personally witnessed you and your “friend” stagger in drunk and unruly, it’s no wonder you had a hard time wrapping your head around the word “reservation”.
Get a clue. Stay out of places like Peanches, especially when it’s very clear you have the taste of an overweight, inbred chihuahua.
You did a great job of sticking your nose up at this restaurant’s practices… copy-editing the signage in your head? Are you so removed from the common consumer that you cannot comprehend words on a building unless they adhere to your strict branding guidelines? If that was your first sign to avoid the restaurant, you should have stuck with your gut- writing a piece and publicizing how your personal standards weren’t met, especially after the owner apologized (for something you knew as you were walking into the establishment) is a sore move.
It sounds like if you’re willing to make a reservation, you’ll be treated to a dining experience that the chef has PLANNED for you with local food and a private atmosphere.
I’m disgusted that not only did you throw a fit because you couldn’t follow directions (or bother to look up the restaurant online), but you took it to the most extreme level you could; publicizing your complaints as if you were some sort of restaurant connoisseur that can make these kinds of calls. I get that you’re angry. So are children that can’t figure out how to open a package because they can’t wait for/are unable to read directions.
Peanches might be losing one customer, but Emily Farris is losing one hell of a readership.
I guess you missed the irony in the fact that your own comment here smacks of a petulant child. Listen, we’ve all popped into a place just to check it out — heaven knows what we did in the age before smart phones and perpetual 4G access; it’s not my (or even Emily’s) responsibility as a diner to conduct archival research on every last detail about a place before visiting it and any restaurant that demands that of its customers is just asking to be put out of business. In fact, as a reviewer, Emily is required to go into a restaurant with a unbiased perspective, so this kind of research could even compromise her work. And, let’s not forget — this is Kansas City, not San Francisco or New York (and Peanches is certainly not the only farm-to-table offering in KC). Perhaps Pete Peterman should take his infinite, angel-kissed talents to Hell’s Kitchen and see how he fares after he tells his would-be customers “I don’t why the hell you keep calling my restaurant.” (http://www.yelp.com/biz/peanches-food-and-wine-kansas-city). He’d be lucky if the worst reaction he gets is an agitated yelp review.
The only reason Emily mentioned the very confusing sign was because it seemed to suggest that you could eat at the bar without a reservation — “to cocktail” is not exactly a lucid verb and it could cover a whole manner of culinary sins. And, in the normal universe, most places will serve food at the bar if all the tables are booked. Once Emily realized that she could not be seated for at least half an hour without a reservation, she left.
It is Pete Peterman who behaved in an absolutely unacceptable manner to Emily — he’s the one who stalked her and sent her an insulting message long after she left his establishment. But if you are to take comfort in anything, Emily, please know that I’ve heard he’s done this to multiple patrons — apparently, if he can’t serve you a platter of braised short ribs, he’ll give you a nice dish of tyrannical pretentiousness via e-mail or voicemail. Perhaps if he spent more time in the kitchen as opposed to harassing patrons turned away by his own restrictive dining policies he’d have more business. I refuse to patron Peanches because I believe that good dining is about more than delicious flavors or grass-fed beef — it’s about welcoming and respecting the people who choose to spend their evening and their money supporting your work. The very least you can do is not go out of your way to insult them. And I’d like to think that my chef has basic social skills and is not a troll; Pete Peterman’s behavior seems to suggest otherwise.
Welcome, everyone responding to Pete’s FB post about me, which is just fair game at this point, I guess.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=114378495395076&id=272335272844414
A few notes:
A. I am approving all of these attempts at insulting comments (including the one that says I have the taste of an “overweight, inbred chihuahua” – good one!), as well as the ones praising Peanches. If I don’t get to yours in a timely manner, hold tight; I’m working, but will gladly approve your insulting comments when I can get to them.
B. I hadn’t had a drop of liquor when I walked in, but had the bartender offered me some, I gladly would have stayed. I definitely wanted some!
C. I was only in there for about four minutes as I was making up my mind. I was very nice, if a bit confused by the lack of hospitality.
D. I did not say Peanches only had five Facebook fans; I said Pete Peterman only had five Facebook friends. There’s a difference.
E. I totally get the reservations policy (though it’s not an excuse for being rude to walk-ins who want to try your food in exchange for cold, hard cash). If you read this post to the end, you’d see that I do understand it and can even appreciate it, but…
F. What I didn’t appreciate was a message from Crazy-Pants P Dog, telling me I wasn’t welcome back at his restaurant because I went on the radio and told people about my experience with the reservations policy — which is my job. Doesn’t he want people to know about it and abide by it? Like I wrote in this post, had I not gotten that FB message, this post wouldn’t even exist.
And that is the end of my responding to the Raging Restaurateur. I’m sure his food is great. I’ve heard lots of great things about it — which is why I tried to eat there. And I hope that those of you who love it continue to love it. But he banned me from his restaurant so I’ll never get to try it (unless I bust out my curly blonde wig and dark glasses). That’s fine. It’s his restaurant and he has that right.
I go out of my way to support the many great restaurants in KC, and I’ve never called one out publicly like this. Take from that what you will, readers and non-readers alike. Either way, thanks for visiting feed me kc and have a great day.
The lowest common denominator in all these incidents is Pete Peterman and there sure do seem to be a lot of them.
They need to focus on running their restaurant and stop picking on somebody that was TRYING to GIVE them money! They are so defensive and sound so un-welcoming. It sounds like something is very wrong there and they are acting out.
It’s not your fault and making irrational personal attacks will not fix any of their problems!
Last I checked Harassment was not a course on a Prix Fixe menu!
(Fun fact, harassment can get you kicked off of Facebook and Yelp!)
This is a guy who resorts to writing his own positive reviews that get filtered on Yelp, and then he complains about how much he hates Yelp. As far as the hundreds (LOL) of loyal followers, nobody can take him too seriously after the way he completely tanked his last two places. He’s a vindictive hack who resorts to non-stop intimidation fueled by some genuine alcohol problems. This is the same dude who “anonymously” reported Happy Gillis to the city for a false certificate of occupancy and various issues with the building after they had the nerve to move into the same space as his closed restaurant and actually be successful.
They are obviously ill-bred.
Emily, it is very hard to take you seriously with such a petulant attitude. One would think you have to take the gum from your mouth just to speak. Kansas City’s restaurant scene is vibrant, alive and growing, because of Chef’s like Mr. Peterman. Reservations required mean just that. You didn’t do your homework, you barged in unexpected and unannounced and expect us to take you seriously? You may have a readership in the 15-18 year old demographic but your writing skills and combative attitude will surely keep you in the background. We have supported the KC restaurant scene for 20 + years and have seen more homegrown foodies-come-reviwers go than good restaurants. Good food, good service and good times can be had at Peanches, they practically give it away. Come down off your self built pedestal Emily and enjoy some of KC’s real restaurants, that is if you can keep from being banned, and try a creative writing class or two, some etiquette classes may help as well. Good luck.
So awesome. Any chef who acts like a heel in professional wrestling must serve some pretty damn good food if he expects to stay in business more than 6 months. I’ll be making a reservation for next time I’m back home.
Your all BANNED from Peanches…! Don’t you weakminded fools understand that I am the undisputed ruler of the world, and none of you made your reservations!!!
Pretty funny to read some of the defenses of Mr. Peterman. They all hem and haw about “RESERVATIONS” and entitlement, ignoring that the primary problem with Peanches has nothing to do with the reservation policy, the location, or the food. The only problem with Peanches is the boor of an owner/cook who lies, insults, and harasses people who don’t conform to his personal vision of what a customer should act like.
Some of the people supporting the restaurant are delusional. Like the one who suggested that this blog post actually might increase Peanches’ reservations because of the free publicity. Even if the critical blog increased positive publicity (unlikely), the response on Facebook from the owner can’t possibly give anyone a positive impression of the restaurant. It’s so nasty and insulting in comparison to this blog entry that I don’t know how an objective observer could read both and side with Peanches. One clearly looks like a thought-out (even if critical) account of the experience and one looks like the author was wearing his (oops, did I give it away) best rageface when he was composing his ill-written mess of a response.
That kind of conduct from the owner would be more than enough to turn me off even if I had personally enjoyed a great experience at Peanches. There’s something unnerving about a business owner who can find such contempt for his customers and potential customers just because they have something critical to say. If you happen to be one of the lucky diners whose taste, preferences and opinion line up with what Pete Peterman believes they SHOULD be, then more power to ya. Go ahead and enjoy his food while you can, because it’s hard to envision a restaurant that has the potential to treat people so poorly sticking around for the long haul. Especially in an already difficult location.
I suspect the REASON he has a “one man kitchen” is because he treats staff in a similar manner to how he treats the diners he doesn’t like. I imagine that makes it pretty hard to staff a restaurant with anyone except your family.
Based on how my prior interaction has gone with him, it’s only a matter of time before he responds to me on this site too. I can hardly wait.
Based on the amount of typos in his message to you, my thought is that he fully intended to name his restaurant “Peaches”.
Every time you wrote “Peanches” in your article, he was reminded of his oversight, and it made him more and more angry. Your punishment is his bitter refusal to serve you there, ever.
If he’s as careless with his food as he is with his communication efforts, you are probably not missing much.
Thank goodness you don’t put all your peanches in one basket.
Well the Peanches Facebook page is offline again, which is terrible because it was interesting to see how quickly his big New Years eve dinner wasn’t booking up. He can’t book nine tables on one of the biggest dining and party nights of the year. I wonder if the fact that, shockingly, he set more rules for it has anything to do with it. You aren’t welcome to come to dinner that night unless you’ve already eaten there. The booked tables to empty ratio based on that little nugget speaks volumes.
@FarmToTable,
The FB page is still up, but the post that linked to this blog and made all sorts of offensive comments has been removed. Probably looked rather embarrassing for a professional restaurant having what looked like a drunken rage post in the middle of posts about menus and reservations and other restaurant-type posts.
Too bad he can’t take down the insulting comments he posted on The Pitch review of Peanches.
Yes, I think he has taken it down a few times for a day or so just to scrub it of the multiple similar rage-posts he’s had since he opened. Last thing I noticed the other day was his suggestion that his followers call the radio station while Emily was on with Charles and confront her about her Peanches review, and it is gone now with the rest of his keyboard machismo. Thankfully he runs his mouth enough on webpages where he can’t erase it and then play the victim to his hundreds upon hundreds (millions at this point?) of fans. Eh, he’s a mustard burp in a town of fantastic chefs and restaurants, and he has always done me the kind service of reminding me how grateful I am for my favorite local places.
Emily,
I just came across your site today. I think because you podcast was linked to KC Rest Week on FB. Anyway, I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I love your writing and honesty. You customer service experience at Peanches (or actually lack of) seems to be consistent with other stories that I’ve heard from my friends.
Keep up the good work. I’ll follow your site in FB now too.
C J
Forget that raunt, I hope you accept my invite to eat with us, we are a local food truck called INDIOS CARBONSITOS. we wont turn you away hungry
We went one day, and were told we had to make a reservation. They said they had one available at 7:30…an hour and a half wait. There was ONE TABLE that had TWO WOMEN seated. There was another couple at the bar. That was it. 2 people. We will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, attempt to try this place again, and have gone out of our way to dissuade others from attempting to dine here. It wasn’t just the absolute ridiculousness of the place being empty and being asked to wait an hour and a half, it was the rude tone of the waiter.
I was with kc.
The problem I had with the whole “reservations are required” mentality of a seemingly dead restaurant was that I called ahead (after the website failed to accept proper input for reservations from two mobile devices) to, you know, see if reservations were required. I guess I WAS told that reservations were required, but I believed that I heard “reservations aren’t required” followed by an audible ellipses. The silence/lack of an offer of a reservation reassured me that I had heard correctly.
The rest happened exactly as described above.
We had a groupon that was set to expire in the next few days and chose to not wait for their one occupied table to open up to use it. We, basically, chose lighting money on fire over using it there.
How long does it take to consume four or six courses? Because a table is empty, could it not be scheduled for a party arriving at their desired time? Has anyone ever made a reservation and became frustrated because they had to wait an excessive amount of time? If a restaurant wants to control the flow of items leaving the kitchen at a respectable rate to ensure the dining experience good, is that a bad thing? If a restaurant knows it can only accommodate a certain amount of customers in a certain time frame and respects that, is it a bad thing? If a restaurant decides it’s more profitable to eliminate waste and overage and pass that savings onto customers is that a bad thing? If a restaurant is food and wine driven, not cocktail driven and has no bartender, is one vital to its operation? If a restaurant doesn’t offer bar food, is it wrong not to allow dining at the bar? If a restaurant sells a groupon and the condition of the coupon is reservations required, should the guest become upset because they weren’t allowed to misuse it? If a restaurant is a protein based restaurant wouldn’t it be respectful of the guest to give proper advance notice of special dietary needs? If a restaurant elects not to book tables larger than four is that a bad thing? If a business elects to minimize disruptive behaviors ahead of time for its guest, is it a good thing? If a restaurant makes its twitter account private so its tweets are more personal to guest that request to follow it, is that bad? If a restaurant only allows repeat customers to book special occasion dates like valentines, NYE..etc is it the end of the world? If business chooses to name its self something different for whatever reason what’s the problem? If I have only five friends on my personal facebook page and it upsets you who has the problem? If a restaurant wants to focus on entertaining only 20 guest per day why is there a need to hire excessively? If a restaurant has zero reservation one night and the owners go home to spend it with their family is it that bad? Isn’t it a shame to have your most popular post be nothing about food, but smack talk? Sam? Will you become upset if I don’t answer you back? The blog is about food, right? Or is it? Most jobs you get a pay check from, is it really your job or a hobby? Was the satisfaction to your ego writing about us so stroking you had to carry it over to a podcast a month later? Is that part of the job? Is allowing someone to post under may name claiming to be me fair? Is this really I or some fake poster claiming to be me? Do I really care what you think of us?
Emily – Sounds like crazy town over there! Mr Peach needs to eat a pill. Glad to see you are as feisty as ever. Congrats on your blog etc. From your old buddy at NY4P a gazillion years ago.
Cheers