Well, I just got back from Sin City, and it was certainly an interesting experience. I have never seen such a decadent place where people indulge in spending money, and I was rather bewildered. Overall, we had a great time because our trip was paid for by the hubby’s company, but we did experience somewhat of a Baglady incident on the first night there. My hubby told me that I should blog about it, and so here it is.
As I said in my roundup post, the hubby made reservations for us at a very nice restaurant at the Bellagio called Picasso. It is a restaurant featuring Spanish-French cuisine and almost a dozen real Picasso artworks valued at over $100 million dollars. I was pretty excited about it because good food is really one of my weak spots. The hubby read the description of the restaurant on Bellagio’s site and it said that the dress code is business casual. The meaning of business casual in Silicon Valley is really “extremely casual”. We regularly go to work in jeans, T-shirts, and flip flops and no one really cares. So the hubby and I showed up in our normal clothes. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt with slacks and the hubby wore jeans and a polo. When we got to the door of the restaurant it hasn’t opened yet, but as more patrons showed up we realized we were sort of underdressed. We figured that it didn’t matter very much because we have been to many top restaurants in Northern California wearing what we usually wear and never had any problems. So we walked in when the doors opened and the hubby gave his name for the reservation. The blonde hostess smiled and then said, “Sir, we do have a dress code here. We don’t allow jeans and t-shirts. Would you like to change into something nicer and come back?” The thing is, we didn’t really bring anything fancy because we are used to being casual. The hubby was not pleased, and he said, “well, we are staying at a different hotel, and we didn’t really bring anything nicer.” Then the blonde woman looked at another waiter and said, “Patio?” The waiter nodded and seated us on the patio.
The hubby fumed about it for a little and said, “Man, that’s pretentious! It really pisses me off that they felt that they needed to herd us to somewhere unseen when all we want to do is to pay them a bunch of money for their food!” I definitely agree with him, and I think restaurants should spell out their dress codes better than just “business casual”. I found the whole thing kind of hilarious because men were showing up in heavy wool jackets when the arid desert temperature of Las Vegas was nearly 80 degrees. A woman showed up with a dress emblazoned with so many sequins that she looked like a mermaid, and yet another woman wore a tiny purple cocktail dress that barely covered her butt crack. Somehow, we were the inappropriately dressed weirdos in the whole charade. We did see another couple that got herded to the table next to us. The man was wearing nearly the same thing as the hubby. Since they came after us we don’t know if the woman at the door asked him to change, but I am betting that they got seated next to us because the man’s clothing matched ours.
I have to say that the rest of the meal turned out to be quite amazing because the patio gave us a front row seat to the Bellagio’s water fountain show. The service by the waiters was excellent and the food was quite good. I still prefer some of the restaurants in Napa better, but the hubby said that Picasso’s food beats Napa for him, but then again he hasn’t visited French Laundry yet. I have to say that Picasso really can’t compare to French Laundry at all. Actually I think the food is slightly worse than Auberge du Soleil, but Picasso did have a nice view of the Bellagio fountains. In the end, we were given a box of treats in a cute little box and the hubby said that the restaurant has pretty much redeemed itself for asking us to change. However, he did say, “I got to taste something new there, class discrimination.”
So this is not really a total Baglady incident because Picasso did serve us, but it was still unnecessary for them to offend us before the meal. We know that they probably seated us because they didn’t want to lose our money, but it’s funny to me that I probably would not have been asked to change if I dressed more like a hooker rather than an engineer going to work. It does make sense because prostitution is legal in Las Vegas and business casual for a working girl is something that barely covers the naughty bits. I guess the hubby and I just don’t understand the class system in Las Vegas, and we had somewhat of a culture clash there. In the end, our money is real, and the food is real, and that’s what mattered to me.
How about you? Have you ever encountered a “Baglady incident” where you were refused or almost refused service because of what you wore? Feel free to rant here.
Related Posts
What Kind of Bonus Excites You More?Weekend Carnival Roundup
How Do Childhood Memories of Money Affect Your Money Habits?
Do You Have Hypocritical Parents?
I Am So Thankful that I Am Alive
14 comments ↓
Welcome to the upstuck world of fine dining.
I don’t have a problem with dress codes, but I agree with you that the specifics should be spelled out. “Business casual” varies so greatly from industry to industry, how can they possibly expect to encourage a particular look without being specific? Really dumb, IMO.
Yeah I don’t have a problem with dress codes either. When I went to French Laundry with my parents they said on the reservations line that men are supposed to wear a jacket and ladies should wear dresses. If they’re specific like that then I think it’s fine.
My mother and her best friend went into an extremely upscale boutique that I won’t name *coughChanelcough* and were snubbed by the employees, even though my mom and her friend (well, mostly the friend, but still) could have pooled their net worth and bought the entire company.
Whether we like it or not dress codes are simply one more mechanism of class separating.
How else could we prove it to ourselves we’re successful? How else could richer people prove to us they are indeed richer?
For that reason they are also here to stay.
My son is a computer science major in college in New York where we live. He is looking forward to working in the Silicon Valley area near you and one of the reasons is the casual atmosphere and dress out there.
About 25 years ago DH & I went to a “nice” restaruant in Los Angeles. I was wearing a dress and DH was wearing dress pants, dress shirt with a nice pullover sweater over the it. At the door we were told that a jacket was required (we were with friends who had made the reservation but didn’t know this fact) and the matre ‘d offered him a jacket to wear over what he was wearing. The jacket was waaayyyy too huge and the sleeves were several inches too long. However, I guess he now look “appropriately dressed” to them.
We thought the whole thing was ridiculous!
I’m not sure why this classifies as “class discrimination” since they do say business casual. In most businesses that means khaki pants at the very least with a nice polo shirt for men. Jeans are never appropriate as business casual. Ever. Unless that is your work’s policy. We’re only allowed to wear jeans on special occasions - usually as a fund raiser (pay to wear).
So I guess I don’t blame them for seating you elsewhere. I think you’re probably lucky they seated you at all since they technically can refuse service for whatever reason they want.
Glad to hear the food was good though. The fanciest place we eat in Vegas is a buffet. =) We’re too cheap. lol
I think what you experiences is not necessarily ‘class discrimination’. I think part of the cultural difference (not referring to ethnic culture) is that the Silicon Valley does do many things in un-traditional or unconventional ways (not trying to say that its good or bad). And your experience is the perfect example of this.
I totally understand the part where you feel offended as well as the restaurant’s part of wanting to keep a certain atmosphere.
There are so many cultural differences but we hardly notice it when we live in San Francisco Bay Area.
People often say that when they travel to Europe, everything is expensive. But it is expensive because their tips are built into the pricing. And they are often offended when you tip them on top of the bill.
I personally observed a cultural difference that I felt very offensive. I traveled to Costa Rica a couple of years ago with my buddy. We were able to travel outside of tourist areas and see how the locals are. One thing I was really offended was that I was a man in his late 40’s with a 16 year old girl, all hanging out in a large group. And i know that they are seeing each other because they were holding hands and kissing. This is acceptable there (I think) because its okay in their culture for people to date with large age differences. But this was offensive to me because I saw an older man (with many more years life experience) taking advantage of a young naive girl. Now is it right if I went up to that man and beat the crap out of him? Probably not but I have to remember that I am in HIS country and have to respect their culture regardless of what i think.
The important thing to remember is that when we are a guest at someone’s house, we should respect their house rules, their culture and try to do it their way.
I agree… it wasn’t class discrimination; it was a big culture clash. Silicon Valley, the Pacific Northwest… very loose.
Everywhere else, much tighter.
Something to keep in mind; the US is not a homogeneous culture, though it has less variation than, say, Europe.
Very funny.
If someone told me the dress code was “business casual”, I would take it to mean a dress shirt or polo shirt and slacks for a guy. However, I don’t really ask about dress code when interviewing in Silicon Valley anymore and just wear a T-shirt and jeans.
I actually think “business casual” has an agreed-upon, though somewhat loose, definition. It’s just that no one really gives a damn here. And HR will usually say “business casual” if you ask about a dress code, even though the company’s employees may wear slippers and pajamas, because they don’t want take the risk of someone showing up in a cosplay or renfaire outfit.
well…I have seen a guy go to work in a bathrobe…then again, I do work with nerds who do not have to meet customers.
My mother is a pretty demanding person sometimes. A year ago her co-workers got her this nice coach purse, that was like probably over 400 dollars but they love her and they all pitched in to buy it for her for christmas.
My mother told me how much she would like a wallet to go with her purse. (she wanted matching colors)
So I went and got her a wallet, it was one that matched, it was one of those long wallets that you can put a check book into, it cost over a hundred bucks. Jeez.
She didn’t like it, she wanted the one that folded into three. She doesn’t like long wallets. So I had to return it and the three fold wallet was not there at the coach store I returned it too.
I was still pretty new to the south bay area so when I was in vally fair with my last b/f there was a coach store and they had 3 fold wallets but I didn’t find one in the color my mother wanted.
So I went in to try to get some help and no one helped me, I went up to a person to ask for help and she snubbed me. They were very willing to help young blonde trendy dress girls but not me. Finally I found someone that would at least talk to me, and she told me what ever they have on the floor is what they have and walked away with asking if I needed anything else. Wow worst service ever! Never shopping there again.
Then when I went to visit SD in So-Cali, there was a coach store there. I saw the wallet in the window. I went in and asked to look at it, it was a little dirty but it was what my mother wanted, so I asked if they had one in the back that I can buy. The lady said the was the only one they have, but she can buy it online for me, and have it shipped to my house for free. What? Why didn’t the other store offer to do that for me? Anyways I bought the wallet there and it came like a week later to my mother’s house. She loves it!
I guess I got badladied at the coach store in vally fair.
Leave a Comment