I migrated over here from Chowhound after a very kind poster notified me many LA foodies were congregating here since the terrible site redesign. So thanks so much, Savour, wherever you are! It was always the community that mattered the most anyway.
So I am in a bit of a bind - an obligation has come up for my husband and me on a night when we have prepurchased tickets to dine at Maude, Curtis Stone’s place, for this month’s white truffle menu. I’m hoping to find someone here who would love to have this amazing food experience in our stead. I definitely don’t want the table to go unused! This dinner has sold out online for all night, so I know there must be someone out there who didn’t get a reservation in the first place.
The tickets are $375 each, and with an 18% gratuity and 9% tax, the total for two people comes to $965. I’ll send you the confirmation email and also transfer the name by calling the restaurant after payment is made. Let me know if you’re interested!
UPDATE: These tickets have now been sold. Thanks all for your comments!
I’m sincerely hoping you can find someone on this board to help you out on this one. But your plan, by asking for payment before anything else, asks for total trust upfront…
Please see things from the side of a typical poster here. I mean, $965 is quite a hefty amount for most people to pay for something upfront without any proof that you actually hold the aforementioned reservation at Maude. Can you offer additional assurances to a fellow FTCer who would be interested?
Again, my intent is not at all trying to antagonize - Simply I am coming from a place where both parties would ultimately be satisfied in a fair deal & outcome.
that’s a little fucking pricey. especially like someone said to trade online.
but if you discount the price that will provide an incentive for potential takers to take it off your hands.
but who knows there may be takers at the full price. But usually when it comes to things of this nature discounting is in order and something like this potentially major discounting considering that the truffle season was somewhat lacking this year, if what they’ve been saying is correct.
if all else fails, can’t you call the restaurant and just cancel your reservation and even if they can’t refund your moneys fully i’m sure they would be happy to refund at least a partial portion of the ticket price.
say 90% plus but i really have no fucking clue.
it’s worth a try. and then you won’t have some people on the board having to worry about trusting you and the potential possibility for a bogus reservation that’s been paid for in advance. though i’m not saying that’s the case here. just saying that’s what some may be thinking. since they don’t have any assurances that the person making the offer would follow through without breaching or causing some sort of repudiation of the goings ons.
Hi J_L, kevin, and jemange, thank you so much for sharing your concern. I admit, I didn’t think I was hammering the details of the exchange into stone, typing hastily as I was, and figuring those could be coordinated over email after someone expressed interest. I also didn’t realize people who were not from LA would be over here on this board! So perhaps I should provide some context and suggest a better way to do the exchange.
Maude restaurant offers a single prix-fixe menu, focusing on a different star ingredient each month. November’s focus is white truffles. The actual cost of the menu varies with the cost of the ingredient, and November’s is absolutely the highest of the year at $375. I see it as a comparable price to the tasting menu at Per Se, Alinea, Patina’s truffle menu, Urasawa, etc. I can’t offer any justification for the price beyond that is what I paid. I’m not looking at discounts at this time.
This month, for the first time, they joined the Tock Tix reservation purchase system from Nick Kokonas, co-owner at Alinea. So what I have are something like symphony tickets. Prepaid entry, and all the onus is on me to show up. When I made the purchase, I accepted nonrefundable terms, to answer Kevin’s suggestion that the restaurant refund a portion of my ticket. That’s not possible.
I have contacted the restaurant to let them know of our conflict and asked them to call me if anyone calls citing interest. I will call them again with the name of the person I transfer to.
I completely agree that this transaction requires a lot of trust, on both sides, since I have to trust that I will get reimbursed. Ideally, the exchange would happen simultaneously - the buyer would send money, and I would send over the confirmation email. But I am happy to send a screenshot of the confirmation email with the number blurred out beforehand, or potentially interested buyers can contact the restaurant and ask about the time and date of this reservation with my name. I’m also happy to meet in person or over video conference so that the buyer can see with her own eyes that the transfer is made.
Or if you are in LA and the buyer is in LA you can just both meet at the restaurant in front of the reservation desk to calm both trust issues on both sides.
What I was getting at was that if there is a lack of interest in your restaurant tickets and you know it’s nonrefundable anyways and you get no takers, then the incentive would be to offer the tix at a discounted rate. Because then instead of losing out on your entire non-refundable investment as it were you would just lose out on some of it.
But anyways this is just a theoretical discusssion for me since i’m definitely outta the fucking running for a pair of $980 tix, inclusive.
That’s a hell of a lot of fucking money. Yeah, if I had the fucking funds I’d choose Urasawa easily, or even Yamakase easily over Maude. but then again that’s just me.
Good lunck and let us know if you happen to get any takers.