Jennifer Garner says attractive diners get priority seating — and Michelin-star chef confirms it's true
The 'Daredevil' celebrity confessed she had moved 'ugly' people to the bar to give Steve Martin his favorite table.
Jennifer Garner has just exposed an uncomfortable reality about the restaurant industry. The "13 Going on 30" actress, who worked as a hostess in her early 20s, says "beautiful" diners get priority seating at the restaurants. On the "Dish Podcast," with Angela Hartnett and Nick Grimshaw, Garner confessed she had often moved 'ugly' people to the bar to give celebrities, like Steve Martin, their favorite table at the restaurant. The podcast was released on YouTube on March 4.
Back then, Garner said restaurants didn't take reservations seriously. She explained she'd often made diners with reservations wait because someone else arrived before them. Moreover, Garner said they were instructed to put the beautiful diners at certain tables and push the rest to the back. The "Alias" star said the restaurant would also prioritize a celebrity, even mildly famous, over other customers.
Steve Martin, a regular diner at her restaurant, Garner explained, had a favorite spot. So, she had to move other people to get him his table no. 5. "People are like, 'Wait, I am in the middle of a date. You are moving me?'" Garner recalled on the show. Hartnett, the Michelin-starred chef, said in certain big restaurants, staff use "Siberia" as a code word for a seating area for less attractive diners. "So, as we were writing people's names down, if we put a circle next to them, they got seated in Siberia," Garner added. She called this process 'merchandizing' the restaurant.
The phenomenon "The Golden Table" was further explored in an episode of the UK Channel 4 series, "Tricks of the Restaurant Trade." Reporter Adam Pearson, who suffers from neurofibromatosis, has non-malignant tumors all over his face. He wanted to see whether restaurants would make him sit at the back because of his appearance, so he conducted a social experiment. Pearson got two female models and tagged along to three different restaurants. The first two places made the models sit by the window so they were fully visible. The third restaurant was jam-packed, but the staff somehow made space for the models at the bar. However, Pearson had a completely different experience. The first restaurant made him sit in a corner, while the second ignored him initially. Finally, the third restaurant lied to Pearson, saying they don't have a seat.
'Beauty' matters for customers too. In fact, research by Matt Parrett found a significant income difference between attractive and unattractive servers. "I find that attractive servers earn approximately $1261 more per year in tips than unattractive servers, the primary driver of which is female customers tipping attractive females more than unattractive females," he wrote in his paper.
Meanwhile, reacting to Garner's confession, @kseniyaberson commented, "Damn, now I'm gonna feel a certain way every time a restaurant makes me sit in the back." @singhmosa shared, "Also, race-based seating. I learned this when I was travelling in 2006. I was with my partner at the time, and the restaurant asked us to sit inside at the back when we wanted to sit outside in the alfresco area. They said sorry, but that the back table is available. No one came the entire time we were there. I didn't realize it at the time until I was speaking about the experience with someone, and they told me about how restaurants try to showcase 'desirable' clientele at the front and often reject or hide 'undesirable' customers."
You can follow Nick Grimshaw (@nicholasgrimshaw) on Instagram for more celebrity content.
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