There are some lessons which can't be taught, regardless how willing the student to learn, or the professor to teach. No one can prepare you for healing a broken heart, English food, or how to give stellar customer service. You got it, or you ain't.
Where I grew up (Montana), it seems getting over a man is devastating---but only for a week or two. The right one is there, somewhere. Be patient. English food in Montana? Nah. We know how to cook without boiling everything to death, how to season food, and how to make a sauce or gravy (it's all in the roux-hoo-hoo, y'know). And as for customer service in Montana, if you buy something there you haven't had before, the kid behind the counter will explain the process patiently, perfectly and with a smile. And offer to come cook it for you. While still smiling, a mouth that looks like the entrance to an igloo.
In Seattle, a city known for its amazingly polite freeze between strangers, finding someone who earns their wage by providing excellent customer service is like looking for the sailor on an aircraft carrier who shoves off a virgin and returns to port in the same condition.
If you want to experience the rarity, the absolute pleasure, of exchanging money for pasta, head yourself to Pike Place Market and find Pappardelle's Pasta. It's exactly 45 paces from the main entrance to the market, opposite the fishmongers. It's also the tidiest, cleanest and most-organized of stalls in the market. That alone makes shopping there worth the trip through the skyscraper-lined caverns of Seattle worth the trip. Once there, you'll find pasta of almost every shape, composition and color imaginable, each one unique in its responsibility of attracting and carrying a specific sauce. If you're not certain which does what, the people behind the counter will happily assist (are they all from Montana?).
This brings me to the subject of the review: stellar customer service.
Young man Gozi had people gathered around the Pappardelle stall when I arrived. I kept my six feet away, waiting for them to make their selections. Then it was my turn. Gozi greeted me with a smile that, while not visible behind the mask, was obvious in his voice. He wasn't there to sell me anything; he was, if anything, a guide for people wanting to move their pasta experience beyond de Cecco and other national brands. All I wanted was something to hold a cheese sauce for my Thanksgiving side dish. Gozi presented all the best options, and recommended the Garlic Chive Seashells. From there, he pointed out the different shapes and colors of the Italian Pesto Blend. Sure. Two, please. Finally, the Lemon Parsley Mafaldine was staring me in the face, and was new to me. "It's our best-seller", says Gozi. "Who am I to impede tradition?", says me.
With each selection, Gozi pulled pre-printed recipes for each pasta for me, and provided his own perceptions of them. What he has is magic, a "he-must-be-born-with-it" ability to treat every person he meets as he would people he'd see at the Thanksgiving table (on a normal year). Impeccable.
Gozi, from which town in Montana did you come?!
The transaction completed, I was given my receipt, and I offered my assessment of the entire seven minutes I was at Pappardelle's: "If I could bottle your enthusiasm and customer service skills and sell it in the stall next to this one, I'd be a billionaire." This time, a laugh, another radiant smile, and off I went to get a sauce from de Laurenti's, cheese from Beecher's and a crusty Italian baguette from Three Sisters Bakery. Sure, I could get any of those at the Fred Meyer store close to my home, and there's nothing wrong with the mass-marketed national brands. But the people at Pike Place Market, including Papparedelle's Pasta are The Little Folks we should be patronizing at every opportunity---particularly now, when they need us as much as we need them. Really, though, what I got today was my wallet seduced by incomparable customer service, and my personal commitment (if only to myself) to return in future.
Thanks, Gozi, for helping me part with $24.50 (plus tip) as easily as if I were on a bicycle, and falling off of it. I'll return, no question about that. I'll need pasta sometimes, but when I do, I'll need customer service like yours, each and every time.
Go to Pappardelle's Pasta at Pike Place Market. Try the Lemon Parsley Mafeldine. Both that pasta and Pappardelle's---and Gozi's skills---will be your new tradition.
And tell 'em Jeph Sent you. read more