Galatoire's fires Gilberto Eyzaguirre for "patting a waitress on her back," New Orleans revolts! PLUS History of NOLA's most eccentric restaurant (Times-Picayune, July 2002)
Editor's note:
Every now and again, a story emerges that makes it impossible to deny that New Orleanians are passionate about restaurants in ways that others are not. Early this month, it was news that regulars of La Boulangerie, an Uptown bakery, are apoplectic over minor changes instituted by its new owner, Donald Link.
Many readers spoke out to say the tale brought to mind this story about Galatoire's.
Originally published in the Times-Picayune in July 2002, it chronicles the firing of a longtime Galatoire's waiter - and the angst the dismissal triggered among the restaurant's devoted regulars.
The piece achieved what amounted to virality in the pre-social media age. Letters to the editor poured in. National publications parachuted down to cast light on the spectacle. Dramatic readings of the regulars' written complaints were staged - and quickly sold-out.
The story ran under the headline "Creole contretemps," and it is republished here just as it was in 2002.
***
In 1949, Kenneth Holditch traveled with his father from Mississippi to New Orleans for what would turn out to be a life-changing meal of trout amandine at Galatoire's.
(now that's what i call a lede! Holditch is an erudite New Orleans' academician, who also holds some responsibility for having Conferacy of Dunces published. - ed.)
He remembers the meal vividly, particularly what he calls "the elegance and skill of the waiters."
Fifteen years after that first visit, Holditch left his job in Memphis and joined the faculty at the University of New Orleans so he could "live in this unique city and dine at Galatoire's whenever I wished," as he explained it in a recent letter to the restaurant's nine-member board of directors.
And dine he has, often at a twice-weekly pace and, for the past 20 years or so, usually as the customer of his favorite waiter, Gilberto Eyzaguirre.
Eyzaguirre, "Gilbert" to his legion of customers, was fired from Galatoire's on April 27 after a female employee filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. It was the second such complaint filed against the waiter by a different employee in less than two months.
If this were a story about anywhere else but New Orleans, or perhaps anyplace else but Galatoire's, that would be the end of it. Instead, it was only the beginning.
Galatoire's General Manager Melvin Rodrigue declined to comment on the particulars of Eyzaguirre's dismissal.
"Even if Gilberto's not with us anymore, we have an obligation to him and the rest of our employees to keep that information confidential," he said.
Galatoire's files may be confidential, but Eyzaguirre's dismissal is hardly a secret. And his popularity among customers is enduring.
The firing is what occasioned Holditch's letter, which was not a fan's note but an impassioned protest. The treatise was written on May 20, 2002. A few days later, it was delivered in a bound volume along with 123 others to the Galatoire's board.
The letters, many of which were written by prominent New Orleans doctors, lawyers, judges and business people, have been posted on www.welovegilberto.com, a Web site devoted to the cause of persuading Galatoire's management to rehire Eyzaguirre. The list of letter writers is impressive; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ford and noted Louisiana State University historian David Culbert are among them.
"The purpose of this letter is to request that the members of the Board of Management of Galatoire's find a means to bring Gilbert back into the fold," former U.S. Attorney Harry Rosenberg wrote.
Many of the writers express displeasure with what the volume's opening page calls the "peremptory firing." But to read the letters as a whole is to realize that Eyzaguirre's supporters are concerned about much more than their favorite waiter's job status.
In his letter, Holditch echoes the concerns of many when he bemoans the changes that have occurred at Galatoire's since Rodrigue, 29, became the first non-Galatoire family member to be named general manager and chief operating officer of the restaurant five years ago. The most seismic of those changes was the controversial renovation that was completed in 1999. With the renovation came new dining rooms upstairs and the opportunity to reserve tables, a first in Galatoire's nearly century-old history.
"I felt almost the same way when they opened upstairs," Robert Barnwell, a letter writer who first dined at Galatoire's 50 years ago, said of Eyzaguirre's firing. "It was like when Brooks Brothers opened 40 stores all over the United States. I liked it when there was only just one."
When viewed through the prism of Galatoire's overall makeover, Holditch writes, Eyzaguirre's firing "has made many of us 'old-timers' aware of the fact that something drastic is afoot, a renovation not only of the physical features of the classic old Creole eatery, but a renovation of its very soul."
There's no such thing as a subtle change at Galatoire's, at least not in the eyes of its most ardent customers.. . . . . . .
The restaurant's food is a testament to the virtues of trend resistance, and the kitchen's renderings of classic French-Creole dishes are hard to surpass. It's tempting to imagine the best of them -- trout amandine, souffle potatoes, stuffed eggplant, shrimp remoulade, oysters Rockefeller -- tasting exactly as they did in 1905, the year Frenchman Jean Galatoire bought Victor's Restaurant on Bourbon Street and gave it his family's name.
Galatoire's is remarkably well preserved, though it actually has the feel of being older than it is. Its majestic atmosphere is derived not just from the tiled floors, 19th-century chandeliers, polished brass and tuxedoed servers, but from the sense that those things extend from traditions rooted deep in New Orleans' exotic past.
It's a restaurant one can envision existing nowhere else so easily as Paris, the world's capital of sophistication, and many of the people who are upset about Eyzaguirre's firing are equally upset that Galatoire's management would allow this elegant luster to be tarnished by, among other things, relaxing the dress code.
"The last time I was in there -- I've only been there once since Gilberto left, which is unusual for me -- there were people sitting at the table next to us who looked as though they should have been dining at the counter at Woolworth's," said Holditch.
"I don't mean to sound elitist. But on the other hand, when you go to a nice restaurant, I think you ought to treat it as the kind of temple of food that it is."
The restaurant has been subject to some culinary tinkering over the years. The restaurant only recently unveiled its first printed wine list. Portobello mushrooms are now a vegetable offering. They are the type of changes that would not warrant mention at another restaurant. But nothing goes unnoticed at Galatoire's, which is not so much a restaurant as an institution, complete with a board of directors -- eight Galatoire family members and one non-family member -- charged with overseeing the restaurant's operations.
Constancy is part of the allure, and the regulars, many of whom were introduced to Galatoire's by their parents and grandparents, and who are now taking their own children and grandchildren, find comfort in the familiar details.
In his letter to the Galatoire's board, Thomas Uskali recalled a meal he ate at the restaurant in 1994 with chef Louis Arbot and Dr. Brobson Lutz.
"Gilberto served Chef Arbot 'the best Sazerac in memory,' and saw to it that our table ate exceedingly well, with inspired choices both on and off the menu," Uskali recalled.
Rosenberg, another Eyzaguirre customer, first started eating at Galatoire's in the early 1950s with his parents.
"I still walk in and have that sort of visceral gastronomic sensation," he said.
It's a restaurant where management has agonized over whether or not to buy a toaster for fear that it would change the quality of the bread served with the oysters en brochette. In 1992, the decision to start accepting credit cards caused an uproar. Holditch recently noticed that the stuffed eggplant started to arrive without the eggplant skin.
"It's still just as good, but I miss that eggplant skin," he said.
Nashville businessman Gary Smith was one of many people who protested the restaurant's decision in the mid-1990s to switch from hand-chopped ice to the machine-made variety.
Smith has been traveling to New Orleans with his wife, Cathy, every six weeks since 1968.
"I call them eating trips," he said. These trips always include two or three meals at Galatoire's. For the past 18 years, the Smiths were served exclusively by Eyzaguirre.
In fact, for the Smiths, each of whom wrote a letter supporting Eyzaguirre, finding out that their waiter isn't going to be in town for one of their visits is enough to make them change their plans.
"He's that important," Smith said, and by way of explanation asked: "You know how you feel when you're halfway through your second martini? That's how I'd feel when I'd enter Galatoire's and I'd see Gilbert."Many of the people who wrote in support of Eyzaguirre liken eating at Galatoire's to being part of a "club." Prerequisites for membership would include longtime regular patronage; a steadfast devotion to Galatoire's rituals (i.e., eating lunch every Friday, or early evening dinner on Sundays); and, the ultimate status signifier, having a special relationship with a waiter.
For years, ordinary citizens have complained that privileged insiders have been allowed to circumvent the line in front of Galatoire's to gain easy access to its downstairs dining room. That may well be, but legend has it that Galatoire's old first-come, first-served policy was so unbending that Charles De Gaulle's request to have a table reserved was denied.
Club membership, if you want to call it that, is supposed to be accompanied by certain privileges, which is part of what is driving the discord sparked by Eyzaguirre's firing. Many regulars simply can't believe that action was taken without their consent.
"We're all terribly upset, all of his customers," Marda Burton said of Eyzaguirre shortly after the firing. A longtime regular, Burton is collaborating with Holditch on a book about Galatoire's history.
"The loss of your waiter after 22 years, it's just kind of a shock," Burton said. "And I think the customers should have some kind of say in this."
Galatoire's service staff has a relatively large concentration of career waiters who bring to the table requisite amounts of expertise, arrogance and savoir faire.
They've traditionally been granted a wide berth in Galatoire's dining room. Over the years, waiters have been known to actually cook off-the-menu specials for valued customers. And before the restaurant switched to full-time bartenders in 1999, they mixed drinks -- usually with a heavy hand.
"I walked out of there once so soused I got into an argument with a hitching post," recalled riverboat pilot Capt. Clarke "Doc" Hawley, who ate his first dinner at Galatoire's in 1959 with "Dinner at Antoine's" author Frances Parkinson Keyes.
Today, the waiters are still valuable assets, as they take pride in dispensing wisdom on the best selections from a voluminous menu when quality is often dependent on the freshness of seafood.
By all accounts, Eyzaguirre, 56, was a deft waiter who knew how to win the favor of customers.. . . . . . .
"I think he saw waitering as a profession," Uskali said. "I had been with Gilbert for 14 years, and that included almost four years in Florida, coming back every few months or so, and he still remembered odd little bits.
"I brought my mother a couple of times, and he remembered her name. He was a throwback to how we assume things used to be."
"Gilbert always remembered your name and your family's name and your children," Holditch said. "When I've needed somebody to drive me to the hospital or something, he's done it."
"I can think of no other server who could surpass him," Barnwell wrote of Eyzaguirre in his letter, "unless it is the Canadian VIA Rail's Chaleur dining car steward, Cyril Landry."
But this year, Eyzaguirre ran into difficulties.
On March 3, he received a written notice from Galatoire's management for "purposely patting a waitress on her back which also had the effect of her dropping several beers on the floor."
The notice went on to say that "sexual harassment is not permitted by law" and that any further sexual harassment complaints filed against Eyzaguirre would result in his termination. Soon after came the second complaint, and his dismissal.
While many avoided the issue, a sizable handful of Eyzaguirre's letter-writing supporters chose to address the reason for his firing. While none could claim to have better than second-hand knowledge of the particulars surrounding the dismissal, the waiter's dazzling performance on the dining room floor was often enough for them to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the sexual harassment allegations.
For much of the 20th century, the Galatoire's dining room has been a place run by men, filled with men and catering largely to men. It is only in the last decade that women were hired to work on the wait staff, and it is one of the many examples cited by the restaurant's old guard as a change for the worse.
It was in this environment that Eyzaguirre honed his craft and rose to the level of a near-legend among the regulars. Some of those regulars even praised the qualities that may not have served Eyzaguirre well in the new Galatoire's.
"Gilbert's Latino, he's gorgeous," said Burton, who has a hard time believing her waiter would be capable of doing anything untoward. "He's flirtatious with his customers, and we all love it."
Burton's letter was fairly typical of many written by the regulars, whose views on sexual harassment, far from reflecting a 21st century ethic, often seem to emanate from the same Old World sentiments that inform their love of the restaurant and its anachronistic ways.
"Having been in the academic world, I know what a really slippery slope this business of sexual harassment is," said Holditch, who likened Galatoire's male-dominated, banter-filled waiter culture to that of a sports locker room.
"If you go into a situation like that, I think you need to sort of be prepared for what's going to happen," he continued. "Even if they are hiring waitresses, this is basically a man's world, that waiter situation. And I must say that generally I prefer waiters."
Holditch said the letter writers are "asking for a hearing and they're suggesting, and I think this is true, that there was a rush to judgment."
And Richard J. Tyler wrote: "Obviously, we are not privy to the events that led to his termination. I can tell you, however, that the word on the street is that his discharge was for insubstantial conduct that has been blown out of proportion."
For his part, Eyzaguirre has helped advance conspiracy speculation. He denies any wrongdoing and characterizes the circumstances surrounding his dismissal as a set-up devised to get rid of him. He claims that Rodrigue resents his popularity among Galatoire's customers.
"The waiters make the restaurant, not the managers," he said. "Some people feel that the waiters have too much power."
Eyzaguirre said the complaint that got him fired stemmed from nothing more than his touching the hand of a female bartender in order to get past her in the restaurant's kitchen.
"My bottom line is I didn't become a sexual harasser in two months," he said. "What about the other 23 years?"
Rodrigue would not respond directly to Eyzaguirre's characterizations.
"What he chooses to tell his loyal following is up to him," Rodrigue said. "We're in an unfortunate position because we can't disclose what we have."
But a lawyer for one of the victims of Eyzaguirre's alleged advances begs to differ with the waiter's account.
While none of the sexual harassment complainants has sought the spotlight, the person who filed the second written complaint, the one that lead to Eyzaguirre's dismissal, responded to requests for comment through Anthony Glorioso, her family's lawyer.
"Would Galatoire's fire him if it wasn't significant?" he said. "It's not like Gilberto did something and she ran off crying and filed (a sexual harassment complaint) right away. He wouldn't stop. She even asked him to. He wouldn't stop, so she gave in. She said, 'I've got to tell somebody. I want to work here.' "
Glorioso, who said his client is a college student, added, "I think that Galatoire's is very fortunate in this situation. It could have been a lot worse for them."
Chris Ansel agrees with the dismissal. His grandfather was a Galatoire, and he worked at the restaurant for seven years. Today, he sits on the Galatoire's board.
Ansel has listened to customers worry over the restaurant's mystique for years, particularly when change was afoot. He appreciates the interest of the regulars, but he said there was nothing vague about Eyzaguirre's situation.
"There are rules and regulations on the books, and we have to follow them," he said. "I remember years ago when segregation came in. A lot of customers asked my grandfather, 'What are you going to do?' He said, 'We're going to obey the law.' "
When Rodrigue took over management of Galatoire's, he was effectively appointed head of the club without being offered membership into it. A brief history printed on the menu lists Galatoire family members David Gooch, Justin Frey and Michele Galatoire as the restaurant's managers, with no mention of Rodrigue.. . . . . . .
He was hired with a mandate to increase revenues for a growing number of family shareholders, and even some of his detractors will admit that he has been successful in this mission. But the changes that have transpired under his watch have not always endeared him to the old-line regulars.
"I knew when I interviewed that (Galatoire's) needed a whole lot of help. The wiring in the walls looked like spaghetti," Rodrigue said. "People always say, 'Don't fix what's not broke.' Well, how do they you know what's broke?"
In many ways, Rodrigue's mandate was bound to bump up against Galatoire's waiter-driven culture. If all of your oldest customers like everything the same -- including their waiters -- the agent of change isn't going to be the most popular person in the room.
Thus in many of the letters, it doesn't take long for the subject of Eyzaguirre's firing to give way to conspiracy theories about a power struggle between Rodrigue and the waiters.
There is no question that the waiters at Galatoire's have power. Even after being fired, the years of accumulated good will left Eyzaguirre in what his supporters seemed to believe was a position of influence. One prominent local lawyer even asked to go off the record before admitting that he occasionally used waiters other than Eyzaguirre when he visited Galatoire's. More than one lawyer refused to comment on the matter due to the fact that they had been giving Eyzaguirre legal advice.
Lutz, a letter-writer and fierce Eyzaguirre advocate, paints the waiter's firing as merely the endgame of a Rodrigue power play.
"This was an opportunity for (Galatoire's) to get rid of somebody who was perhaps more popular than the restaurant itself," Lutz said. "I think Gilberto is a masterful artist, and I don't think Melvin had the management ability to handle him. Gilberto probably made more money than Melvin."
In a rageful, exclamation point-laden three-page letter, Galatoire's fixture Mickey Easterling takes exception with, among many other things, what she calls the management's "overt effort to get rid of all (one by one) the long-term dedicated wait staff by assigning them" to work in the upstairs dining room, a move Easterling claims serves the dual purpose of chasing off the "old-timers" who insist on eating in the original dining room downstairs.
It's a common complaint among Eyzaguirre supporters. Some feel that Rodrigue would rather fill tables with quick-eating tourists than with long-standing regulars who have the habit of lingering for hours on end. Eyzaguirre's firing is simply an extreme manifestation of a larger strategic plan at Galatoire's, their thinking goes.
But for these conspiracy theorists to be correct, Galatoire's had to decide that firing its most experienced waiters is the key to its financial future -- certainly an unorthodox business strategy.
Rodrigue himself dismisses the theory as a claim too absurd to dignify.
"It's what this restaurant has been built around, the relationship forged between the waiter and the customer," he said. "We want that to go away like we want a hole in our head. It's what we are."
. . . . . . .
Capt. Hawley was among many regulars to send his letter directly to Galatoire's management immediately after Eyzaguirre's dismissal. In response, Hawley received a note signed by Rodrigue and John B. Gooch, the chairman of Galatoire's board.
"Based on your letter and others received from interested customers, the Board and management have conducted a complete review of the situation with Gilberto Eyzaguirre," the response letter read. "We do not believe that any further action is warranted."
But even as Galatoire's management stood firmly by its decision to fire Eyzaguirre, the protest letters continued to pour in to the restaurant and to Holditch, who had taken responsibility for compiling the letters in a bound volume.
From the outset, the organizers proved adept at marshaling support for their cause. Holditch said artist George Dureau even offered to design signs for a protest that was discussed, but never took place.
Everyone involved waited anxiously for Galatoire's board to meet in early June to discuss, among other things, the letter writers' concerns.
Rodrigue, who is not a board member but attends its meetings, said the board voted unanimously to support his decision.
"We made a good decision," said Rodrigue.
Lawyer Glorioso agrees.
"If they hire him back, they're really opening themselves up to liability," he said. "I don't care if they get a letter from God, they're not going to do it."
When asked how he felt about the news, Lutz responded, "I don't know. I'm still in healing mode. You go through stages with any sort of tragedy in your life."
Lutz, like many of Eyzaguirre's supporters, wouldn't commit to boycotting the restaurant.
"I fully intend to go back -- if they'll let me," he said "But I don't know what it's going to be in a month or a year. You hope that things change for the better. When they change for the worse, they don't usually last."
Holditch mentions the song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to illustrate what he feels is happening to Galatoire's.
He's still committed to finishing the book he's writing with Burton, but he can't bring himself to return to the restaurant he loves as much as New Orleans itself.
Gilberto Eyzaguirre
Galatoire's Restaurant
For anyone familiar with the famed Galatoire’s Restaurant on Bourbon Street in the heart of the French Quarter, Gilberto’s reputation precedes him. It was during his twenty-five year tenure as a waiter at there that he made cocktails for his customers, which was part of the Galatoire’s tradition. The restaurant has seen quite a few changes in recent years, and the hiring of bartenders is one of them. But Gilberto is from the era of Galatoire’s service when waiters chopped ice from blocks, prepared Café Brulot tableside and became notorious for their generously mixed cocktails served to their devoted customers. And what customer wouldn’t be devoted to a waiter who could write their name in flames on the tablecloth in front of them as he prepared a Café Brulot? At Galatoire’s, beloved waiters not only gave excellent service, they poured excellent drinks.
Date of interview:
2005-04-01 00:00Interviewer:
Amy Evans
Bang bang that awful sound – TP names the baby who shot…down
When she “was five and he was six” and they “rode on horses made of sticks”, surely they didn’t ride into Galatoire’s to make the “awful sound”!Today’s Times Picayune reports the identity of the “baby” who “shot…down” in Galatoire’s gun mystery, owner revealed:On Friday afternoon, the convivial hum of a dozen simultaneous conversations in the sanctum sanctorum of New Orleans’ social set, Galatoire’s, was pierced by the unfamiliar crackle of a gunshot.
Luckily, no one was injured by the errant bullet, which apparently was fired when a purse containing a .38-caliber pistol fell off a table near the foyer and went off when it hit the floor. The bullet lodged harmlessly in a panel of black wainscoting. Police came and took an incident report. No one was arrested.