"I don't eat fancy food."

It's absolutely amazing how often those words are uttered by people making reservations at Keyah Grande. There are several reasons for this, the most prominent one being that about half of our guests are leisure travelers and half of them are hunters. Hunters do not like the idea of "fancy food". About a quarter of the leisure travelers, usually the older ones feel the same way. Although people are compelled to make this statement when they book a room, very few of them are able to explain what fancy food is exactly. They just know that they don't eat it.  The rest of the guests are open to anything, apparently. That is until they arrive and another 25% of them have strange allergies and aversions that only surface when the food arrives at the table. I much prefer the ones that tell me what they don't eat to the ones that wait until the food is in front of them to explain that they just don't eat fish or chocolate or onions or what have you.

But let me clue you in on a little secret. The majority of the people who claimed they don't eat fancy food ate ours with great enjoyment. We didn't change much about what we do, perhaps increased a portion size where appropriate.  What we did change was the way we described the food. That one small adjustment in perception made all the difference. Because everyone enjoys good food regardless of how fancy it may seem on the surface.