🌟 EXPITALITY TIME🌟A Night in Montana: The Art of Memorable Hospitality and Dining Delights

Welcome to Talk About TV and Podcast Weekly Show, expatiality Time. I'm your host, michelle Oliver, and today's episode is sponsored by Expatiality. Expatiality creates exceptional experiential outdoor hospitality businesses because the experience of hospitality transforms the world. Please make sure you subscribe with the notification button so you can hear from Talk About TV and Podcasts every week. Hey everyone, if you happen to be on LinkedIn and see this, I'm Michelle Oliver.

Today is Friday and I come to you every Friday with Expatiality Time, which is sponsored by my company, expatiality, and we are creating extraordinary experiential outdoor hospitality businesses because hospitality transforms the world and that is a fact. So I like to come on Friday and just chat a little bit, sometimes with a guest, sometimes just talking about what I experienced in hospitality during the week, and I was actually in Montana for a few days and I'll tell you what. There was a lot of average stuff that I experienced, but there's nothing more delightful than being surprised by something that you just have no expectations. And then when you're over-delivered too and that did happen to me the night before I left it was late, like 8.30 at night, and I had not eaten dinner and I just walked out into the freezing. I think it was like 21 degrees or something, and found this one little restaurant open. And what made the difference? First of all, I was greeted with so much attentiveness and happy, cheerful, engaged teams. It was just incredible. They had such camaraderie and they were all so engaged in what they were doing. Just a simple Mediterranean restaurant. They were only able to have a cabaret license, but instead of allowing that to limit them, they went crazy with the wine and they had really extraordinary selections of wine, not only by the bottle but by the glass. The walls were literally filled with bottles of wine and the menu was like it was like this thick Just for the wine selection.

And, speaking with the waitress and one of the waiters, they were so immersed in the vision and the story of that place that I felt here's that word again right. How do they make you feel? How do you feel when you go to a place I felt so attended to, so cared for and so intrigued and curious, simply by watching the team? Honestly, that's what engaged me the most is that they were extraordinarily professional, definitely at least one step above what I would expect from this level of restaurant. As a matter of fact, I was concerned that it would be a very expensive restaurant because of the way I was treated upon entering. And then it was very reasonably priced and the food was. I was absolutely astonished at how delicious it was and fresh and just. It was just one of those things where you're like, wow, that was really happy, surprise.

But the engagement with each other and with the story and with the vision and I did ask them about that, and part of it is what the owner does for them because they gather for meals, they gather for celebrations, they've gone on trips together and yet they're not micromanaged. They're trusted to make decisions, they aren't. You know the push-pull that often can happen with the staff, where you're saying that they have all this agency and then you pull back on them. So or you pull them back. Anyway, that is what I experienced and I'm sure, like I'd love to hear your experiences when you have kind of stumbled upon something that over-delivered and delighted you, whether it's a restaurant or a hotel experience.

It does seem that the boutique hotels are better at the story and the vision and drawing you in and the moment-to-moment checkpoints. And I'll tell you at that restaurant, every moment I was, it was the timing. You know, the timing is so perfect when it's like you feel the thought coming into your head and then they show up with what you were about to want and you're just like, how did you know? So I hope that you all have that experience this weekend and something extraordinary happens for you and that you create an extraordinary experience for your guests or just for anyone you meet.

Sometimes I find myself actually very often kind of giving the front desk person or the concierge or wherever I am giving them the experience that I would like to have, like just kind of trying to make them feel better and lift them up, and that's backwards. But I'll tell you, it's just kind of the golden rule the more open and kind you are to people, they tend to kind of, you know, reflect that back to you. So everybody's having a human story and we all we all can be lifting each other up. So, whichever end of hospitality you're on, hope you have a fantastic weekend and I'm looking forward to some new things that are going to be coming out through the podcast that I launched and I can't wait to share. So have a wonderful weekend.