#JAPANESE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG BENIHANA FREE#

The staff at Benihana, a national chain known for its Japanese hibachi-style cuisine, sings first in English then again Japanese, and Mexican restaurants like Mama Mexico, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, hires a three-piece mariachi band that croons Las Maanitas, the Mexican version of the birthday song. At Lucky Cheng’s, a cabaret-like dinner theater in Manhattan and Las Vegas, drag queens pull the birthday boy or girl onto the stage for a serenade. The offerings range from gift cards to much more elaborate fare. In a competitive restaurant industry, known for its anemic profit margins and frequent closings, birthday gimmicks are sometimes a part of the strategy to lure in more customers. “It’s a must-must,” said Abel Espinosa, manager of the New Rochelle branch, who said the servers need to run faster, never sing faster. At the Applebee’s in New Rochelle, N.Y., where 20 or more birthdays could be celebrated on a typical weekend night, every employee is required to sing, including the busboys and managers. “I prefer a quiet place.” The biggest complaint from the servers themselves is in the lag time that is sometimes caused when they have to stop and sing. “It’s just annoying,” said Matt Altwicker, 41, an architect.

Standing next to the grand entrance to Daniel, the famous French restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side (where there is no singing), Liz Pirraglia, a 40-year-old statistician, said her irritation level would vary depending on whether the restaurant was upscale or more theme-oriented. “Most of our restaurants are usually not that large,” he added, “and having everyone scream and yell tends to offend some of our other patrons that walk through the door.”Ĭonversations have to pause and restart whenever a choir of waiters gathers around a birthday table. “If the server is so inclined and feels musical that day, we highly encourage it, but it’s a standard that we don’t do that company wide,” said Mark Vergara, the manager of a California Pizza Kitchen, in Tampa, Fla. California Pizza Kitchen, an international chain friendly to families and shopping malls, takes a similar stance, but with a little more flexibility. “People say it’s kind of an intrusion, and guests don’t like it when there is a big staff singing happy birthday, whether it be to them or at the tables around them,” said Marino, citing customer surveys.

#JAPANESE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG BENIHANA FREE#

A manager may wish the celebrating customer a happy birthday by offering a free glass of wine or dessert, but never a song. The restaurant prefers a more understated approach to birthday celebrations, said Pete Marino, P.F. Chang’s, a national chain based in Phoenix, Ariz., that serves modern Asian cuisine, the sound of wine glasses clinking or cell phones ringing may be the loudest ambient noises at dinnertime.

But some restaurants have banned the birthday song, offering customers some refuge.

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