John Abbott - Scimitar

“So your sister’s getting married,” she said.

“Yes. You may think it unusual...”

“Not at all.”

“... for me to be handling the arrangements...”

“No, we get different members of the family all the time.”

“Both my parents are dead, you see.”

“I’m so sorry.”

They were passing conference spaces, or consultation spaces, he didn’t know quite what to call them, they certainly weren’t offices per se. Merely spaces partitioned one from the other...

“They died a long time ago,” he said. “I virtually raised my sister, which is why I’m here today.”

“Not at all unusual, won’t you come in, please?” she said, and smiled, and indicated one of the partitioned spaces, in which there was a desk and several chairs. She sat in the chair behind the desk. He took one of the chairs in front of it.

“First,” she said, “let me give you my card. People sometimes have trouble spelling the last name.”

“Thank you,” he said, and accepted the card, and glanced at it. Looking up again, he said, “Just the way it sounds,” and then took out his wallet and tucked the card into it.

She waited till he’d put the wallet back in his pocket, and then she asked, “Has your sister chosen an exact date yet?”

“No. It’ll be next June sometime, but... oh my,” he said. “Are we already too late?”

“No, no,” she said. “We sometimes get people who book two years in advance, but there’s still time, please don’t worry.”

“Phew,” he said, and smiled.

“How large a party will this be?” she asked.

“The exact figure isn’t set yet,” he said. “I expect somewhere between a hundred and a hundred fifty people.”

“I see you have both our brochures,” she said.

“Yes, but I haven’t had a chance to...”

“If you’ll open the back cover of the larger one... yes... and just flip back the flap there... that’s it... you’ll see a page with some floor plans on it...”

“Yes,” he said, nodding.

“... and below them, a chart.”

“Yes.”

“If you’ll look at the floor plan...”

Sonny looked at it.

“... in the upper right-hand corner there,” Karin said, “just above the Grand Ballroom — I don’t think you’d want the Grand Ballroom, would you? It’s much too large for something like this.”

“I quite agree.”

“But the Baroque Room is very popular for wedding receptions. Do you see it on the plan there?”

“Yes, I do,” he said.

“I’ll show you the room itself later on, of course,” she said. “That, and also the Terrace Room. You passed through the Terrace Foyer on the way in...”

“Yes...”

“... which is right here on the mezzanine floor, and also very popular for wedding receptions. Do you see the floor plan there? Just under the plans for all the other rooms? It’s separated from the others because they’re all on the first floor.”

“Yes, I see that.”

“Now if you take a look at the chart...”

“Yes.”

“Right there below the floor plans...”

“Yes,” Sonny said, and looked at the chart.

“You’ll see that the Baroque Room is almost twice the size of the Terrace Room — a bit more than forty-four hundred square feet as opposed to twenty -four hundred.”

“Yes. Sixty-three by seventy...”

“As opposed to sixty by forty.”

“Yes.”

“I personally find the Terrace Room more intimate...”

“It looks small.”

“No, the floor plan is deceptive.”

“I think my sister might prefer the larger room.”

“The Baroque, yes, a lovely room. I’ll show you both, of course, and I’m sure she’ll want to look at them personally before she makes a final decision. Where will the wedding take place?”

“That hasn’t been decided yet.”

“Because we do weddings here, too, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know that.”

“Yes, we do. In which case, should you decide to have the wedding here, we would set up the room itself — whether it’s the Terrace or the Baroque...”

“I think the Baroque might please her more.”

“Let’s say the Baroque then... we’d set that up for the wedding, and then retire to the foyer for the before-dinner cocktail reception, while the main room is being set up for dinner. The before-dinner reception...”

And now, as Karin told him all about the open bar and the deluxe brands, and the medium-priced French wine...

“... although we’ve recently begun serving a very good American wine as well...”

... and the passed hors d’oeuvres, and the buffet with four or five hot selections...

... Sonny listened for opportunities to ask the questions that had brought him here in the first place.

She was talking now about the dinner itself, explaining that the menu consisted of an appetizer, a salad, an entrée with vegetables and potatoes, medium-priced red and white wines, a champagne toast, and dessert, which included a wedding cake.

“All of this is open to change or addition, of course. For example...”

... if the bride wanted them to serve a whole smoked salmon during the before-dinner cocktail reception, it would cost an additional eight dollars per person. Or if she requested a more expensive champagne for the toast...

“We normally use a Louis Roederer, which is very good,” Karin said.

“Yes, very,” Sonny agreed.

... but if she wanted a more expensive champagne, the basic price would be adjusted accordingly.

“We’re very flexible,” Karin said.

“What is the basic price?” Sonny asked.

“Two hundred dollars per person, whichever room you choose. Plus a gratuity of nineteen percent for the waiters, the two captains, and the maître d’.”

“Where do you get your waiters?” he asked.

“How do you mean?” she said, puzzled.

“Well... do you hire waiters especially for the occasion, or are they...?”

“No, they’re all Plaza Hotel waiters. We have our own staff.”

“Do they wear little ID tags like the one in your desk drawer?” he asked, smiling, making a little joke.

“Well, they wear name tags, actually,” she said, and returned his smile.

“How many will there be?” he asked. “Waiters.”

“One for every ten persons. And the same waiter will handle the same table all night long. That’s important.”

“Do they all know each other?”

“What a strange question,” she said.

Careful, he thought.

“What I mean is, have they worked together before? Do they work well as a team? I wouldn’t want...”

“Oh, I see. Yes, they’re all familiar with each other.”

“What sort of uniforms would they wear?”

“For a summer wedding, black trousers and white jackets. Black bow ties, of course.”

“What if one of them gets sick?”

“Sick?” she said.

“Yes. Or three of them. Or five? Would this cause utter confusion? Or would...?”

“Oh, I see. No, there wouldn’t be a problem. These are all union waiters who work on a rotation basis. We have fifty or so on order, and if one gets sick, we fill in with another one. Don’t worry, you’ll have a full complement, one for every ten people, no matter what happens.”

“Who’ll be in charge?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t...”

“Well, for example, if a waiter should get sick, who’d be the one to call in a substitute wait...?”

“Oh, I see. Our Banquet Executive Director. He’d be there on the night of the reception, making certain everything went smoothly.”

“I’m sorry I’m asking so many questions.”

“Not at all.”

“I don’t mean to be so picky.”